Chinese New Year Greetings 2020

你好！

So Chinese New Year is just a few days away. If you have Chinese friends and family or if you live in a Chinese neighborhood, you will be able to get a feel of the Chinese New Year festive mood.

Although the HSK syllabus doesn’t have any Chinese New Year greetings, it is still fun to learn a greeting or two, just to show off to, and surprise your friends, family or even passerby.

Below are some of the common Chinese New Year greetings:

CNY Greetings	Pinyin	English	Audio
新年快乐	Xīnnián kuàilè	Happy New Year	Link
恭喜发财	Gōngxǐ fācái	May prosperity be with you	Link
步步高升	Bùbùgāo shēng	Get promoted to a higher position.	Link
生意兴隆	Shēngyì xīnglóng	Prosperous and thriving business	Link
大吉大利	Dàjí dàlì	Great fortune and good luck	Link
龙马精神	Lóngmǎ jīngshén	Full of vigour and vitality	Link
年年有余	Nián nián yǒuyú	Surplus year after year	Link
万事如意	Wànshì rúyì	May everything go as you hope!	Link
财源广进	Cáiyuán guǎng jìn	May wealth come generously to you!	Link
心想事成	Xīn xiǎng shì chéng	May all your wishes come true!	Link

Chinese people are pretty sensitive, so be sure to use the appropriate greeting as every person has a different circumstance.

Just to share with you my personal experience. Gongxi facai is considered to be a universal Chinese New Year greeting in Malaysia. When I was very young,I used to go around wishing everyone Gongxi facai.

On the first day of Chinese New Year, my parents brought me to a temple for some prayers. The young me, thinking I was being polite, wished the monk 恭喜发财 (Gongxi facai). My mum was horrified and apologized to the monk profusely. I didn’t think I had done anything
wrong until my mum explained to me that it is rude to wish a monk 恭喜发财 (Gongxi facai) because a monk doesn’t possess material things and therefore cannot prosper.

新年快乐 (Xīnnián kuàilè) is perhaps a more neutral greeting.

Last but not least, the All Musing team wish everyone a very Happy New Year. Watch out for our next Newsletter for new publications soon.