Will You Marry Me When My Hair Covers My Waist

Do you know the meaning of “发hair” in Chinese culture? Let’s first look at one of the top 10 most popular Chinese words before we reveal the answer.

dàiwǒ chánɡfā jíyāo ,shàonián qǔwǒ kéhǎo?

待我 长发 及腰，少年 娶我  可好?

Will You Marry Me When My Hair Covers My Waist?

This sentence came from a girl’s blog post attached with two photos and soon became popular. The first photo is of a handsome young guy and a beautiful girl who fell in love with each other at a young age. The second picture is taken at the graduate ceremony, when they are both grown-ups. Then why did she wrote “Why would you marry somebody when her hair reaches her waist?” Why does “hair” has anything to do with one’s marriage?

In China, the tradition of having long hair has continued for thousands of years, as it is believed that what we have all come from our parents and we should cherish them thus cutting hair is believed as a un-filial behavior. No matter how hairstyle changed, both women and men wearing long hair is a tradition kept until 19^th century. Up to now, having long, dark and straight hair is still a feature of classical beautiful girls.

Meaning of 发

There are two ways to explain the word “发”: The first is to take it as a verb in phrases such as “发送 (fā sònɡ) – to send”, “发现 (fā xiàn) – to discover. The second way to use the word is to take it as a noun in phrases such as “头发 (tóu fà) - hair”, “长发 (chánɡ fā) – long hair”, “理发 (lǐ fà) – to have a hair cut”, etc.

Note that when it is used as a noun, “发” is often used in poems as a symbol of gloomy mood.

E.g.

báifà sānqiān zhànɡ, yuán chóu sì ɡè chánɡ.

白发三千丈，缘愁似个长。

My gray hair is three thousand feet long, and my sorrow is just as long as that.

jūn bú jiàn ɡāo tánɡ mínɡ jìnɡ bēi bái fà, zhāo rú qīnɡ sī mù chénɡ xuě.

君不见, 高堂明镜悲白发, 朝如青丝暮成雪。

You didn’t see that the person who sat in the church was lamenting his gray hair, which was black in the morning but turned gray because of sorrow in the night.

The above are two lines of Chinese poems for you to appreciate. It’s Ok if you can’t understand.

To Marry Somebody in Chinese

In Chinese, there is a saying “男婚女嫁 nán hūn nǚ jià”, literally “a man and a woman getting married”. Marriage is a big event in everyone’s life. Today, we will learn how to say “to marry your Mr or Miss Right” in mandarin Chinese.

In English, when we want to say “somebody is getting married with another person”, we simply use one word “to marry” despite the gender. E.g. Lily is to marry Jack. Jack is to marry Lily. In Chinese, however, we use different words “to marry a man” and “to marry a woman”.

To marry a man, we use “嫁jià”. To marry a woman, we use “娶qǔ”. Both of these two characters mean “to marry” in Chinese.

Usage of 嫁

We usually put “给ɡěi” after “嫁jià” in order to say “to marry a man”. “给” literally means “to give” in Chinese, but here “给” doesn’t carry a specific meaning. We can simply imagine that “to marry a man” is like “giving a gift to him”, isn’t it?

E.g.

wǒ yào jiàɡěi jiékè.

我 要 嫁给 杰克。

I want to marry Jack.

Having said that, when the person you want to marry doesn’t refer to a specific person, there is no need to add “给”.

E.g.

tā yào jià rén le.

她 要 嫁 人 了。

She is getting married.

Usage of 娶

The sentence pattern “to marry a woman” is” “S + 娶 + O”.

E.g.

tā yào qǔ nàɡè nǚhái’ér

他 要 娶 那个 女孩儿。

He wants to marry that girl.

However, to express “a man is getting married“, you can’t say “他要娶人了 tā yào qǔ rén le”, which sounds a little weird in Chinese. Instead, we can say “他要结婚了tā yào jiéhūn le”, meaning “He is getting married.” 

X Collar in Mandarin Chinese

Different colors of collars have different meanings in Chinese. Today, we will learn how to say “X collars” in mandarin Chinese and what do they stand for. The Chinese character for “collar” is “领 (ling3)”

白领 white collar

白领 Bai2 ling3 – White-collar Workers. It refers to those who are well educated and works with the brain. Usually, they work in big companies and win a stable salary.

