Christmas Classics in Cantonese
About a year ago I presented a Hakka version of Jingle Bells and a lot of people enjoyed it. I thought this year I’d share another Chinese take on the Christmas classics. This time it’s a band called Cookies (曲奇) singing in Cantonese (so to me it sounds almost as bizarre as the Hakka song). You have to listen to a bit of Canto-pop before they get into it, but at the 1:26 mark they start singing to the tune of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” followed immediately by “Jingle Bells,” then “Joy to the World,” “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing,” “Deck the Halls,” “Come All Ye Faithful,” “Silent Night,” and finally “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” (don’t be alarmed when they only slip into English briefly during those last two). It all has a very bizarre Canto-pop hyperactive feel to it.
You can find and download the song easily through Baidu; just follow this 曲奇圣诞歌 search link, then either click on one of the 试听 (“listen first”) links, or click on one of the song titles and then download the song from the MP3 link on the new page.
While I’m at it, I thought I’d throw in some Chinese Christmas flash fun as well. Check out these links (also found through Baidu):
– What do Santa Claus and a skiing alien accompanied by snow pigs have in common? Watch this “origin of Santa Claus” cartoon to find out.
– Chinese Jingle Bells Rap. Nuff said.
– 圣诞结 (that’s someone else’s pun, not my 错别字), the most depressing Christmas song ever. It has lyrics like, “of all the people I’ve loved / not a single one is left by my side / only loneliness keeps me company throughout the night / Merry, Merry Christmas / Lonely, Lonely Christmas.” On this joyous holiday, this is a great song to remind you how miserable it makes some people. (Note that for many modern Chinese, Christmas is seen as a day to be with a boyfriend/girlfriend).
– Hit Santa with a Snowball. This game is not fun, it’s just hilarious to me because the animation is so awful and the “music” has about a 3 second loop. Well, that and the fact that you get presents out of Santa by knocking him silly with snowballs.
– Santa does Mission Impossible. And also some Chinese song covers.
Merry Christmas!
I can imagine a Christmas song in Cantonese:
Jingle Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeou
Jingle Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeou
Jingle all the Wayooooouuuuuuaaaaaaaaaa
Merry Christmas! Shengdanjie Kuaile! ¡Feliz Navidad!
I’ll be giving those “jingles” a listen. Did you know that orginally the song was to be “Tinkle Bells”? it was pointed out that “tinkle” had multiple meanings; it was changed to “Silver Bells”.
Hey that “Lonely Lonely Christmas” song jingles a bell. I think Joan’s sister bought me that album. I guess the song is depressing but I sorta like it. The albums’s good too, though of course pretty sappy! It’s called 7 and it’s by 陈奕迅.
Tim P,
You mean “Silver Bells” or “Jingle Bells”?
I hate “Silver Bells.” Too slow.
with it’s exquisite tableu of alien, pigs and toilet humor, that “origin of santa” thing gave me the heeblie jeeblies. by simply watching it, I lost the remainder of my christmance cheer not already used up in horrified contemplation of the male trainers at the gym wearing red-velvet santa skirt outfits (this is in tokyo, btw).
Hey John! Merry Christmas to you! Can I get your mailing address to send you an Xmas card? I’m not sure if the one we’ve got is current. Maybe easiest to send it to Paco, his e-mail is the same… hope you’re doing well!
Hi,John, Merry Christmas!
the song of “Jingle bells” is my first knew about the Christmas song.
It was teached by my first foreign teacher who from New zealand.
where can u find the lyrics in chinese??? pls need help cos of my homework… tnx!
This language is Hakka
hi,
where can i find the cantonese lyrics of JINGLE BELLS? thanks! 🙂
hey, trying to find christmas songs in chinese that i can legally use for a stopmotion video im making…cant find any…help? 🙂