Different countries people express love in a different way and In China 爱 （Ài) is the character for love in Chinese .love holds a great importance no matter which period of time or which country you live in .Love consumes a great importance in every culture as well.
What is Love in Chinese?
Love is a higher priority than cash I envision that if you wish to continue with a really sprightly life, it is more basic to have love than a lot of money. Having friendship for some one is huge because individuals are totally agreeable, and it is basic to have comfortable relationship with people you can for the most part go to.
Expressions of love might be different in different languages. Expressing love in other languages might be quiet difficult and change. It needs a good recognition of languages like in Chinese, the expression of love in Chinese are quiet change in both culture and literature as compared to the common English language.
Different ways to express love in Chinese
In this video you will learn in Chinese how do you express your love.
In this article we are going to discuss about love in Chinese in detail.
Love in Chinese writings
Love in Chinese is not just a symbol but how to pronounce that let’s discuss below
Symbol of love in Chinese writings
The official language of China is Mandarin. Which is more commonly spoken China, Japan, Hong Kong and Korea. The traditional Chinese character for love is ăi.
So in Chinese the English phrase I love you is translated as
wô ài nî
Pronunciation/accent
The meaning of ài is love and it is pronounced as:
Wô ài nî
Liàn ài
Fall in love
Fù ài
Paternal love.
In the above mentioned sentences you can see that ài is used instead of love.
I Love You in Chinese
Communicating love is a significant motion in any relationship. This is on the grounds that adoration helps nurture grow and strengthens personal human holding. Everybody shows love and their internal feelings in an unexpected way so there is no one-size-fits-all path for us to pass on this communication. Similarly in Chinese traditions and literature, the verbatim translation of English phrase I love you is change. In Mandarin Chinese the literal translation of this phrase is wô ài nî.
In Chinese this phrase is a source of expression of an extremely serious attachment for some one. This phrase is not commonly heard from the native Chinese speakers. They usually use the other related phrases to express their feelings for their loved ones without using this significant term.
In Chinese, the phrase wô ài nî is the most down-to-earth way of saying I love you. Unlike in common English language, in which the use of the phrase I love you is quiet common, in Chinese language the use of the phrase wô ài nî is not common. This phrase is not used free and easy as its is considered an utterance of exceedingly strong emotions and feelings.
They use this phrase for utterance of love for their family members but in couples or romantic partners it is not used casually like common English language. However this phrase is used on a very special moment that is ⁵bonded with very strong emotions of love like on wedding or wedding anniversaries Etc. Their ways of expressing affection for each other is quiet change as compared to the people who speaks native English language.
1.Use relative phrases
Generally Chinese uses the other related phrases for expressing their feelings for someone they love like:
Instead of saying wô ài nî the term wô xî huãn nî is used generally which means I like you. It is commonly used for saying I love you. And this phrase is comparatively more casual.
2.Use of numbers/slang words in online conversations
The other source of expressing love of Chinese people is numbers or slang words which are used mostly in online text conversations and messages in romantic couples. Some of these are:
520 is generally used for saying l love you.
880 is used for hug you.
530 stands for miss you.
770 stands for kiss you.
So these kinds of numbers are used by them for expressing their affection.
3.General English phrase “I love you"
Apart from that, they also use the general English phrase I love you instead of saying wô ài nî. Because the phrase wô ài nî is a source of declaration of deep feelings.
4.Use actions instead of words
This term became common in China in the last thirty years. Before that the Chinese people were used to show love and affection for someone by their actions.
This is the most common way of showing affection and love for someone used by Chinese people. Typically they show their affection non-verbally because many of them think that one should fall for sweet actions rather than sweet words. So generally they communicate their love by their actions because they themselves fall for actions that determine that they means to someone, instead of regularly exchange of romantic sentences like in other languages.
These actions can be doing something special for the loved ones like by using gestures and touches, doing cooking for them, making photos for them, writing songs and romantic letters for them, the love is expressed more by gifts than the words by them, celebrating all the Chinese romantic holidays and many other things.
Hence they prefer sweet actions as a source of expressing their affection rather than saying I love you or wô ài nî.
So if someone is saying I love you in Chinese literal way, he or she should be prepared for the possibility of strange looks, laughter or comments like being crazy or drunk.
Love in Chinese culture
Love is a perceptual item. It endures as long as mankind’s set of experiences and needs steady articulation.
We may think that the concept of love and dating is same in many countries and cultures, but this concept is a bit change in china as compared to other western countries. I am not saying that the basic concept is change, the basics are the same people are people everywhere but still there are some differences in cultural and social cues of many nations.
In china, as compare to love people give more importance to other things even more than their personal happiness or prosperity.
In western countries, the concept of love is that men and women can love each other and can make relationships without giving importance to the financial status and family backgrounds of their partners. They can do prefer love over money. But in China many Chinese view dating and loving someone as a practical phenomenon. Means that they usually prefer finding a perfect and well settled partner that can match to their expectations instead of finding a true love.
If we consider an example, in many countries and cultures women are comfortable in getting married to a man who is financially weak like he doesn’t have any car or a house. But Chinese women usually will be in search these things in a man because they think that such kind of man having a stable career can beneficial for them to get settled in life and a better future for their children. As one of the participants in China’s famous dating show You are the one have said that I’d rather cry in BMW than laugh on a bicycle. Hence economic considerations are taken into more confidence in Chinese people while taking the decisions of their marriage partners.
Although according to the marriage laws of China, the citizens of China are free to choose their marriage partners without the involvement of a third person, yet most of the Chinese parents continue to control their young adults by choosing the marriage partners for their youngsters. The youngsters are forced to obey these decisions of their parents as these decisions
will affect their lives as well as the wellbeing of their forefathers. Parents in China strive to find suitable matches for their children. (In history when marriages were decided by the parents and youngsters couldn’t date freely, a symbol of love which is generally called token of love was commonly used to confirm their relationship and showing their love in tradition of china. Love tokens were given very importance in the historical traditions of China. These were usually something patrimony or articles made at home. Once love tokens were exchanged, they showed their loyalty and love for each other).
It is compulsory for the Chinese young adults to get married soon. This pressure is mostly existing for women in China if they are not succeeded in finding a men by the age of 26 or 27, they are referred as “left over women". Same concept is for men as well if they wait too long for their spouses.
Summary
The concept of love and dating in both Chinese writings and Chinese culture is quiet change. But as time goes on and Chinese are getting exposed to western styles and concepts of love, the concept of dating and romance is getting common in china.
Frequently Asked Questions
1.What is Chinese symbol love?
愛 is the Chinese symbol of love. some people write this character as "愛(ài) for love in traditional Chinese
2.Why does 520 mean I love you in Chinese?
It is actually a slang word used by Chinese online as a shortcut to say I Love You.
3.What does ÀI mean?
ÀI is the Chinese character which means “to love”, “to be fond of” etc
4.Why does 143 stand for I Love You?
143 simply represents number of letters in each word of the phrase .143 is also slang word which means “I Love You”
5.What does 666 mean in Chinese?
666 is a Chinese word ,homonym for “牛牛牛”(niú niú niú) or “溜溜溜”(liù liù liù), used to describe someone which is powerful and cool or someone who is powerful and impressive.
Conclusion
In short we can say that love is the most important part of life. In every relationship
but the concept of love is quiet change by writings and by culture. As time is changing the concepts are changing too now a days Young people are dating more in public and are showing their affection for each other.