Author Archives: Ziqi Wang

Hope You Get Rich—恭喜发财

Nationality: China
Age: 19
Residence: Canton
Performance Date: 02/01/2023
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: Cantonese

Background:
The informant was from a southern province in China called Guangdong, or Canton. He heard the saying from relatives that came from the same region. This tradition is a four-character word that expresses the best wish, which is the hope people will get rich. It has variations such as adding another four characters that meant “give the red pocket,” which involves the tradition of the Chinese New Year.

Context:
Every Chinese New Year, people would visit relatives and hang out with families. When my informant’s families greet each other, they say, “hope you get rich” instead of “happy new year.”

Main Piece:
恭喜发财
translation: hope you get rich

Analysis:
The Chinese New Year is the most important time of the year, and people express their best wishes to their families. The fact that Cantonese greets each other with “hope you get rich” reflects their values about wealth. Canton has long been a place where trading is happening. Many people have a family business or participate in businesses. Thus, “hope you get rich” is an appropriate wish for businessmen, which is why it is prevalent in Canton.

There’s A Place On Mars—Clapping Game

Nationality: American
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English

Background: The informant learned the song in elementary school and middle school. The song was sung while students, mainly girls, clapped their hands with each other. It has very clear rhythms. There are many variations of the lyrics, and this piece is an example of one of the variations.

Context: The informant learned this song while playing with friends in school. When singing this song, two people will face each other, clap their hands, clap each other’s hands, and repeat. It is a common song that was sung among students like her, and she knows other variations of the same song.

Main piece:
There’s a place on mars where the women smoke cigars and the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis every breath you take is enough to kill a snake with the snake is dead you put roses on its head when the roses die you put diamonds in his eyes when the diamonds crack you put mustard on his back when the mustard fades you call the king of spades and the king of spades calls the queen of hearts and the queen of hearts packs the jack of clubs and the Jack of clubs says this Coca-Cola went to town orange soda knocked him down Dr Pepper fixed him up now we’re drinking 7up 7up got the flu now we’re drinking Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew fell off a mountain now we’re drinking from a fountain fountain broke now we’re drinking plain old C-O-K-E coke.

Analysis:
The lyrics include a lot of content that is considered inappropriate for children, such as smoking, children drinking martinis, etc. The beginning of the lyrics is a bit rebellious, which is probably why children are so interested in speaking and sharing it. The rather complex lyrics and the simple melody are an interesting combination. Compared to the lyric, the song was very simple, consisting of one short melody that keeps repeating. Since the lyrics appeal to children and the melody is easy to sing, the song spread widely among children.

The Banned Words

Nationality: China
Age: 47

Text:
从前有一位国王，他在一次事故中摔断了腿。他走路得样子非常滑稽，人们因为他走路样子而发笑，经常私下嘲笑他怪异的走路方式。为了避免被嘲笑，国王发布了一项皇家法令，禁止使用“腿”或“跛行”等词。起初，人们对这一奇怪的法令感到困惑，但很快他们找到新的词语来嘲笑国王。当国王禁用了一些词语，人们就找到同音字来绕过禁令。 国王变得越来越偏执，他认为每个人都在背后谈论他。所以他禁用了越来越多的字词，直到人们的日常交流都受到了阻碍。王国陷入了深深的沉默，但即使在一片沉默中，国王感觉被嘲笑了，因为沉默成为了每一个他禁用的词。


Translation:
Once upon a time, a king broke his leg in an accident. He walks in a funny way, and people laugh at him because of his way of walking. They often secretly mocked his strange way of walking. To avoid being ridiculed, the king issued a law prohibiting the use of words such as “leg” or “limp.” At first, people were puzzled by this strange law, but soon they found new words to make fun of the king. When the king banned some words, people substituted them with homophonic words. The king became increasingly angry, believing everyone was talking about him behind his back. So he banned more and more words until people could barely speak. The kingdom fell into a deep silence, but even in the silence, the king felt teased because silence became the words he banned.

Context: The informant read this story online when people were discussing the banned words on the website in a forum. The website bans bad words and substitutes them with the “*” sign, but people find homophonic characters to get around the censorship. Because some of the homophonic words are used daily, they influence people’s daily life, and many of the homophonic words become bad words. Thus, some people questioned the act of using homophonic characters to express bad meanings, and someone wrote this story to reflect the negative aspects of online censorship and how it affects people’s daily life.

Analysis: This story reflects the value of free speech and the negative consequences of censorship on the Chinese internet. The king’s ban on words led people to seek alternative ways to express themselves. This story is a modern fable as many societies struggle with issues of censorship and control over speech and expression. The use of homophonic characters in online communication to bypass censorship is a common phenomenon on the Chinese internet, as Chinese is a language that has a lot of homophonic characters and words. This story reflects the issue of censorship and serves as a cautionary tale about the unintended consequences of censorship.