【1/16】Write New Year Couplets & Speak Chinese Auspicious Words
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So we've made the leap into 2019, meaning the countdown to Chinese New Year is on! The Spring Festival is the grandest and traditional festival of Chinese people all over the world. Chinese people celebrate this holiday by watching the Spring Festival Show, having reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, posting Spring Festival Couplets, passing Red Envelopes, practicing dragon dance and lion dance, and launching fireworks...You may try the dumpling dinner on the Chinese New Year' Eve, but would you like to know how to prepare to welcome the Chinese New Year and learn the authentic Chinese New Year auspicious words? Let us watch a video to briefly understand how the Chinese are preparing for the New Year~ Would you like to welcome the Chinese New Year like the Chinese after watching the video? Come and join this TA's Pre-New-Year event! This time, Trendy Adventurer with our Australian friend, Rhys, will teach you Chinese Spring Festival auspicious words from a foreigner's easy-to-understand perspective. You should learn new auspicious words besides “Gong Xi Fa Cai” for receiving the red envelope! In addition, we also invited calligraphy instructor to teach you to write the “Spring Couplet" and Chinese Character "Fu". We think the "Spring Couplet" and "Fu" character you created will bring you a warm and meaningful Chinese New Year. Decorate your home with your own“Spring Couplet”and “Fu”! 13:50 Assemble at Exit B of Xueyuan Road(学院路) Metro Station 13:50 - 14:00 10-minute walk to Krspace 14:00 - 15:00 Taught to learn customs of Spring Festival and speak New Year auspicious words 15:00 - 16:00 Taught to write New Year Couplet and Chinese Character “福” Spring Festival Couplets 春联 (chūn lián) Spring Festival Couplets, Chunlian in Chinese, is also known as Spring Couplets or Chinese New Year Couplets used as a New Year's decoration that expresses happiness and hopeful thoughts for the coming year. Originating from the Shu era (more than one thousand years ago), Spring Festival couplets have a long and rich history. Nowadays, you can see them alongside the doors of nearly every household during New Year’s season. An optional shorter third line is placed above the door frame. Much thought is put into these poems. The number of words of each line should be the same; if you're writing your own use a word counter to make sure each line contains the same number of words. The format and rhythm should be either identical or complementary. Some writers even take the challenge of using alliteration or the same side radical for each word. There are countless different versions and styles, but every couplet conveys the writer’s wishes for the new year. Chinese Character “福”(fú) - Fortune/Good luck The character Fú “福” meaning "fortune" or "good luck" is represented both as a Chinese ideograph, but also at times pictorially, in one of its homophonous forms. It is often found on a figurine of the male god of the same name, one of the trio of "star gods" Fú, Lù, Shòu. Mounted Fú is a widespread Chinese tradition associated with Chinese New Year and can be seen on the entrances of many Chinese homes worldwide. The characters are generally printed on a square piece of paper or stitched in fabric. The practice is universal among Chinese people regardless of socioeconomic status, and dates to at least the Song Dynasty (AD 960 – 1279). When displayed as a Chinese ideograph, Fú is often displayed upside-down on diagonal red squares. The reasoning is based on a wordplay: in nearly all varieties of Chinese: the words for "upside-down" (倒, Pinyin: dào) and "to arrive" (到, Pinyin: dào) are homophonous. Therefore, the phrase an "upside-down Fú" sounds nearly identical to the phrase "Good luck arrives". Pasting the character upside-down on a door or doorpost thus translates into a wish for prosperity to descend upon a dwelling.