The first Mandarin character we are going to learn today is 鱼, yú meaning fish.
The second character is 生, shēng is one of those words that has many different meanings, but in this case it means raw.
Fish is usually eaten on the eve of Chinese New Year and it is considered appropriate at this time of year because the sound of the word fish, yú is also the sound of the word 餘, meaning surpluses. In eating fish at New Year people are wishing there will be surpluses all year.
yú is pronounced like the english word “you”, with a 2nd or rising tone.
shēng is pronounced shung, with a 1st or high, level tone.
The second character is 生, shēng is one of those words that has many different meanings, but in this case it means raw.
Fish is usually eaten on the eve of Chinese New Year and it is considered appropriate at this time of year because the sound of the word fish, yú is also the sound of the word 餘, meaning surpluses. In eating fish at New Year people are wishing there will be surpluses all year.
yú is pronounced like the english word “you”, with a 2nd or rising tone.
shēng is pronounced shung, with a 1st or high, level tone.
