symbols
August 16, 2024
March 27, 2019
August 08, 2014
February 24, 2014
January 13, 2014
November 30, 2013
November 04, 2013
June 05, 2013
April 30, 2013
福倒 － fortune arrives
At Chinese New Year the character 福 is very popular. It is pasted on doors and gates to bring good luck and fortune. Oftentimes the character 福 is pasted upside down, like in the picture above. This is called a 'phonetic symbol': different Chinese characters have the same pronunciation but different meanings.
福倒 'fu' 'dao' literally means 'fortune' and 'upside down'.
倒 (upside down) and 到 (to arrive) are both pronounced as dao.
So when the character 福 is pasted upside down it means that 'fortune will arrive'.
Categories
- !! announcements !! (26)
- advertising (57)
- architecture (84)
- art (198)
- books (26)
- celebrating (27)
- china business (35)
- city (19)
- constructing a new china (45)
- cross cultural communication (4)
- cultural quantum (2)
- design (116)
- diversity (55)
- education (10)
- energy (5)
- film and performance (18)
- finance (12)
- fish (15)
- food (63)
- having fun (65)
- hong kong (19)
- I love myself (8)
- in front of ... (9)
- in front of mao (15)
- india (16)
- japan (18)
- jb art (6)
- keeping fit (28)
- language (27)
- lions (18)
- macau (9)
- media (3)
- migrants and workers (14)
- not what it seems (11)
- number plates (7)
- olympic beijing (18)
- people (73)
- philosophy (4)
- politics (63)
- restaurants (7)
- save the world (12)
- shanghai expo 2010 (43)
- shopping (11)
- sleeping beauties (53)
- slogans and signs (84)
- symbols (69)
- taiwan (49)
- ten thousand gods (57)
- transport (37)
- traveling (5)
- uniforms (70)
- vendors (21)
- video (6)