Talk:Ten thousand years
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Could you be more specific? Mao is the only person that could have used this, and even then I'm not sure it was used.
- Some modern Paramount Leaders, pseudo-emperors, are extensively saluted to with this phrase.
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[edit] Quotation
"To chant "Long live!" is to contradict natural laws. Everyone has to die sooner or later, whether they be killed by germs, crushed by a collapsing house, or blown to smithereens by an atom bomb. Anyway, one way or another everyone ends up dead. After people die they shouldn't be allowed to occupy any more space. They should be cremated. I'll take the lead. We should all be burnt after we die, turned into ashes and used for fertilizer."
--Mao Zedong, in comments made when signing "A Proposal that all Central Leaders be Cremated after Death" in November 1956
- At least according to zhongwen.com, it seems like people praised him shouting wansui, so Mao may not have been against this form of praise. More quotes, anyone? --Tongpoo 19:08, 2004 Oct 21 (UTC)
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- He wasn't exactly against it. And anyway that was in 1956 when he was still clear-headed. He could be said to be rather senile already during the Cultural Revolution. On the other hand, wansui does not really have to mean "long live" in the modern context. It could just be a cheer or toast to somebody. Saying "Hu Jintao wansui!", for example, is as good as saying "bravo Hu Jintao!". --Plastictv 18:00, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Japan
In Japan the term "Banzai" became extremely common as a war cry during the early Showa era, especially the Sino-Japanese and Greater East Asian Wars.
- While I indeed heard of such happening, can osmebody explain to me why did they shout 'ten thousand years'? A brainstorm gave us the idea of 'ten thousand years[ will my glory last]' and 'ten thousand years[ will I fight you if I have to]', but no ide a what's the correct version.
- No, no, no. Not "I". What about: "May the emperor live 10,000 years (and I not)!"
- David Marjanović | david.marjanovic_at_gmx.at | 18:11 CET | 2006/11/9
[edit] Vietnam
In Vietnamese, "vạn tuế" is the proper reading of the Chinese characters. However, this word is rarely used in modern context, only in China-related situations (such as in "vạn tuế, vạn tuế, vạn vạn tuế"). In normal usage, "muôn năm" is used instead. Because this term is native Vietnamese and not Chinese, the chữ Nôm character for "muôn" consists of a gate for the sound part (pronounced "môn") and the character for "ten thousand" (vạn) for the meaning part. The character for "năm" consists of the element for "south" (pronounced "nam") and an element for "year" (niên). "Muôn năm" is frequenly heard in communist slogans: "Hồ Chí Minh muôn năm!", "Đảng cộng sản muôn năm!" (for the Communist party), etc. I think it's better to leave both references in instead of just "muôn năm" because it might mislead the reader into thinking that this word is related to the word in the other three languages. DHN 19:34, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Reversion of Mandarin pinyin description
One of my changes recently got reverted. Equating Mandarin with Chinese is discouraged according to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Chinese) and we should be as specific as possible when we indicate romanizations in order to avoid ambiguity. Please provide some reasoning for why the reversion is justified. —Umofomia 06:57, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
- That is true, and appropriate in the context of discussing a Chinese subject where there may be various common ways of romanising the subject, e.g. Jiang Jieshi vs Chiang Kai-shek, since the indication of romanisation serves to avoid confusion in a reader unfamiliar with systems of Chinese romanisation.
- However, this does not apply to this situation because this phrase is unlikely to be encountered very commonly in the Anglophone world, and even then unlikely to be encountered via a minor dialect.
- Secondly, "Standard Mandarin" or "Mandarin pinyin" is not a method of romanisation. It is a dialect. The method of romanisation is called Hanyu Pinyin (or, less likely here,Tongyong pinyin). Furthermore, any reader seeking information on the method of romanisation can simply click (or hover over) the link "Romanization", which points to Pinyin.
- Finally, in this context, to label it as "Standard Mandarin" would be inconsistent with how the other languages are labelled. The Korean information box is not labelled "Standard Seoul Korean", nor is it labelled McCune-Reischauer (or whatever is the method of romanisation here).
- So basically, for the sake of consistency, and because Pinyin is already pointed to in the link, I think the status quo is good enough. --Cheers Sumple (Talk) 09:01, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
