Happy New… uhh… Year?

A reader shared this image with me:

Happy New Year

Can you read the Chinese? It’s supposed to say 新年快乐.

I can get the 新年 easily, and then I can make out the , but the … the top sort of works, but the bottom just… huh??

It’s fun to see stylizations that don’t work sometimes, too.

P.S. The “translation” I used for the title of this post is sort of a translation of the hard-to-read Chinese. It doesn’t totally work, though, because the “year” part of the Chinese is easy to read; it’s the “happy” part that isn’t. But I didn’t like the sound of “Something New Year,” so here we are! Anyone got a better idea for a translation?

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John Pasden

John is a Shanghai-based linguist and entrepreneur, founder of AllSet Learning.

Comments

  1. is that mickey mouse i see in the corner ?
    maybe the bottom bit is just an ‘8 ‘ but half of it ?

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