蓝领  lan2 ling3 - Blue-collar Worker. Labor workers such as miners, farmers, city builders, etc.

灰领 hui1 ling3 – Grey-collar Workers. Similar to 白领，but usually in a management position and has a expertise in a specific field.

金领 jin1 ling3 – Gold-collar Workers. Lives in a higher class in the society and has privileges admired by others. Usually they are in the top position of a company or an expert in his/her field.

What Does a Red Eye Mean in Chinese?

A couple of days ago, one of my students who learn Chinese Skype with iChineseLearning came to me with a puzzled face. He asked me the meaning of “Red Eye” in Chinese. You may have never seen a person with red eyes. And we are not talking about a disease that makes a person’s eyes red. This may have confused many who are learning Chinese, so I feel it necessary to write this post.

The world has humans of different races. Some of them have blue eyes as in Europe, some brown eyes, some black eyes as in Asia. Then what does a Red Eye mean in Chinese? A “red eye” is called 眼红(yǎn hóng) in which 眼 means “eye” and 红 means “red”.

眼红 is kind of a Chinese slang, that is used to describe someone who is jealous of another person who is better off than he himself. For example: Michael is lazy and leads a poor life. Jack is hardworking and has a great fortune. So, Michael may envy of Jack, because Jack is so much better off than him. So, we can say Michael has a red eye! (A 眼红了。) Another example is: 他很有钱，大家都很眼红！(tā hěn yǒu qián, dàjiā dōu hěn yǎnhónɡ!) This sentence means “He is very rich and everyone is very jealous of him.”

As mentioned, 眼红 is a slang in Chinese, so it is most commonly used in conversational Chinese. Leave me a comment if you want to know the meaning of other Chinese words.

Chinese Phrases Related to GOLD

There are a great many Chinese phrases and mastering them is not easy work. However, if we categorize them, things will become much easier. For example, in this article, we will learn a group of Chinese phrases related to GOLD.

黄金时间 (huánɡ jīn shí jiān) Golden Time

Golden time refers to a period of time of the day, when the rating of TV or radio audience is the highest. We know that the TV station often let important news or popular TV programs to be broadcast in the most popular period, during which the advertiser are more willing to choose to put up their advertisements, to draw the attention of the most people. In China, according to an official survey, the golden time is from 18:30 to 22:00.

黄金时代 Golden Times (huánɡ jīn shí dài)

After you learn Chinese online for some time we may know that 时代 and 时间 are both related to time, but 时代 often means a long time – 10 years. So, 黄金时代 refers to the most important 10 years and it implies the most valuable and fruitful period in one’s life.

黄金周 Golden Week (huánɡ jīn zhōu)

Actually, Chinese 黄金周is a way of having holidays, that come from Japan. In the year 1999, Chinese government decided to extned the New Year holiday, Labor’s Day on May 1^st and National holiday to 7 days by combining the weekends before and after them, thus more and more people can take this time to travel further places. The golden week has become an important factor to strengthen domestic consuming and contributes greatly to the development of Chinese economy.

Now do you know the meaning of these “golden” phrases? Stay with us to learn more and in the meanwhile, you may also want to try these simple Chinese phrases used in daily conversational situations such as greeting, shopping, travelling, etc.

Chinese Wedding You Need to Know

Have you ever been invited to a Chinese wedding ceremony? What’s it like? Today, we will give you a brief introduction to Chinese wedding ceremony.

When would a ceremony be held? Chinese people are quite picky with the procedure of a wedding ceremony especially with the date of the ceremony. According to Chinese lunar calendar, some days are meant for holding happy ceremony like wedding, moving to a new house, etc. But some days are considered unlucky and some activities should not be performed. “So, when is a ‘lucky’ day?” you might ask. Well, I should say the tradition varies from place to place, but generally public holidays, special days are considered lucky by most people such as the National Day, New Year, May Day Holiday, etc. And as the western Christmas is approaching near, some people choose to hold their wedding on Christmas. Isn’t it a happy thing to receive both Christmas greetings in Chinese and wedding wishes from friends and families?

