Special
Report:Global Financial
Crisis
Special Report:
Spring Festival
Special 2009
By Ma Shukun
BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Chinese media) -- The financial crisis has
made its way into Chinese people's life. They're not only more thrifty about
Lunar New Year spending but more cautious when sending New Year blessing
messages.
"Cai Yuan Gun Gun," a Chinese idiom, means inflow of
a large amount of money in Mandarin Chinese. It used to be among people's
favorite greeting messages during the Lunar New Year holiday.
，Starbucks to cut 6,700 jobs
，SAP to cut 3,000 jobs
，Intel to cut up to 6,000 jobs
，Caterpillar to cut 20,000 jobs
，Warner Bros. to cut 800 jobs
， Ericsson to cut 5,000 jobs
， Sony to cut 8,000 jobs
， Valeo to cut 5,000 jobs
， Chanel to cut 200 jobs
， Volvo Cars to cut 3,400 jobs
， Credit Suisse to cut 5,300 jobs
， Rolls-Royce to cut 2,000 jobs
， Indonesia to cut 40,000 jobs
，UK finance sector to cut 15,000 jobs
，India IT industry to cut 50,000 jobs
， South Korea to cut jobs in public sector
But now people
don't want to send or receive the message under the backdrop of global job cuts
as a play on words with the same pronunciation means to be kicked out of a job.
Wang Lu, who works in a real estate firm in Baotou of
northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said, "Now I have to pick greeting
words very carefully, especially to my fellow colleagues. I don't want to cause
any displeasure."
On the notice board of a wedding planning company in
the central business district of Beijing is a message, which reads "No Cai Yuan
Gun Gun in messages" and "No Xin Xiang Shi Cheng."
"Xin Xiang Shi Cheng" means "everything will go the
way for the people, who want their dreams to come true." But now a newly-created
phrase with the same pronunciation means people's incomes will be slashed to 40
percent of their earlier levels.
A staff surnamed Ran said, "The phrases are seen as
ominous during this time, even though we are less affected by the global
economic turmoil. We hope for a better business in 2009."
Other blacklisted idioms include the previously
popular "Wan Shi Ru Yi", "Zhao Cai Jin Bao", and "Cai Shen Dao". Now they are
seen as taboos because phrases with the same pronunciations refers to "job cuts"
or "salary cuts."
It is a tradition that Chinese send a large number of
cell-phone text messages to family members, friends, colleagues and bosses
during the Lunar New Year.
Chinese written language uses thousands of different
characters, but in the spoken language there are countless overlapping
pronunciations, creating a large field for word play.
But there are exceptions.
Messages with "Niu" in Mandarin Chinese have become
quite a hit. "Niu" means ox in English. The year 2009 is the year of Ox. The Ox
is one of the 12-year cycles of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac
related to the Chinese calendar.
By labeling someone "Niu," people are praising their
outstanding talent in a certain field. China's booming stock market in 2007 was
described as "bullish." Bull also means "Niu" in Chinese.
Among the most popular greetings is "Happy Niu Year,"
which has similar pronunciation with "Happy New Year," and "Niu Qi Chong Tian,"
which means robust, upward and excellent.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment