Enjoy Your Future - Culture (1) Carmen Li from Hong Kong SAR, China 1

Chinese Culture - Language 6 categories of Chinese Words 2

Chinese Language Unlike English alphabets, each Chinese character represents a monosyllabic Chinese word or morpheme (smallest grammatical unit in a language) In 100 CE (AD 100), the famed Han Dynasty scholar Xu Shen classified Chinese characters into six categories: Pictographs ( 象形 ) Simple Ideographs ( 指事 ) Compound Ideographs ( 會意 ) Phonetic Loans ( 假借 ) Phonetic Compounds ( 形聲 ) Derivative Characters ( 轉注 ) 3

Pictographs The oldest Chinese characters Stylized drawings of the objects they represent Of these, only 4% were categorized as pictographs, including many of the simplest characters 4

Have a Guess! 5

Also… 6

Simple Ideographs Characters that are direct iconic illustrations Examples 上 ( shàng ) : up 下 ( xià ) : down originally a dot above and below a line 7

Compound Ideographs Xu Shen placed approximately 13% of characters in this category Translated as logical aggregates or associative compounds, these characters have been interpreted as combining two or more pictographic or ideographic characters to suggest a third meaning Example: 休 ( xi ū ) : rest composed of the pictograms 人 : person and 木 : tree 酒 ( ji ǔ ) : wine composed of 酉 : wine brewing container and 水 : water 8

Phonetic Loans Covers cases where an existing character is used to represent an unrelated word with similar or identical pronunciation Sometimes the old meaning is lost completely Examples: 自 (zì) : its original meaning of "nose” has lost completely and exclusively means "oneself” now 萬 (wàn) : originally meant "scorpion" but is now used only in the sense of "ten thousand” 9

Phonetic Compounds Xu Shen placed approximately 82% of characters into this category Composed of two parts one of a limited set of characters (the semantic indicator, often graphically simplified) which suggests the general meaning another character (the phonetic indicator) whose pronunciation suggests the pronunciation 10

Phonetic Compounds Examples: 河 (hé) : river 湖 (hú) : lake have a radical of three short strokes on the left, which is a simplified pictograph for a river, indicating that the character has a semantic connection with water; the right- hand side in each case is a phonetic indicator 鎂 (m ě i) : magnesium have a radical of 金, which is a simplified pictograph for gold, indicating that the character has a semantic connection with metal; the right-hand side in each case is a phonetic indicator 11

Derivative Characters The smallest category of characters Also the least understood The term does not appear in the body of the dictionary, and is often omitted from modern systems Examples: 考 (k ǎ o) : to verify 老 (l ǎ o) : old similar old Chinese pronunciations may once have been the same word, meaning "elderly person", but became lexicalized into two separate words 12

Cultures in Hong Kong 13

Hong Kong (HK) 14

Cultural Background 15 Majority of Hong Kong's people are ethnically Han Chinese From 1842 to 1997, HK was under the rule as a separate British colony for 155 years Political separation from the rest of mainland China have resulted in a unique local identity

Cultural Background 16 Elements of Traditional Chinese culture combining British western influences have shaped Hong Kong in every facet of the city Spanning from law, politics, education, language, food, and the way of thought…

Languages “Biliterate and Trilingual” Official Languages (Traditional) Chinese English Spoken Languages Cantonese English Mandarin 17

Let’s try!!! What’s your Chinese name? Let’s learn to write your Chinese name and some Chinese blessing phrases on Red Banners!! 18

Examples 19

Chinese New Year (CNY) 20 Chinese New Year is an important traditional Chinese holiday Also known as the Spring Festival 1 st day of the 1 st month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar

CNY Origin According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people One day people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red Every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls (RED BANNERS!!) on windows and doors People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again 21

Common Blessings 恭喜發財 : Wishing you prosperity 招財進寶 : May money and treasure be plentiful 生意興隆 : Business prospers 出入平安 : Wishing you safety wherever you go 萬事如意 : Everything goes as you hope 青春常駐 : Full of youthful vigour 和氣生財 : Harmony brings wealth 學業進步 : May you excel at your studies 22

Common Blessings 一本萬利 : May you make great profits 步步高昇 : Be promoted to a higher position 花開富貴 : Fortune comes with blooming flowers 身壯力健 : Be healthy and vigorous all year 金玉滿堂 : Treasures fill the home 新春大吉 : Good fortune in the New Year 心想事成 : May all your wishes come true 龍馬精神 : The energy of a dragon and a horse 23