Year of the Horse homophones and puns are hot this year...

Here are 5 you probably don't know, which will definitely impress!

1/ Chinese celebrities with "horse" (Ma 马) as a surname.

If your family name is Ma (马), you're fully booked this year for brand deals and endorsements.

Like actors Ma Sichun (马思纯), Ma Yili (马伊琍), and Ma Dong (马东) who were all hired by dairy giant, Yili Group (伊利集团).

2/ International celebs, whose Chinese names also have "horse" (马) in.

Unexpected viral memes this year are of international celebs whose Chinese transliterated names have "horse" (马) in. Like:

• Draco Malfoy of Harry Potter (马尔福)

• Maye Musk, Elon's mum (梅耶·马斯克)

• Lamine Yamal, Spanish footballer (亚马尔)

3/ English words mixed with Chinese.

HORSE sounds a lot like the Chinese "好事" (hǎo shì) which means "good things".

So the English word has now been added into four-character phrases like:

• HORSE连连 = "lots of good things happening in the Year of the Horse"

• HORSE来敲门 = "good things come knocking on your door in the Year of the Horse"

• 天大的HORSE = “Amazing in the Year of the Horse!"

4/ Cynical phrases with "horse" in.

It's not all celebrations this year. Some netizens have leant into less festive horse phrases, like:

• 放我一马 - "Give me a horse" = "give me a break"

• 拒绝牛马精神 - "No workhorse spirit" = "don't work too hard"

5/ Horse wordplay gone wrong.

An official song, “Tama Welcomes Spring” (踏马迎春) unexpectedly became the centre of attention this week.

It's supposed to mean: "the galloping horse welcomes spring"

Problem is, "galloping" (踏马 tà mǎ) sounds exactly the same as a common swear word in Chinese. Which didn't go unnoticed!

So instead of the festive line, it became: "F**k the Year of the Horse"!

Classic.... 🤣

+++

Want more horse Year language insights like this?

I'll be discussing more in my free newsletter tomorrow (Saturday).

It's call RealTime Mandarin, and its read by 12,534 China nerds like you every week.

Want in?