Out and about in Taipei over the new year, I spotted quite a lot of Year of the Tiger couplets, some printed, some more original. Some of them even gave an insight into the political persuasion of the inhabitants.
This couplet was distributed by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), chair of the Taiwan People’s Party, and it was one of the main rivals to the one issued by President Tsai Ing-wen and Vice President Lai Ching-te. If you’re a Ko-fen (柯粉/a fan of Ko Wen-je) or just fancy a few political discussions in your lobby with neighbours of different political stripes, you can print it yourself at the Taipei City gateway here. The Chinese word for “tiger” (虎 hu3) is a near-homonym for 「褔」 (good fortune/fu2), especially in Taiwanese-accented Mandarin (台灣國語) in which the “h” sound is often pronounced as “f”. So this couplet is a play on this, with the first two characters having the dual meaning of “tiger pouncing” and “a jump in wealth.”
President Tsai volleyed with this snazzy design 「福運旺來」 (again, good fortune also hints at its near homonym in tiger):
The couplet on the right of the doorway below reads: 「事業興旺」 (asking for success in career), while on the right panel there is another tiger couplet.
On the left panel of the door there are some quite cool examples of compound characters (合體字):
The longer one at the top combines 「五路財神」–the five gods of wealth in Taiwanese folk religion, they occupy five roads, north, east, south, west and central, respectively. The god of wealth is often depicted as riding a tiger, which makes this a particularly suitable new year couplet. This is followed by 「到我家」 ( come to my house). I think the whole thing is designed to be read as a phrase, so it’s referring to the gods of wealth. Then there is 「平安富貴」 (peace and prosperity) in a shape that resembles 「寶」 (treasure). Then the final phrase in the sentence is 「福富雙全」 (both good fortune and wealth). So, the whole phrase would read, “The five gods of wealth come to my house bringing peace and prosperity, wealth and good fortune.” The separate character on the bottom combines the phrase 「萬金萬兩」 (10,000 taels of gold) into the shape of a single 「萬」。
One of the gods of wealth is depicted riding his tiger in the decoration below, alongside a cute design by (I’m assuming) a child:
I saw plenty more which you can browse below.
I do love when Christian churches get in on the new year traditions, as above.
Well, let me know if you spotted any interesting couplets or decorations this year! Happy Year of the Tiger!