Do you have a way with words when it comes to worldly wisdom? Write a Chinese couplet as part of the Spring Festival celebration.
A couplet refers to two complementary poetic lines adhering to certain rules. They are often used to decorate doors and walls during Spring Festival to help express hope and happiness for the coming year.
We will select 5 winners and the we will turn the winners into a stylish graphic. We’ll post it online during Spring Festival. They will have the English and Chinese versions. Winners will even get a CCTV America mug out of the deal!
DEADLINE: January 25. Email to digital.media@cgtnamerica.com
Your couplet should follow at least two of these rules. We know it will be hard to have the English version work in Chinese, but that’s ok.
- Length: The couplet has two equal-length lines. The number of characters/words in each line can be from four to seven or more.
- Rhyme: Last word of each line is a repetition of similar sounds (or the same sound)
- Corresponding characters/words have the same lexical category (noun-noun, verb-verb, etc.).Many don’t follow this very closely, but It will be a plus if you can do that.
Here is an example from China’s social media last year.
First line: Eat Well Sleep Well Have Fun Day by Day.
上联：吃得不错，睡得不错，天天都开心
Second line: Study Hard Work Hard Make Money More and More.
下联：努力学习，努力工作，钱越挣越多