Polyphones in Chinese

Polyphones are very common in Chinese language. A polyphone is a character that can be pronounced in two or more different ways. With different ways of pronunciation, the polyphone usually has different meanings. Being able to use polyphones in Chinese properly will help us a lot in Chinese Learning. In this article, we are going to review the common polyphones.

1. 好 There are two ways to pronounce it - hao3 and hao4. When pronounced in the third tone, it means well or good, as in the phrase 好人 (a good guy) or 好天气 (good weather). When pronounced in the fourth tone, it means “to like”. However, it is seldom used alone, but usually used with another word such as 喜好 and 爱好, both of which have the meaning of “to like”.

2. 行 It is one of the most common words that you will encounter on street signs. For example, we have 请绕行 and 银行. However, it pronounces different ways in the two phrases. In the first phrase请绕行, it is pronounced xing2, which means “to go”. The whole phrase means “Please go the other way.” It is pronounced hang2 in the word 银行, which means “bank”.

3. 赃 This character has two pronunciations. They are zang1 and zang4. The first tone, zang1, means that something is really dirty and is an adjective. The second tone, zang4, is usually used as a noun such as 心脏, which means heart.

4. 假With two distinct tones, jia3 and jia4, this character is easy to read and remember. Jia3, means fake. It can be used as an adjective, such as the word假如(if). It can be used as a noun such as, Jia4, 假期, which means vacation.

Dragon Head Raising Festival

The Dragon-Head-Raising Festival is also known as 龙抬头long2 tai2 tou2 - Check out the pronunciation in the audio pinyin chart, which comes on Feb. 2^nd in Chinese lunar calendar, soon after Spring Festival and Lantern Festival. In Chinese astrology, people use 28 constellations to represent the position of the moon, sun and stars. On February 2^nd, the constellation looks like the body of the dragon. That’s how the name comes for this festival.

As you can tell from the name, the Longtaitou Festival is related to dragon. In the tradition of Chinese culture, the dragon is believed to be a very auspicious animal. It is also believed to be in charge of bringing rains, and both of these are important factors in ancient agricultural society. Today, however, it's lesser related to agriculture as  China steps into a more industrial country.

However, the ways to celebrate Dragon-Head-Raising Festival remains the unchanged. Today, Longtaitou Festival is celebrated in various ways. One of the most weird customs is to get a new haircut or an entirely new hairstyle. But it is quite popular and common a custom to have a new haircut on this day. It is said to bring luck to the coming New Year and it’s a symbol of a brand new year. On this day, there are many other traditional customs, like eating pancakes, noodles, fried peas and steam buns. The eating of the pea, noodles and dumplings signified eating the eye, beard and ear of the lazy dragon. It was believed that these practices would stimulate the lazy dragon to finish his work.

Gongfu Tea

Chinese martial arts, colloquially referred to as kung fu or gong fu (see the pinyin pronunciation chart) are a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China. However, that’s not what we are not going to talk about today, but a kind of tea called “Gongfu Tea” in China.

What is “Gongfu Tea?”

Many people know "Kungfu" because of Bruce Li and Jackie Chan. The tea gets its name because the skill it takes to make the tea is often equal to the skill it takes to practice Gongfu.   

We may learn Chinese skype that making Gongfu Tea is an extraordinary art that requires a lot of skills and practice. It takes a lot of time to even make one cup. It’s a Chinese black tea which is used as a relatively high end gourmet black tea and is sometimes used in various tea blends.     The main difference between Dian hong and other Chinese black teas is the amount of fine leaf buds, or "golden tips," present in the dried tea. Fermented with lychee, rose,and longan, Dian hong teas produces a brew that is brassy golden orange in color with a sweet, gentle aroma and no astringency. Cheaper varieties of Dian hong produce a darker brownish brew that can be very bitter.

The best place for having Gongfu Tea is your own home. You could put on some classic music in the background. The peaceful setting and the essence of the tea can be highly relaxing. 

Chinese way of drinking

The pinyin pronunciation for 酒(liquor) is Jiu3. China has a very long history of producing wines. Its production process is much more complex than some other distilled wines in the world, including a variety of raw materials and incorporation of diverse characteristics. In China, the most famous liquor is white wine. Chinese white liquor (such as maotai, guojiao, erguotou) is one of the six world famous wines.

However what impresses people most is not the wine itself, but the way Chinese people drink it. As for the Chinese wine-drinking tradition, not only do Chinese drink themselves, but also frequently they “urge” others to drink, as much as possible. This is difficult for some foreigners. In a Chinese banquet, the host often keeps on telling someone to eat or drink. It is not only recognized as a courtesy, but also an act of respecting other people.

Chinese people are very hospitable, especially when they are at the dinner table. Chinese people believe the relationship between each other is best promoted when they are toasting. When Chinese people are toasting, they want their guests or friends to drink more, so as to express their hospitality and friendship. The more the guests drink, the happier they will be, because it shows that the gusts like their food and regard them. If the guests didn’t get drunk, the hosts will think the guests didn’t enjoy the dinner and will feel sorry and low in spirit.

At a Chinese banquet, no matter whether others can drink or not, or whether it is proper to urge others to drink or not, if the host does not encourage people to drink several cups of wine, it would seem like people would think that the host is not hospitable and considerate. In reality, the Chinese think urging people to drink can not only deepen feelings between each other, but also make the banquet more joyful and harmonious.