What is a Chinese wedding ceremony like? Coincidentally, I was quite busy attending friends’ weddings these days. And I have come up with 3 keywords that may help you better understand Chinese way of romance. 

First, happiness. Happiness comes from everyone’s smile. Chinese people especially care about the atmosphere of a happy event such as a wedding ceremony. So, on this day, they will not mention unhappy things and will give whatever the kids like in case they cry. 

Second, difficult. This word is to describe the process of the bridegroom getting into the bride’s room. In a traditional Chinese wedding, relatives and friends of bride’s side will “make trouble” to prevent the couple from meeting each other. And they won’t let go until they receive the红包 (hong2bao1) – (learn pinyin with audio chart), which is a red envelope with money in it. 红包 is also the third keyword we will mention today. In a Chinese wedding ceremony, you can see 红包 almost everywhere. The relatives of bridegroom have to give 红包 to the people inside the door to meet his wife-to-be; guests invited to a wedding need to give 红包 as gifts, and parents of both sides should give their daughter-in-law and son-in-law 红包 when they call their mother-in-law and father –in-law Mom and Dad.

What’s the wedding ceremony like in your country? As a saying goes “When in Rome, do as Romans do.” When you attend a Chinese wedding, be careful with the 3 keywords, especially the 红包！

American Festivals in Chinese

Nowadays, the celebration of western and American festivals is not limited within the western countries and North America, but becoming more and more popular all across the world including China. Take the Christmas Day (sheng4 dan4 jie2) for an instance. Christmas is more popular in China than other western countries. You can learn in details how to say happy Christmas in Chinese on the website of ichineselearning, an online mandarin school for you to learn skype Chinese.

Today, we will make a summary of the main western festivals besides Christmas that are also being celebrated in nowadays China, and learn how to say these festivals in mandarin Chinese.

1. Valentine’s Festival on February 14^th, is called 情人节(qing2 ren2 jie2) in Chinese. 情人 in Chinese means “the lover”. As its name can tell, it is a festival that belongs to those that are in love. However, there is another day that is regarded as the Chinese Valentine’s Day or the “Qixi Festival”, which falls on the July 7^th in Chinese lunar calendar.

2. April Fool’s Day which is on April 1^st is called 愚人节(yu2 ren2 jie2) in Chinese. Even though some people in China would play tricks on others to celebrate it, it is not as crazy as it is in western countries. Most people would live this day as a normal one.

3. Halloween is called 万圣节 in Chinese. China has a long history with ghosts. Although most Halloween products are made in China, Chinese themselves don’t celebrate it widely as those in America. The idea of having a costume party is being imported to the larger towns and cities by Western influence, and so far it’s almost exclusively an "adult" thing.

4. Thanksgiving Day is called 感恩节(gan3 en1 jie2) in Chinese. In China, there is not a festival like it, but learning about this festival reminds us to cherish those who are around you and what you've got.

Festivals tell a lot about a country’s culture, history and customs. They can also help us better learn its language. So, if you are learning mandarin Chinese, you are also recommended to learn about the traditional Chinese festivals.

Our Say Wow

“我和我的小伙伴们都惊呆了! (I and my little buddies are all shocked!)” is a very popular saying in China. It ranked in the 2^nd place in our Top 10 Most Popular Chinese Words - 2014. In the article, we learned the pinyin for this sentence is “wǒ hé wǒde xiǎo huǒbàn men dōu jīnɡdāi le”.

The article has already covered the general meaning of this popular Chinese saying, but today we are going to discuss it in details, including its origin, usage, and how popular it really is. As we mentioned earlier, this sentence first appeared in a pupil’s essay telling the origin of Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. The meaning of his essay goes: 

In his essay, the pupil tells the origin of a traditional festival - Dragon Boat Festival in very amazing and imaginative words. The plot of his story includes love on campus, the life of Qu Yuan, a great poet in China, the wars between Communist Party and Kuomintang and “Long lives chairman Mao” etc. His essay was posted to a Chinese mini-blog platform Sina, which was like U.S’s Twitter, and the sentence came out and soon got its trends. Since its birth, this saying has become extremely popular among young people in China. A video MV was even recorded by the “Queen of Ridiculous Song” Wang Lin, who will never miss a chance getting hot.Check this out!

