羊入虎口 (Animal)

One of my friends is getting married. And we can’t help kidding about her “falling a victim to a tiger” because she was born in the year of the goat, and her husband, a tiger, which makes it a so-called羊入虎口(yang2 ru4 hu3 kao3), a little goat/lamb is sent to feed the tiger.

As I told you, every Chinese has a 生肖(sheng xiao4), one of the twelve animals chosen to represent a year. Somehow each Chinese is an animal. Among the twelve, 龍(long2), the dragon, is no doubt the favorite one, since it’s a symbol for the emperor. People loved to have 龍子(long2 zi3) a dragon son, or 龍女(long2 nu3), a dragon daughter. And for those “tiger moms” or dads, the reason for them to be so strict is that they want their children to be superior to others when they grow up. We call this 望子成龍 (wang4 zi3 cheng2 long2), literally meaning expecting your son to be a “dragon.”

But in traditional Taiwanese customs, tiger 虎(hu3) was considered an inauspicious animal for celebrations such as a wedding. Those who were born in the year of the tiger would avoid such occasions. And we use the term 母老虎(mu3 lao3 hu3) or 雌老虎(ci2 lao3 hu3)to call those tough, hot-tempered women.

My second son was born in the year of dog, which makes him even more of a 犬子(qian3 zi3) , a dog son, for 犬(qian) is a classical name for a dog. And in the past when people mentioned their son to others, they would show their humbleness by calling him犬子.

Besides 羊入虎口, when there are a chicken and a dog in a family, we’ll jokingly call it 雞犬不寧(ji qian3 bu4 ning2), an idiom to describe a turbulent and messy situation, where even the household chicken and the dog is in a turmoil. A chicken and a rabbit would make it 雞兔同籠(ji tu4 tong2 long2), a math question of algebra we learned a lot in elementary school.

What about a dragon and a snake? It’s a 龍蛇雜處(long2 she2 za2 chu3), meaning all kinds of people, very often referring to those 不三不四* (bu4 cao bu2 ci4) people, getting together. A tiger’s head plus a snake’s tail would be 虎頭蛇尾(hu3 tou2 she2 wei3), to start off with a bang but end up with a whimper. And a dragon with a tiger would be 龍爭虎鬥(long2 zheng hu3 dou4), describing the harsh competition between two strong opponents; and an active person with a vivid and high spirit would be 生龍活虎(sheng long2 huo3 hu4), a combination of the dragon and the tiger.

Last November, before the night of the voting for the Five-City election, a shooting case shocked Taiwan, where Sean Lien 連勝文(lian2 sheng4 wen2)was shot in public by a man nicknamed 馬面(ma3 mian4), meaning a long-faced like a horse. For those people with vicious looking and mean manners, we’ll use the phrase 牛頭馬面(niu2 tou2 ma3 mian4), a bull’s head and a horse’s face to describe them.

I certainly will go back and talk about more animal phrases because I really don’t like to act虎頭蛇尾!

* Please read my previous writing “Stop talking the five four three” for the meaning of the term不三不四

龍=龙

雞犬不寧=鸡犬不宁

雞兔同籠=鸡兔同笼

龍蛇雜處=龙蛇杂处

虎頭蛇尾=虎头蛇尾

龍爭虎鬥=龙争虎斗

爭, 鬥: fight

連勝文=连胜文

牛頭馬面=牛头马面