Trip to the flower market

As Ben mentioned in his blog on February 12, 9 adults and 6 children including Koco and I set off on February 15 to the Xihulu flower market - the oldest spring festival flower market in Guangzhou. We took a lot of pictures. Students bought “wu3dai4tong2tang2guo3” (five generation in a family) which is a very traditional spring festival plant in Guangzhou and some other flowers. Their picture also made the way onto the front page of the Guangzhou Daily newspaper. Here are some other pictures:

Pigs; good or bad? That is the question!

Last time, I talked about “Dogs in Chinese eyes”. As the pig year is coming, I now will talk about the pig.

A pig ironically has a dual image - both positive and negative in Chinese culture. On one hand, pig represents people who are sloppy, lazy, greedy and dirty. On the other hand, pig also represents good luck and wealth. This year is strongly believed to be the “year of the golden pig” which returns every 60 years. People believe children born this year will be blessed with good luck and financial wealth. As wedding halls were crowded in 2006, maternity hospitals are expected to be packed in 2007.

Despite people’s strong belief about the “year of the golden pig”, all of the limited idioms about pig in Chinese are bad meanings.

Here is the most famous saying about pig in china:
“ren2pa4chu1ming2zhu1pa4zhuang4” which literally means pigs are afraid to be fat and people are afraid to be famous. If pig is fat enough, it will be killed. If a person gets famous, he/she will get involved with a lot of troubles. This saying is deeply rooted in the Chinese philosophy of “zhong1yong1” (the “golden mean” of the Confucian school) which is the way of wisdom and safety between extremes; sufficiency without excess; moderation.

What do pigs represent in your country? Write to us and tell us some stories.

Student trip to the Spring Festival flower market

Spring Festival is just around the corner and to learn a little about Chinese customs New Concept Mandarin is organising a student trip to one of the Flower Markets on Thursday 15th February @ 3pm. Students can meet at our training centre and then our teachers will accompany you to one of the flower markets. We will make you speak Chinese along the way so a good chance to practice bargaining for some flowers.

A Chinese New Year without flowers is like Christmas with no tree, so from 15th February until 2am on 18th February (the first day of the Lunar Calendar) each of the districts in Guangzhou has a flower market. The markets are also a great a place to soak in the festive season and see the locals gleefully choosing flowers for their homes. Different flowers convey different meanings and unless you have had your eyes closed for the last few days you will have noticed orange plants appearing on many street corners. Orange plants signify luck and wealth as in Cantonese the words have a similar pronunciation and also their shape resembles a piece of gold.

For now, Happy New Year.... Or Xin Nian Kuai Le!