Year of the Rat and Chinese idioms associated with rats and mice

Year 2020 – Chinese Year of the Rat Greeting Card

Yikes! I’m scared of rats and mice. However, as a Chinese zodiac sign, rats represent wealth and abundance, and the ones pictured on the greeting card here do look kind of cute. If you wish to read up on the rats zodiac information, please click on this link.

Let’s take a closer look at the greeting card design. Notice how the various disks have a square hole in the center? Those represent the ancient Chinese coins. People used to string them together and carry the strings of cash coins around. Also, there are one or more occurrences of the following auspicious phrases on the card image. Are you able to find them all?

迎新年 (yíng xīnnián) Welcome the New year.

迎春纳福 (yíng chūn nàfú) Welocme spring and enjoy a life of ease and comfort.

迎春接福 (yíng chūn jiē fú) Welocme spring and enjoy a life of ease and comfort.

富贵有余 (fùguì yǒuyú) Have ample riches and prestige.

一路发财 (yīlù fācái) Make a fortune throughout the journey of life.

招财进宝 (zhāo cái jìn bǎo) May riches and treasures pour in.

财源滚滚 (cái yuán gǔn gǔn) May the source of wealth keep surging.

大吉大利 (dà jí dà lì) Very good fortune and great profit to you.

吉祥平安 (jíxiáng píng’ān) Auspiciousness and wellness be with you.

事事如意 (shìshìrúyì) Smooth going for everything.

In the above, 迎 (yíng) is an abbreviation for 欢迎 (huānyíng), which means to welcome or to greet.

Following are a few other popular New Year greetings:

恭喜发财 (gōng xǐ fā cái) Wish you happiness and prosperity.

心想事成 (xīn xiǎng shì chéng) May all your wishes come true.

万事如意 (wàn shì rú yì) May everything go as you wish.

年年有余 (nián nián yǒu yú) May you have abundance and surplus each year.

年年高升 (nián nián gāo shēng) May you get a promotion year after year.

岁岁平安 (suì suì píng ān) May you enjoy peace year after year.

余 (yú surplus) is a homonym for 鱼 (yú fish). This is why many Chinese families include a dish of fish for the last dinner of the year but make sure to save part of the fish for consumption in the new year.

高 (gāo high, tall) is a homonym for 糕 (gāo cakes). 年糕 (niángāo), a very sweet cake, is usually served around Chinese New year because it connotes 年年高升. Instead of that sugary cake, I serve my family the wholesome Daikon radish cake, or 萝卜糕 (luóbogāo), the recipe of which can be found in “Tame Migraine the Delicious Way“.

The Chinese word for rats or mice is 鼠 (shǔ) or 老鼠 (lǎoshǔ). In some dialects, rats and mice are called 耗子 (hàozi). The Chinese word for rats or mice is 鼠 (shǔ) or 老鼠 (lǎoshǔ). In some dialects, rats and mice are called 耗子 (hàozi). 田鼠 (tiánshǔ) is a vole, 松鼠 (sōngshǔ) is a squirrel, 花鼠 (huāshǔ) is a chipmunk, and 飛鼠 (fēishǔ) is a flying squirrel. Get this: Kangaroos are called 袋鼠 (dàishǔ).

Here are a few popular Chinese idioms related to rats or mice.

抱头鼠窜 (bàotóushǔcuàn) to scurry off like a rat
胆小如鼠 (dǎnxiǎo rú shǔ) timid or faint-hearted like a mouse
过街老鼠 (guò jiē lǎoshǔ) a mouse crossing the street, despised by everyone who sees it
投鼠忌器 (tóushǔjìqì) to hesitate to throw something at a rat for fear of breaking some precious item, i.e. to have scruples about doing something
狗咬耗子 (gǒu yǎo hàozi) dog biting a rat, i.e. to be a busybody
猫哭老鼠 (māokūlǎoshǔ) a cat crying over a dead mouse; to shed crocodile tears
蛇头鼠眼 (shé tóu shǔ yǎn) with a snakes head and rat’s eyes, i.e. hideous and harboring evil intentions

For fun, we could add a couple expressions that make use of the characters 数 (shǔ to count) and 属 (shǔ to belong to), which sound the same as 鼠 (shǔ).

好运鼠于你 (好运属于你 hǎoyùn shǔyú nǐ) Good luck be yours!

鼠不尽的快乐 (数不尽的快乐 shǔ bù jìn de kuàilè) Countless happiness!

恭贺新禧!
Gōnghèxīnxǐ!
Happy New Year!

The joy of spring

Besides 福 (fú good fortune), 春 (chūn springtime) is another Chinese character that is often displayed upside down because 倒 (dào inverted) and 到 (dào arrive) sound exactly the same. The inverted 春 (chūn) represents the arrival of springtime, hence a sense of renewal and happiness.

春季 (chūnjì) is the spring season.
春天 (chūntiān) is springtime.
春节 (Chūnjié) is the Spring Festival, to which the Chinese Lunar New Year is often referred.
春假 (chūnjià) is the spring vactaion.
春光 (chūnguāng) refers to the beautiful sights in springtime.
春风 (chūnfēng) are the balmy breezes in the spring.
You can use 满面春风 (mǎnmiànchūnfēng) or 春风满面 (chūnfēngmǎnmiàn) to.describe a person who is feeling very happy, satisfied and triumphant.

It’s possible to embrace the joy of spring in your heart all year long. If you like, you could download and print out the image showing the crocuses, and make a bookmark, 书签 (shūqiān), out of it. I made mine by laminating the image and using a paper-cutter to cut around it. I then rounded the corners, punched a hole at the top and looped a purple ribbon through the hole. To add interest to the bookmark, you could write the following words on the back before the lamination process.

春天的喜悅 (chūntiān de xǐyuè), the joy of spring.

If classical Chinese is your thing, then:

春之悅 (chūn zhī yuè), the joy of spring.

Let’s sing a traditional Japanese children’s song to welcome the arrival of spring. You can listen to a remix of the tune via this link.

春天来了!
Chūntiān lái le!
Spring is coming!

春天来了!
Chūntiān lái le!
Spring is coming!

春天在哪里?
Chūntiān zài nǎli?
Where does spring reside?

春在高山,
Chūn zài gāoshān,
Spring’s on the mountains,

春在乡里,
Chūn zài xiānglǐ,
Spring’s in the village,

春在田园里!
Chūn zài tiányuán lǐ!
Spring’s on the countryside!

This cute little song features no less than three types of sentences: a simple declarative sentence (repeated), a question, and a compound sentence. It is through simple songs, that we can best learn a language. Think of the nursery rhymes you sang as a kid. You never forget them because those simple verses are easy to internalize. In the book “Learn Chinese through Songs and Rhymes“, you will find many songs that help you effectively learn Chinese words, expressions and sentence structures.

If you would like to tackle something more challenging, then try this story at Dave Flynn’s site.