What do these Chinese characters mean?
August 9, 2013 7:07 AM Subscribe
A few years ago I was given a Chinese decoration with some characters on it. I'd really like to find out what these mean, but I don't know any Chinese myself, nor anyone who speaks it.
Best answer: The first picture says 福, which means "happiness/fortune". The second side says 五福臨門 (wu fu lin men - "five blessings") (this is the correct order), which are the five blessings of longevity, wealth, health, love of virtue and a natural death. This sort of decoration invites these blessings.
臨門福 is not a word/term to my knowledge.
posted by Tanizaki at 7:43 AM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
臨門福 is not a word/term to my knowledge.
posted by Tanizaki at 7:43 AM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Jumping in kinda late here...
They're both right in that "五福" refers to the five blessings.
臨門 actually is an expression which means "comes to your door", so basically the four characters mean "blessings / luck come a-knockin' ". And this most likely is a door ornament, seeing as the character for blessing 福 is written / printed upside-down.
BTW, if you ever see a Chinese restaurant called "Fortune Restaurant" (Fortune Wok, etc etc), the original Mandarin character for "fortune" would be this: 臨門福.
Tangent: I've seen so many restaurants named 福臨門 both stateside and abroad that this must be an idiomatic or at least very popular expression.
posted by ditto75 at 1:27 PM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
They're both right in that "五福" refers to the five blessings.
臨門 actually is an expression which means "comes to your door", so basically the four characters mean "blessings / luck come a-knockin' ". And this most likely is a door ornament, seeing as the character for blessing 福 is written / printed upside-down.
BTW, if you ever see a Chinese restaurant called "Fortune Restaurant" (Fortune Wok, etc etc), the original Mandarin character for "fortune" would be this: 臨門福.
Tangent: I've seen so many restaurants named 福臨門 both stateside and abroad that this must be an idiomatic or at least very popular expression.
posted by ditto75 at 1:27 PM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
"And this most likely is a door ornament, seeing as the character for blessing 福 is written / printed upside-down."
Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place, but all the 福 I can see in either picture are printed right-side up or (as in the picture with just the 福 and not the 妮妮福娃 Nini mascot) printed without a particular orientation: you can hang the charm upside down or right-side up.
posted by jiawen at 11:45 PM on August 10, 2013
Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place, but all the 福 I can see in either picture are printed right-side up or (as in the picture with just the 福 and not the 妮妮福娃 Nini mascot) printed without a particular orientation: you can hang the charm upside down or right-side up.
posted by jiawen at 11:45 PM on August 10, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks for the further info :-)
posted by stellarbuffoon at 11:20 AM on August 12, 2013
posted by stellarbuffoon at 11:20 AM on August 12, 2013
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This means "luck": 福
BTW, if you ever see a Chinese restaurant called "Fortune Restaurant" (Fortune Wok, etc etc), the original Mandarin character for "fortune" would be this: 臨門福.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:40 AM on August 9, 2013