Hi, hey Hong Konger. A Happy New Year to you! Let 2010 wash away the annus horribilis that was 2K9. Have you noticed that, as we have just exited the Christmas and New Year festivities, we are entering, almost without a break, into the Chinese New Year ones. The choruses, which are rather nice when sung Robert Zemeckis “A Christmas Carol”, do tend to get annoying when looped in our favorite supermarkets and shopping malls. Maddening really. Well, now is the time for us be bathed into the excited Er Wu melodies that Park’N Shop plays over and over again. Please please, Mr. Li Ka Shing, could we at least get another tape from one year to the next?
Anyway, Santa is definitely out and has been replaced images of by the Tiger and plastic firecrackers. New Year decorations are very important for HK people and you can’t help but notice that most doors take on a shade of red. I’d like to focus on helping you make sense of what you can see and hear in Hong Kong. So what do all this red papers with chinese words mean? They are called “Faï Chun”, “Writings of Spring”, and they all are ways to wish an auspicious new year. The most famous saying is, of course, “Kung Hei Fat Choi”, which does not mean “Happy New Year”, but “Congratulations on the realization of your fortune”. Luck, is for most, money. And, this year, many will dearly need it!
However, there are many, many (dozens in fact) other proverbs, which come in handy when it comes to create smiles around you in this city. It all kind of becomes a game, which I truly enjoy playing. I tell you an auspicious phrase, you reply another, I tell you another one and so and so on, in a sort of ”Batttle of the proverbs”. It is fun and when you engage in this kind verbal joust, making sure you join your hands in a fist and shake them vigorously from back to forth, you then generate a lot of good will.
So, it could go like this (I take a male perspective as I am a guy!):
You : Kung Hei Fat Choi!
She : San Tai Gin Hong –> body health: wish you a good health.
You : Man Si Yu Yi –> 10000 things/matters as you wish -> may all you that comes to you be as you wish.
She : Sam Seung Si Seng –> heart wish things/matter success: may all you wish for be a success.
You : Long Ma Tsing San –> dragon horse spirit: may your spirit be strong.
She : San Yi Heng Long –> business success.
You : How about a drink tonight?
She : My place or yours?
Yes, that is the idea. When you understand the culture, you get ahead of the competition and you get the pretty girl (or boy…)…
So, oh, oh, oh, carry on well wishing all around and check out the next posts showing some of the most famous Faï Chun seen at this time of the year around town.
