Chinese New Year 2010 - Year of the Tiger

Chinese New Year - 2010 Year of the Tiger

The date for the Chinese New Year in 2010 is February 14th. 

• The Chinese Calendar
• Chinese New Year Masks
• Lantern festival held in London, England
• Stamps Showing the Chinese Year of the Ox
• Chinese New Year Jokes
• Shanghai, China 2010: World Expo
• Some China Fun for 2010
• Ten English Words Borrowed from Chinese

The Chinese Calendar

Unlike western calendars, the Chinese calendar has names that are repeated every 60 years.  Within the 'Stem-Branch' system is shorter cycle of 12 years denoted by animals:

2010 is the year of the Tiger.  It is the ji-chou year. Jji is the sixth of the Ten Celestial Stems and yin is the third of the Twelve Terrestrial Branches and marks the year of the Tiger.

   Rat    Ox   Tiger  Rabbit Dragon  Snake Horse Sheep Monkey Rooster  Dog   Pig
2008 2009  2010  2011   2012   2013   2014   2015  2016    2017    2018 (2007)

Chinese New Year Masks

Masks in Chinese culture are part and parcel of the world culture of masks....... 面具 Mianju. Masks first appeared in China during the Shang and Zhou dynasty some 3,500 years ago. The colourful and exciting celebrations for the Chinese New Year last for several days and end with the lantern [Yuanxiao] festival.

Materials in Chinese New Year Masks

Chinese New Year Masks are made of varied materials including cloth, paper, grass, leather, metal, shell, and carved of stone or wood. They are painted with Chinese symbolic designs and vivid colours. Some masks have realistic human or animal features like lion or dragon, while others provide a grotesque appearance. Red is considered as a lucky colour for Chinese people, therefore there are lots of red masks worn during the celebrations of New Year. Chinese New Year Masks are amongst the best creations in the art world and are highly sought after by art collectors.

Many of the masks or sometimes replicas, can be viewed in museums and art galleries in many parts of the world. Chinese New Year is swathed in beliefs of gods, spirits of ancestors, legendary beings, good and or evil, the dead, animal spirits, and other beings believed to have supreme power over humanity. Masks featuring such supreme powers are honoured and are worn during the rituals surrounding the Chinese New Year like the Chinese new year dragon dance or lion dance. Chinese New Year Masks are also hung around the home as decoration.

Lantern festival held in London, England

The traditional food for the Lantern Festival is Yuanxiao dumplings, named after the lonely palace maid of long ago. [Some versions of the story have her preparing stuffed dumplings for the God of Fire, as this was one of his favourite foods]. Yuanxiao are made with sticky rice flour. They can be sweet or savoury; filled with everything from sugar, walnuts, and dried tangerine peel to meat and vegetables.

Chinese New Year Masks display the feelings and emotions of merriment associated with this festival. Chinese people all over the world usher in the New Year by cooking special food, cleaning their homes, purchasing new clothes and buying presents for friends and family. In the midst of all these activities, various artworks like Chinese New Year Masks in rich colours display the essence of the festivity.

How Many Faces Are There in this Chinese Tree?

How many faces can you find?

If you can find  0 – 5 faces – Lazy
If you can find  6 – 7 faces – Normal
If you can find  8 – 9 faces – Very Normal
If you can find 10 – 11 faces – Smart
If you can find 12 – 13 faces – Genius

The secret of success is to relax your eyes, cultivate that far-away look.

Shanghai, China 2010: World Expo

World Expositions are galleries of human inspirations and thoughts. Since the Great Exhibition of 1851 was held at Crystal Palace, London, the World Expositions have attained increasing prominence as grand events for economic, scientific, technological and cultural exchanges, serving as an important platform for displaying historical experience, exchanging innovative ideas, demonstrating esprit de corps and looking to the future.

The picture to the right is an Artist's impression of the China Pavilion

Expo2010 will take place in Shanghai, China. Will and Guy would like to share with readers what can be expected at this 2010 exposition.

