Or...
Happy Chinese New Year of the Pig!!


May it be a good one for all of us (bout time, huh??).
best to all xxx

Hi Artist,
Happy New Year To You. I hoped it is better for everyone as well. We all need a break. Thanks so much for sharing the Chinese Holiday with us. Hugs, Roz xxx

[coachV]

how lovely!......does that say 'happy new year' or does it include the 'pig' part?

i love the look of chinese writing (tho i know it's incredibly tough to master either reading or writing it).....a store near us used to have brass figures (flat, about 8 inches high, to hang on the wall) of certain cheerful chinese words (like happiness or good luck) and i had bought 2 to hang in our dining room....i love the way they look and i like what they say.....i bought 'prosperity' and 'longevity' and i get a real charge out of it when someone asks me if i know what it says because i always tell them "live long and prosper".

i wish i could return the good wishes in the correct language, but i'm afraid my conversational chinese is limited to "mayo wenti" and that just doesn't do it, so happy new year to u too.

liz

Hi Liz,
Me too, completely in love with Chinese calligraphy. Any good calligraphy, for that matter - the Tukish arabic "Golden Letters" make me weak at the knees ---->swoooon

So...those are the characters for "Kung hei fat choi" just "happy new year", the character for pig is:

and "Year of the Pig" or “sui ci ding hai” is:



The written language is the same all over China, here we speak Cantonese (well, I can just about manage "taxi cantonese" - very basic) - you were speaking Mandarin, that's very up-market!

By the way the "Mei Yo" bit is the phrase you'll hear all over the Mainland - means
- no, haven't got any, no, you can't have any, no whatever it is we haven't got it and you can't have it. no. no, no.....(tiring place, China Proper!)

So! Lovely warm weather - it's usually much colder this time of year - mists hanging down the mountains and fireworks on the beach. I'm having a couple of days off, and am planning later to take the dog up the mountain at the back of my village for a good long walk.

all the best

[frogga]

sounds amazing - so jealous.... it must be amazing. I love the calligraphy... tried to learn arabic a couple of years ago and loved it just from the shape of the letters!

Frxxxxxx

[coachV]

artist,

thx for the explanations!....andfor the additional characters..... i didn't know i was being 'upmarket", lol.....my brother taught me 'meiyo wenti' when he came back from a month-long trip to (northern) china......he swore it was the local equivalent of 'no worries', but i've always been hesitant about it, because i wouldn't put it past him to teach me to say 'my dog has fleas'....or worse!

the chinese language sounds a bit like the english language....it's always the same written down, but if u travelled from one end of this country to the other, you'd swear u were hearing 9 different languages....and that's not even taking into account "real" english, as spoken in england!

hope u enjoy your weather and your walking with the dog...btw, i've enjoyed the pix of him.....i'm jealous of your warm days...we r still recovering from a snow/sleet storm that left us with 8 inches of solidly packed white garbage....the alternate sleet and snow made it pack down into a solid mess that closed schools, businesses and major highways....it's so dense, u don't sink into it, u walk on top of it.

so enjoy a little sunshine for me please!

liz

[WickedGood]

The "Haven't Gotten Any" is the story of my life!!!! And that is in any language no matter how you choose to spell it. ha ha I can apply that to just about everything in my life. I haven't gotten any - MONEY, PAIN RELIEF, SLEEP, WEIGHT LOSS, JOB, DISABILITY, LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT, ETC.

Things could actually be alot worse for me than they are so I shouldn't complain. There are so many folks in this world who are in worse conditions than me. When I do inventory of my life I actually have plenty to be grateful for. I am just waiting for someone to offer up a litle relief. I hate having the pain constantly be in the forefront of my mind. It seems to be such a constant and makes it so much more difficult to do anything else. It naws at me. And than I get the tremors in my left hand and arm and look out. I could wipe off a shelf in one easy sweep. I'd be more dangerous than a Bull in a China Shop!

Enough goofiness for now. Chin Up Everyone!!!! Mark