The Chinese name for rooster or chicken is ji 鸡, which is a pun on ji 吉 ‘good fortune’. ‘Da’ is the Chinese adjective for ‘big’ and ‘da ji’ literally means ‘large rooster’ but puns on ‘great luck’. Thus, these paintings …
A large Longquan pottery rooster sculpted on a rock sends good fortune to the receiver’s or owner’s family because da ji 大 鸡 for ‘large rooster’ sounds the same as da ji 大 吉 for ‘great good fortune’ and shi …
Continue reading “May everything fare fabulously in your family”
The accumulation of family wealth in traditional China was lauded as jin yu man tang 金玉满堂 – a household is piled high with gold and jade. This saying was visually expressed with a design of goldfish in a pond; jin …
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‘Ji 鸡’ is a generic name for cockerel, hen, and chick, and sounds the same as ‘ji 吉’ for ‘good fortune’. Thus, a picture of many chickens is used to represent ‘abundant good fortune’. Related Pun Pictures: May you …
Continue reading “May you be blessed by good luck in all you do”
The saying ‘jia guan 加官’ is an abbreviated form of the saying ‘guan shang jia guan 官上加官’: ‘Guan 冠’ in the Chinese name ‘ji guan hua 鸡冠花’ for ‘cockscomb’ is a pun on ‘guan 官’, which means ‘high-ranking official’. The …
The character ‘yu 玉’ in ‘yulan hua 玉兰花’ for ‘magnolia’ is the same ‘yu 玉’ for ‘jade’. The word ‘tang 棠’ from ‘haitang hua 海棠花’ for ‘crabapple’ is homophonic with the word ‘tang 堂’ for ‘house’. The combination of the …
Continue reading “May your jade palatial home be honoured and full of riches”
The phrase ‘gua die mian mian 瓜瓞绵绵’ is a variation of a line from a poem in the Classic of Poetry, Shijing 诗经, compiled in China during the period between the 11th to 7th centuries BCE, used as a metaphor …
Continue reading “May the male line in your family clan continue and flourish (pun picture)”
Pun Design: Carrying on the Back + Monkey Punning Details: – ‘bei 背’ for ‘carrying on the back’ makes a pun on ‘bei 辈’ for ‘generation’ – ‘hou 猴’ from ‘hou zi 猴子’ for ‘monkey’ puns on ‘hou 侯’ for …
Continue reading “May each generation of your family be made life peers”
Pun Design ： Pomegranate Punning Details： – Artist may repeat one particular visual element many times for conveying the numeral ‘bai 百 hundred’. – A cracked pomegranate showing numerous seeds (bai zi 百籽), in which ‘zi 籽 seed’ is a …
Continue reading “May you have as many male offspring as a pomegranate has seeds”