• It will take place in Shanghai, China.
• While the Chinese New Year in 2010 begins on February 14th, the Expo starts on 1st May 2010 and runs until 31st October 2010.
• 100 million visitors are expected to attend.
• There are already 194 participants signed up to display their exhibits
• The theme of Expo 2010 is "Better City, Better Life," representing the common wish of the whole humankind for a better living in future urban environments.
• This emblem, depicts the image of three people: you, me, him/her holding hands together, symbolizing the big family of mankind.
• See here the Marvellous pavilions which have been, and are being built.  We are pleased to report that they will use solar energy.
• Watch the promotional Expo 2010 video here
• Created from a Chinese character meaning people, the mascot "Haibao" embodies the character of Chinese culture.  See the lovely Haibao character below.

Wishing Tree For New Year 2010

A man ties a New Year wish to a "wishing tree" at the Taoist White Cloud Temple, Beijing, on the day of Chinese New Year

A child in traditional costume takes part in the third day of Chinese New Year celebrations at the Dongyue temple, Beijing, China.  The Lunar New Year will be marked with a week-long holiday.

For The Chinese New Year - The Colour Red and Fireworks

At the Chinese New Year red is important. People wear red clothes, they write poems on red paper, and give children 'luck money' in red envelopes.  The symbolism behind the red colour is fire, and fire burns off bad luck.  As for fireworks one belief is that the cracker jacks and sparks frighten away evil spirits.

After the fireworks at the beginning of the celebration of the Chinese new year, comes the more tranquil Lantern Festival on the last day of the festivities.   Most Lantern parades feature a dragon made of silk and bamboo.  The dancers hold the monstrous dragon aloft on sticks.  Their coordination skills make the dragon appear to dance.

Some China Fun for 2010

Have Fun Using Chinese Script

The development of Chinese characters can be dated back to about 4,500 years as discovered at Yanghe, Shandong Province in recent years. There are about a dozen pottery wine vessels unearthed, which have a character each. Those characters are quite close to the oracle inscriptions carved by the ancients of the Shang Dynasty [16th to 11th century B. C.].

You may like to have hours of fun working out messages; or the names of your favourite Sport’s team be it soccer in the English premiership of basketball in the NBA or American football with the NFL. Seek out the name of your favourite.

Here is the Chinese name for Guy Thomas

Here below is the Chinese name for William Baker

Funny                     Joke                   Humour 

The soccer team Will supports in the Premiership is: Portsmouth

American Dream is:

Ten English Words Borrowed from Chinese

Words taken completely or in part from another language are known as loanwords. In the English language, there are many loanwords that have been borrowed from Chinese languages and dialects.  Here are ten common English words that are borrowed from Chinese.

1. Coolie: While some claim that this term has its origins in Hindi, it’s been argued that it could also have origins in the Chinese term for hard work or 苦力 (kǔ lì) which is literally translated as "bitter labour."
2. Gung Ho: The term has its origins in the Chinese word 工合 (gōng hé) that can either mean to work together, or as an adjective to describe someone that is overly excited or too enthusiastic. The term gong he is a shortened word for industrial cooperatives which were created in China in the 1930s. During that time U.S. Marines adopted the term to mean someone with a can-do attitude.
3. Kowtow: From the Chinese 叩头 (kòu tóu) describing the ancient practice performed when anyone greeted a superior – such as an elder, leader, or emperor. The person had to kneel and bow down to the superior, making sure that their foreheads hit the ground. "Kou tou" is literally translated as "knock your head."
4. Tycoon: The origins of this word comes from the Japanese term taikun, which was what foreigners called the shogun of Japan. A shogun was known to be someone who took over the throne and is not related to the emperor. Thus the meaning is typically used for someone who obtained power through might or hard work, rather than inheriting it. In Chinese, the Japanese term "taikun" is 大王 (dà wáng) which means "big prince." There are other words in Chinese that also describe a tycoon including 财阀 (cái fá) and 巨头 (jù tóu).
5. Yen: This term comes from the Chinese word 愿 (yuàn) which means a hope, desire or wish. Someone who has a strong urge for oily fast food can be said to have a yen for pizza.
6. Ketchup: The origins of this word are debated. But many believe that its origins are from either the Fujianese dialect for the fish sauce 鮭汁 (guī zhī ) or the Chinese word for eggplant sauce 茄汁 (qié zhī).
7. Chop Chop: This term is said to originate from the Cantonese dialect for the word 快快 (kuài kuài) which is said to urge someone to hurry up. Kuai means hurry in Chinese. "Chop Chop" appeared in English-language newspapers printed in China by foreign settlers as early as the 1800s.
8. Typhoon: This is probably the most direct loanword. In Chinese, a hurricane or typhoon is called 台风 (tái fēng).
9. Chow: Allow me to clarify some erroneous explanations circulating about this word. While chow is a breed of dog, the term did not come to mean 'food' because the Chinese hold the stereotype of being dog-eaters. I suspect that 'chow' as a term for food comes from the word 菜 (cài) which can mean food, a dish (to eat), or vegetables.
10. Koan: Originating in Zen Buddhism, a koan is a riddle without a solution, which is supposed to highlight the inadequacy of logic reasoning. A common one is "What is the sound of one hand clapping." (If you were Bart Simpson, you would just fold one hand until you made a clapping noise.) Koan comes from the Japanese which comes from the Chinese for 公案 (gōng àn). Literally translated it means 'common case'.

