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Chinese buildings, windows, bowls and dishes often bear a motif
that might seem strange to the Western eye – that of the
bat. The Chinese perception of this flying rodent contrasts sharply
with its sinister Western associations of darkness and vampires.
The number and position of bats appearing in a picture have various
meanings, all of them auspicious. Five bats around shou,
the character for longevity betokens a long life, bats and peaches
a happy life, and a bat and a round coin with a hole at its center
that happiness is in sight. Bats are one of the many Chinese symbols
of happiness and good fortune simply because bat in Chinese is
bianfu, and fu means luck.
The same linguistic idiosyncrasy applies to other symbolic animals.
While fu is the umbrella term for luck in China, there are in
fact five “lucks” -- fu, lu, shou, xi and
cai -- four of which refer to more specific types of good
fortune.
Lu is the pursuit of fame and high social status gained
by virtue of one’s profession. In ancient times, the more
prestigious the title conferred on a court official, the higher
the social status and remuneration it brought him. Lu,
therefore, was the blessing conveyed on a person taking the imperial
civil service examination or hoping to be promoted to a higher
position in the imperial court. It was represented by the deer,
which in Chinese has a similar pronunciation.
Another fu connection is the character shou, meaning
longevity. Its significance originates in the Taoist belief that
human beings have just one life, as compared to the Christian
doctrine of the resurrection of the soul, or Buddhist reincarnation.
Longevity was, therefore, aspired to by all who wished to make
the most of the one life one would ever have. As Chinese ancients
believed in fairy immortals, their images were representative
of the concept of shou. Peaches are also synonymous with
long life, as the god of longevity is always portrayed holding
peaches of immortality.
Xi signifies joy, happiness and celebration, and is commonly
used in everyday life in reference to happy, memorable events.
An old poem lists the most important xi events in a man’s
life: rainfall after a long drought, bumping into old friends
unexpectedly, candle-lit wedding nights and passing the imperial
civil service examination. There are of course plenty of other
events that are associated with the concept of xi –
the birth of a newborn child, family reunions, happy marriages,
good harvests, and ample wealth and leisure time. All weddings
in China feature the character meaning double happiness, which
comprises two conjoined xi characters. Images of magpies, peonies
and lilies are used to wish xi on a person or happy couple.
Cai is luck of a financial kind that brings windfalls,
profit and abundant material benefits. It is associated with a
thriving business, successful career or bumper harvest. Cai
is represented by the shaking money tree, (yaoqianshu),
the gathering-wealth-pot (jubaopen), Fairy Liu Hai, a golden
frog, a carp, and a peony.
There are more than a hundred auspicious Chinese images that
are so integral to Chinese culture that they are as commonly seen
now as centuries ago. The most recent, and perhaps the best known
to Western eyes, are the Olympic mascots – the “Five
Friendlies.” The 2008 Olympiad will be the first in Olympic
to be represented by so many mascots, but given the fact that
China is the world’s most populous country, it seems appropriate
enough. After a tortuous selection process, the mascots chosen
for the Beijing Olympics 2008 are: Beibei the Fish, Jingjing the
Panda, Huanhuan the Olympic Flame, Yingying the Tibetan Antelope,
and Nini the Swallow. As may be expected, there is symbolism in
the naming of these mascots, as the first characters of each two-syllable
names put together form the sentence: “Beijing huanying
ni” which translates into English as “Welcome to
Beijing!”
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