In order to urge the guests to drink more, there are many interesting sayings that have been carried from generation to generation, such as “deep feeling, bottom up”, “shallow feeling, take a sip”, “Do not leave until drunk”.If you do not have a ready tongue or a good eloquence and failed to come up with a reason to refuse, then be ready to get drunk! There are many ways of urging others to drink more which can be concluded as follows: “a polite urge”, “a forceful urge” and “a punishing urge”.

The Luckiest Number in Chinese

Most Chinese learners may have learned numbers from basic Chinese lessons. Some can even count to ten thousand in Chinese. But do you know which number Chinese people like most?

The answer is EIGHT. In China, a car with 8 included on the license plate will be a hot one. On the car's license plate, if there are lots of 8, and undoubtedly, this would be the best license plate number in China and people will pay large amounts of money for these types of license plates.

When Chinese people choose a phone number, a room number etc, they tend to choose those that contain the number “8”. As you may recall, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games began at 8 o'clock in the evening on August, 8th. In fact, the exact start time was 8 minutes and 8 seconds past 8 or 8:08:08 on 8/8/2008.

Why is that? Why does the number ‘8’ has so much reputation. That's because Chinese people believe "8" to be an auspicious number. In Chinese, the number "8 (bā)" has similar pronunciation with the word "发 (fā) to be lucky or gain wealth.” 

Eight has long been the most popular number in China. Throughout China's long history, Chinese have filled their lives with this number through architecture, literature, politics and their system of values. Today this number has become even more popular. We can see "8" everywhere. People use this number to show their wishes and hopes for a great future.

Another usage of 8 is on the internet. Nowadays all that people want is convenience and ease, hence the birth of a popular Chinese phrase “88”. If you have learned pinyin, you will know 88 sounds pretty similar to the English word “bye-bye”. Most young people would use 88 instead of typing the “long” spelling “bye-bye” when they chat with their friends through text messages.

Chinese Valentine's Day

The Chinese people believe that the star Vega（织女星）, east of the Milky Way, is Zhi Nu and, at the constellation of Aquila（天鹰座）, on the western side of the Milky Way, Niu Lang waits for his wife. 

Zhi Nu was said to be the youngest of seven daughters of the Queen of Heaven. With her sisters, she worked hard to weave beautiful clouds in the sky, while Niu Lang was a poor orphan cowherd, driven out of his home by his elder brother and his cruel wife. Niu Lang lamented over his lonely and poor life with an old cow, his only friend and companion. The magical cow kindly told him of a way to find a beautiful and nice woman as his life companion. Under the direction of the cow, Niu Lang went to the riverside on an evening, where the seven fairies slipped out of their heavenly palace to bathe. He took one of the beautiful silk dresses the fairies had left on the bank. When the fairies left the water, the youngest couldn't find her clothes and had to see her sisters fly back to heaven without her. Then Niu Lang came out with the dress and asked the youngest fairy, Zhi Nu, to stay with him.

Several years passed on Earth, which were only a few days in heaven. Niu Lang and Zhi Nu lived happily together and had two children before the Queen of Heaven discovered Zhi Nu's absence. She was so annoyed she had Zhi Nu brought back to heaven. Seeing his beloved wife flying in the sky, Niu Lang was terrified. He caught sight of the cowhide hanging on a wall. The magical cow had told him before dying of old age: "Keep the cowhide（牛皮） for emergency use."Putting the cowhide on, he went after his wife with his two children. With the help of the cowhide, Niu Lang was able to follow Zhi Nu into heaven. He was about to reach his wife when the Queen showed up and pulled off her hairpin to draw a line between the two. The line became the Silver River in heaven, or the Milky Way. Zhi Nu went back to the heavenly workshop, going on weaving the clouds. But she was so sad, and missed her husband across the Silver River so much that the clouds she weaved seemed sad. Finally, the Queen showed a little mercy, allowing the couple to meet once every year on the Silver River.

Mandarin Resources:

hsk exercises

Color Green in Chinese Culture

In Chinese learning, color learning is an important part. In Chinese culture, colors have deeper meanings under the visible appearance. The meaning of different colors. For example, you are not supposed to present a green hat as a gift to your Chinese friends. Why? Let’s learn colors in Chinese culture.

The color green is a very special color in Chinese learning. In English, green means new, young or freshman. In Chinese, there is a saying called “wear a green hat”. If  “他被带了绿帽子” or he is wearing a green hat, it means he was betrayed by his wife or girlfriend.

Why is this saying? It comes from a story.

The story says: Long time ago, the husband often went on business trip, leaving his wife at home. She was so lonely and empty that she dated her neighbor and unluckily they were caught being together when the husband returned. The husband forgave them, but they were still in contact. One day, they came up a plan: The wife will let the husband wear a green hat to fight cold, and when the husband went out, her lover would come and date her. Thus, wearing a green hat means someone is betrayed by his wife or girl friend.

Are you interested in this story? 

The color green has other meanings. In China, 绿色食品 or Green Food means food which causes no damage to the environment. Besides the color green, there are a lot of colors that have very different meanings from the ones in English.