For our research Will and Guy looked at this Chinese names website: 

Eccentrics In China - Will He Do This in the New Year?

Truck Driver Takes A Shower While Driving

A Chinese trucker has been fined for having a shower while driving his lorry on a motorway. A police patrol car spotted water leaking from the driver's cab as it sped along the Jinyi expressway, reports Changjiang Business Daily.

'We worried the driver may not have known about a mechanical problem so we signalled him to pull over at a service station,' a police spokesman informed Will and Guy.

The police officers were shocked to see the driver was wet through and had been enjoying a shower via a sprinkler kettle system rigged up above his head. His wife, who was sitting in the passenger seat, had been holding up a sheet of plastic to protect the instruments from the water. She told police officers there were rushing to deliver goods in another city and she had rigged up the shower to keep her husband cool after the air-conditioning system broke down.

Police fined the lorry driver and warned him he would be in serious trouble if he tried to have a shower at the wheel again.

Chinese New Year Jokes, Proverbs and Stories

Chinese Proverbs

• Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cathouse.
• War doesn't determine who is right, war determines who is left.
• A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.
• He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
• Chinese 'Cracked Pot' parable

How To Speak Chinese Funny

• I thought you were on a diet................Wai Yu Mun Ching?
• This is a tow-away zone......................No Pah King
• Our meeting is scheduled for next week......Wai Yu Kum Nao?
• Staying out of sight............................Lei Ying Lo
• See more funny Chinese speak

20 Number 6

It was Chinese New Year.  Bill and Jackson had just staggered back home from a hard night's drinking when they noticed that a menu from the new restaurant next door had come through the letter box.  On a whim they decided to celebrate the Chinese New Year with a take-away.  Jackson, was just off out of the door to fetch their meal when Bill turned to him and said, 'Please get me 20 number 6 while you're at the take-away.

Jackson returned with their chicken Chou Mein, sweet and sour pork and 20 portions of egg fried rice.  Bill said, 'Where's me fags'. Jackson said, 'What cigarettes, you asked for 20 number 6 and that's what you've got, enough egg fried rice to feed a Chinese Junk from Shanghai to Hong Kong'.

Bill said, 'When I was last in England Embassy No 6 was a packet of fags.'

It's a Dog's Life

Meanwhile, Bill and Jackson's wives decided to dine out a new Chinese Restaurant.  Jackson's wife Julie was inseparable from her Pekingese dog called 'Pepe'.  So Took took Pepe along with them to the restaurant.   Whenever they went to their usual restaurant the manager's wife looked after Pepe while they ate, and they thought it would be no different this new restaurant.

