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doodles, Sundry, 中文

“新年好!”

xin_nian_hao

This is an illustration of the dialog in ChinesePod Lesson “Gong Xi Fa Cai”

Kid: 爷爷,新年好!
Grandpa: 新年好!来,给你红包!
Adult: 老王,新年好!恭喜发财!
Grandpa: 你也是!恭喜发财!恭喜发财!

You can listen to the audio to grok what all that means.

新年好 = xin1 nian4 hao3 = “new year good” = “Happy New Year”

恭喜发财 = gong1 xi3 fa1 cai1 = “Wishing you a prosperous New Year”
恭喜 = “respectful happiness” = “congratulations”
发财 = “to get rich”
恭喜发财 does not translate well if you take it literally.

红包 = hong2 bao1 = “red envelope”
You give gifts of money to children in red envelopes. 红包!

红 and 包 I have drawn before. 红鱼 is the “red fish” and 面包 is bread.

The other day we ate hot pot at 老北京 . . . at least, I was able to read “Beijing” and as I drew this I recognized “old Beijing” . . . the restaurant is called “Old Mandarin Islamic Restaurant”. Beijing I like because it simply means “North Capital City”

Last night we were at Temple Night Club and I saw a big old 爱 and I recognized it as 发 with more up top. 爱, pronounced ai3 is “love” and saying “I love you” in Chinese is as simple as 我爱你 = wo3 ai4 ni3 .

In addition to the Chinese characters, drawing the (Chinese) human characters was somewhat challenging as well. I am most happy with the girl. After trying to figure out how best to draw a “cute little Chinese girl” I ended up basing my character just a teeny bit on Lin Miaoke, the infamous “Beijing Olympics ‘lip-synch’ Girl”.

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