The sentence “我和我的小伙伴都惊呆了” is used to show someone is very shocked at something happened. Now we will use examples to learn how to use it. When hearing of some super stars’ breaking up, some officials’ corruption or whatever shocks you, you all can use the phrase to express your astonishment. But this sentence can only be used in casual Chinese conversation instead of a formal occasion. 

Chinese Brotherhood Spirit- Yi Qi

In Chinese, there is a kind of brotherhood called（义气）, the pinyin for which is “Yi4qi4”. (You may also want to learn pinyin with our online pinyin resources.) “义气” is a sort of solid brotherhood built on a long-term friendship and strong mutual trust. In this brotherhood, a brother would sacrifice wealth and even his own life for the salvation to the other, all for the sake of “义气”. In Chinese, there is an idiom that best this kind of brotherhood called（两肋插刀）“liang3 lei4 cha1 dao1” which means to help (one's friend) at the loss of one's life. This is an idiom that best explains this kind of valuable spirit perfectly.

Speaking of “义气”, we shall introduce another word “哥们儿” which is so popularly used in spoken Chinese that it is sometimes seen as a way of addressing a person in a slang way. It’s like “guy” or “hey man” in English. For example, if you are in trouble in a city and you want somebody that are almost the same age as you, you may say:”hey，哥们儿，please do me a favor!”

Do you have a friend that you think as “brotherhood” who will两肋插刀for you? If your answer is yes, then congratulations! In Chinese we have many brotherhood movies like “Shui3hu3zhuan4”（水浒传）or “Tou2ming2zhuang4”（投名状）. In both of these movies, brotherhood was vividly portrayed between brothers. Also, you can also find the word “Yi4qi4”（义气）if you made a comparison between these two movies. Since watching Chinese movies is also a good idea to learn Chinese, besides learn Chinese on Skype, we can also give the movies a try.

Chinese Mortgage Slaves

In the previous post, we learned 孩奴，which refers to “the slave to the kids”. Today, we are going to introduce another similar word called 房奴(fángnú). It is one of the 171 newly-born Chinese words published by the China Education Bureau. Literally it means “the house’s slaves” or “mortgage slave”.

房奴 (fángnú) refers to a group of people in China who take a loan from the bank and have to spend 30% to 40% of their income to pay off the mortgage. For these people, even though they enjoy the joy of having a house, they have to suffer the pressure of debt, the loss of life quality, etc. They are afraid of being ill, out of job, and have no time to lead a joyful life. To many people, the house is no longer a joy, but a burden, because they have to spare no effort to support the mortgage, to make a living, thus came the word房奴(fángnú). Learn more hot Chinese words through online Chinese course.

From ancient time to nowadays, Chinese people have a rooted tradition –they have always wanted to own their own houses. In Chinese people’s mind, if you want to have a family, you’d better own a house first. Now it is quite common for people to take mortgage loans, although everyone knows that it will take them many years to pay off their housing loan.” People who have very tight budget but still bought a house with the help of loans are called “房奴(fángnú) mortgage slaves.” Chinese tradition of owning a house leads to more and more mortgage slaves in China nowadays.

As is known to all that China has the largest population in the world. Having a dwelling place has always been a dream for those who can’t afford a house. Many people refused to be a slave to the mortgage, they choose to rent or buy “tiny” houses. Some come the word蜗居(wōjū), live like a snail. 蜗居(wōjū) is very popular in conversational Chinese, it comes from the most popular TV series in 2009. It is about a new couple struggling for buying their first houses.”  If you are trying to learn Chinese skype, you can also improve your spoken Chinese by watching this popular Chinese TV drama.

Popular Chinese Word – Naked Wedding

Literally, 裸婚luo3 hun1(go to pinyin pronunciation guide) it means “naked marriage”. “Naked” as it is, it has nothing to do with porn. “裸婚” refers to marriage without houses, cars, and wedding ceremonies. This is one of the many popular Internet words that we can learn from online Chinese lessons.

As the young people face more and more economic pressure and stress more and more on the freedom and independence of marriage, wedding ceremonies are no longer regarded as important to some people. So, “naked wedding” has become a popular way of getting married.

