Birthday is an event which has its own significance in everyone’s life. Wishing someone or being wished by someone always seems pleasant. if we talk about the Chinese people, they have their own traditions about birthday celebrations and when an outsider wishes them in their language and by following their tradition, they feel very happy.

It is the fact that Chinese is the most spoken language of the world and no one can deny the importance of this language. However, the other fact is that most of the people outside China are not familiar with the Chinese language. The reason may be the difficulty of this language and the inclusion of completely different characters. Due to this, Chinese people start teaching their children the characteristics of their own language at a very early age.

Turning towards birthday wishes, despite the complexity of other languages, it always looks a nice gesture when you wish your friend in his language and according to his traditions. And when your friend is Chinese, you must have to wish him in Chinese to show warmth and friendliness. So, learning the birthday wishes in Chinese will be helpful for you.

Here are some ways of wishing birthday in Chinese language:

A Plain and Simple Wish

A common way of wishing birthday in Chinese is saying, 生日快乐 (shēng rì kuài lè) whose literal meaning is “Birthday happy”. It is one of the basic expressions used by someone who is a beginner in the Chinese language.

The characteristics used in the Chinese language for writing Happy Birthday are “生日快乐”, where the word 生日 [shēng rì] means “birthday” and the word 快乐 [kuài lè] means “happy”.

The Phonetic Way

You can also wish the Chinese people in a phonetic way by using the sentence: 祝你生日快樂 (Zhù nǐ shēngrì kuàilè!) meaning “Wishing you a happy birthday!”. This is another way of whishing when you have learned Chinese language to some extent. It seems nice and more friendly.

There are various other words and sentences available in the Chinese language which are being used for wishing birthday. However, if you are an outsider, Chinese people become excited and impressed by hearing only a birthday song from you in their own language. Nevertheless, if you wish them in a more traditional way, it will have an extra impression and show your affection for them.

For wishing the birthday to Chinese people, it is important to understand the key cultural differences between birthdays in China and somewhere else.

Background of Chinese Birthday celebrations

Some points to be considered while wishing and celebrating the birthday in china are as follows:

Traditional birthday party celebrations are generally reserved for children and the elderly. The aim behind the children birthdays is to celebrate the birth of successive generation and behind the elderly birthdays is showing esteem.

Moreover, according to Chinese, children are born as one-year-old and due to the lunar calendar, they also celebrate one-month birthday.

The other crucial point in their tradition is the concept of the life cycle. They celebrate sixty years as the completion of one cycle of life. And after sixty years, every 10th birthday is celebrated.

It is not compulsory that all Chinese people celebrate their birthdays by following the old tradition. Some Chinese even celebrate more birthdays than mentioned above with cake, a lot of gifts and food. However, it is nice to have information about their culture for wishing birthdays to your business colleagues and social circle in china.