A Language 101- How to say “Happy New Year” in Chinese

Kung Hei Fat Choi or KiongHeeHuatSai…

The phrase in Chinese which is said to be the appropriate translation of the “Happy New Year” from their language.

Compared among the two, Kung Hei Fat Choi is widely used said and printed on banners, advertisements and different forms of media. But this greeting is Cantonese.

Though not commonly used phrase in saying “Happy New Year”, KiongHeeHuatSai is more appropriate because majority of the Chinese residing in the Philippines are Hokkien.

Both greetings refer to the same set of 4 Chinese characters that literally means “Congratulations and wishing you prosperity!”.This is the common mistakes of Filipinos.

Dragon Dance celebrates every Chinese New Year

As the most used language in the world, Chinese is distinguished by its high level of internal diversity, although all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese (depending on classification scheme), of which the most spoken, by far, is Mandarin (about 850 million), followed by Wu (90 million), Cantonese (Yue) (70 million) and Min (50 million). Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and the Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms and some degree of intelligibility.

Tsinoys will appreciate to hear the greeting in the dialect they understand.

Cantonese is one of the 9 other groups of dialects in China and is most commonly spoken in Hong Kong, Guangdong, and Macau.

Hokkien is the dialect spoken in Fujian province where most of the Chinese-Filipinos come from.

It is suspected that a Hong Kong or Cantonese restaurant started to popularize the Cantonese greeting here, which is weird because there is a very scant population of Tsinoys from Guangdong or Hong Kong.

So, let's start expelling "Kung Hei Fat Choi" from our vocabulary and start to pratice saying the greeting in Hokkien, "KiongHeeHuat Tsai," which is widely understood by Tsinoys here.

Spread the word, “KiongHeeHuat Tsai!”          

If you want to greet your friend “Happy New Year” in Mandarin, say it as “XinNienKwai Le” (formally written as “XinNianKuai Le”). In Hokkien, say it as “Sin Ni khòailok.”

Those are just some cultural nuances to take note for Filipinos and Filipino-Chinese alike, "KiongHeeHuat Tsai!"

It should be pronounced this way.

Let’s celebrate this year’s Chinese New year with the new lesson that can be shared to all.