Julie and her friend Rachel, gave Pepe to the owner and went to their seats.  They ordered their meal, had a few drinks and eventually their meal arrived.  They were mortified when it turned out to be their beloved Pepe surrounded by Chop Suey.

As the owner explained the next day to Bill and Jackson, they thought that Julie and Rachel wanted the chef to cook the dog, not look after it while the women dined.

One-liners

• How did an embarrassed panda get mistaken for a newspaper?  They are both black and white, and red all over!
• What's purple, 10,000 km long and 12m high?
  The grape wall of China.

Traditional Chinese Sense of Humour

Prime Minister Chang was happy enough to write, but he didn't put in a lot of care into his brush strokes. Everybody sneered at his bad handwriting, and the Prime Minister himself really didn't care.

One day Chang thought of a beautiful sentence and at once wielded his writing brush to write it down, indeed, there were dragons flying and snakes dancing all over the paper. Then he ordered his secretary to write it out neatly.

When beginning to copy, his secretary stared tongue-tied and did not know where to start. The young man had to take the manuscript back to the Prime Minister.

'Prime Minister Chang, I can't read your handwriting, please tell me what words they are.'

The Prime Minister read his cursive hand a long time, and did not know what Chinese characters they were, either. He then turned to blame his secretary. 'Why didn't you come earlier to ask me? I myself have forgotten the words which I've written.'

Chinese Years, Animals and Dates

The table below shows which animal you are, depending on the year in which you are born. Note: if you were born in January or February you need to check if your birthday was before or after the date of the Chinese New Year (if it was before this day your animal is the one shown for the previous year).

Rat	1900	1912	1924	1936	1948	1960	1972	1984	1996	2008
Ox	1901	1913	1925	1937	1949	1961	1973	1985	1997	2009
Tiger	1902	1914	1926	1938	1950	1962	1974	1986	1998	2010
Rabbit	1903	1915	1927	1939	1951	1963	1975	1987	1999	2011
Dragon	1904	1916	1928	1940	1952	1964	1976	1988	2000	2012
Snake	1905	1917	1929	1941	1953	1965	1977	1989	2001	2013
Horse	1906	1918	1930	1942	1954	1966	1978	1990	2002	2014
Sheep	1907	1919	1931	1943	1955	1967	1979	1991	2003	2015
Monkey	1908	1920	1932	1944	1956	1968	1980	1992	2004	2016
Rooster	1909	1921	1933	1945	1957	1969	1981	1993	2005	2017
Dog	1910	1922	1934	1946	1958	1970	1982	1994	2006	2018
Pig	1911	1923	1935	1947	1959	1971	1983	1995	2007	2019

60 Year Cycle

Unlike western calendars, the Chinese calendar has names that are repeated every 60 years.  Within the 'Stem-Branch' system is shorter cycle of 12 years denoted by animals. Furthermore, the Chinese believe that people born in a particular year take on the characteristics of the animal associated with that year.

Another dimension of the Chinese zodiac is 5 elements, metal, water, wood, fire and earth.

If the year ends in 0 it is Yang Metal.
If the year ends in 1 it is Yin Metal.
If the year ends in 2 it is Yang Water.
If the year ends in 3 it is Yin Water.
If the year ends in 4 it is Yang Wood.
If the year ends in 5 it is Yin Wood.
If the year ends in 6 it is Yang Fire.
If the year ends in 7 it is Yin Fire.
If the year ends in 8 it is Yang Earth.
If the year ends in 9 it is Yin Earth.

Precise Chinese New Year Date for 2010 and other years

The dates for the start of the next new years are:
2010 - Feb 14;  2011 - Feb 3;  2012 - Jan 23;  2013 - Feb 10;  2014 - Jan 31

See more on the Chinese New Year

• See Chinese Proverbs
• See Chinese New Year 2009

P.S. Please write to Will and Guy if you have any examples of Chinese New Year humor.

See more dates for 2010.  Also day of the week for these festivals:

● Chinese New Year 2010   ● Valentine's Day 2010   ● Tour de France 2010   ● Halloween 2010

● Thanksgiving 2010   ● Christmas 2010   ● Home