‘COVID free and feeling fantastic in the Year of the Rabbit’ — Phrase of the Week
A newly coined idiomatic pun captures the mood as China enters its New Year holidays, with many people recovered from COVID feeling good about the year ahead.
Our phrase of the week is: COVID free and feeling fantastic in the Year of the Rabbit (阳没兔气 yáng méi tù qì).
Context
China’s weeklong holiday marking the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit starts this weekend.
It’s the first time in three years that people have been able to move freely around the country since the COVID pandemic began. Hundreds of millions of people have recovered from COVID just in time to celebrate the New Year with their families.
At this time of year, Chinese idioms and phrases are adapted and new ones are created to include the zodiac animal of that year. Many are homonyms, or 谐音梗 xiéyīn gěng, which are based on characters, words, or phrases that sound the same or similar, a bit like puns in English.
Rabbit homonyms (rabbit in Chinese is 兔 tù) are especially hot this year with lots of variations of idioms and phrases circulating online.
A People’s Daily post on Weibo shares its top nine Rabbit Year puns.
The Spring Festival is just around the corner. In the New Year, here are some must-have lucky “rabbit year” phrases for you. Wishing you great progress, success, and being COVID free and feeling fantastic in the Year of the Rabbit.
春节的脚步越来越近了。新的一年，收藏这份#兔年吉祥话#，祝你“兔”飞猛进，大展宏“兔”，阳没“兔”气。
Chūnjié de jiǎobù yuè lái yuè jìn le. Xīn de yì nián, shōucáng zhè fèn tùnián jíxiáng huà, zhù nǐ “tù” fēi měngjìn, dàzhǎnhóng “tù”, yáng méi tù qì.
Translation
Our favorite Rabbit Year pun is the last one, which literally translates as “no COVID-positive rabbit air.”
It’s adapted from the original idiom: 扬眉吐气 yáng méi tǔ qì, raising eyebrows, spitting air, which translates as “elated” or “feeling great.”
The original idiom first appeared in the essay A Letter to Han Jingzhou (与韩荆州书 yǔ hán jīngzhōu shū), by Tang-dynasty poet Lǐ Bái 李白.
The feeling of elation conveyed by the idiom is the kind of emotional high experienced after a long period of suffering or oppression — like being under strict COVID-zero lockdown rules for three years — has come to an end.
The new pun to bring in the Year of the Rabbit replaces three of the four characters in the original.
“Raising eyebrows” (扬眉 yáng méi) is replaced by “COVID free” (阳没 yáng méi). And rather than “spitting air” (吐气 tǔ qì) in relief, having had COVID, instead, we are “feeling the positive energy of the Rabbit” (兔气 tù qì).
So this newly coined pun really does capture the mood in China right now: The first wave of COVID has peaked, and people are feeling positive about the year ahead.