Chinese people used to (and many still do) think that when people are going to marry, they should at least have a car and a house or apartment. But now it is becoming more and more difficult due to inflation and rising property prices in China. More young people are starting to believe the idea behind getting married should be for love, not for money. Therefore, 裸婚 has become a more popular and realistic option in China.

A good example is the huge success of a Chinese TV drama called 《裸婚时代》- the times of naked wedding. It depicts a story between a young couple, who decided to get married despite the fact they have nothing but love. Their marriage went through happiness and bitterness and finally comes to an end. The story shows the power of love and at the same time the cruelty of the reality. 

So, what does “裸婚” mean? It means you don’t have to spend much money to get married – no honey moon, no house, no cars, no rings, no ceremonies, no meals, just 9 yuan for the registration fee. It definitely need your courage and dare.

The Chinese character 被 (bei) is used in a passive voice to show that “something is done by something else.” In this case, we can also say “他们被结婚”, which means “They are forced to get married.” In China, people are forced to do all sorts of things. For example, young people have to listen to their parents to get married before 30 or marry to someone their parents are happy with. If it comes to you, will you accept “被结婚”?

Popular Chinese Word - the kid's slave

Nowadays in China, with the development of the society, many new words pop up. After 房奴 fang2 nu2，which means “house slaves”, comes another similar word “孩奴hái nú”. The new word represents a group of people in China, mostly parents, who spare no effort to earn money for their children at the expense of their own values and lives. The emergence of “孩奴” (hái nú), to some extent, is a result of the growing cost of raising a child.

The pinyin pronunciation for 奴 is nú, which has the meaning of “slave”. When we put another word before it, the word means “a slave for …” The word first came as the name of a hot Chinese TV drama called 《孩奴》, which was led by actors Sha Yi, Hu Ke, Wang Yinan, etc. This TV drama depicts the lives of four mothers. The drama shows that for the future of their kids, parents would do everything to survive the real world despite bitterness, anger, helplessness, etc. This drama can also serve as a good resource for foreigners to learn Chinese.

The Kid's Slaves

So, what is the life of a孩奴like in China? No matter what they buy, they always choose the most expensive one. For example, they might even buy a baby wear at a price of several hundred of RMB. Many parents in China, especially mothers, excessively fuss over their children so that they make every issue about their children a huge matter of gain or loss. And it is grandparents who spoil their grandchildren most. Often you can see an old man or woman stand on a bus, wearing a schoolbag on their back with a little child sitting on the seat. It is crazy that many parents have arranged the best school for their children before they are born, they even might buy an expensive house near the school in order to create a good learning environment for the potential academic talents. 

In China, most of the “kids’ slaves” are the post 1980s because of the special era they were born in China. This group of young people face great pressure of supporting a house fund, finding jobs, getting married, and now the pressure of raising their kids.

Rich 2G - Fu Er Dai

With the development of the society, new words in a certain language were born. So it is with Chinese. Among them is “富二代”or fu4 er4 dai4. So, what does it mean? In this phrase, the Chinese character 富 means rich. Grammatically, it is used as an adjective here(Learn more grammars with mandarin tutorial online). 二 means two and 代 means generation. In English, “富二代”can be translated as Rich 2G, the second generation that are very wealthy.

Since it came into being, this phrase has been very popular in spoken Chinese. It first appeared in a Chinese TV show called《鲁豫有约》. It refers to a group of young people who were born in 1980s or 1990s with silver spoons. Their parents are either millionaires or billionaires in China.

You may think it is a good thing to be rich and like it when people say that “Hey, you are rich”. However, the phrase 富二代 has had a bad fame, sometimes regarded as an insult in China, mostly because of the bad behaviors and influence done by 富二代 in China. In China, 富二代 leaves such an impression: play with friends, drive expensive car, bubble beautiful girls, and often change girlfriends, often go to senior bars, themselves or friends are often hold party, they are crazy in playing, and keen on foreign brands like LV DIORf, they also like to show their watch which value the thousands.

Being rich is a very common phenomenon in modern China. But unlike their parents, who went from rags to riches during China's early stages of "opening up", Rich 2G members are often criticized for inheriting huge assets from their parents and are being labeled as a generation with less responsibility and an inclination to indulge in pleasure-seeking. 

Money is a good servant, but a bad master. On the concept of wealth, we still have many road to go.