At the end of the food article that I posted, there was a comment posted from a Chinese citizen in 2007. It highlights some errors that may have been made throughout the article (i.e. birthdays are only celebrated every 10 years in China). I decided to look into this matter out of curiosity.
According to BirthdayCelebrations.net, birthdays in China are celebrated on New Years. An article from the website Answerbag.com, states that birthdays are insignificant until individuals reach the age of 60 years old. From that point they are celebrated yearly. I also found the following post from the website Answerbag.com:
"i'm chinese, and the way this works is that yes, you do celebrate your own birthday and you do officially turn a year older on that day. but your actual birth age is what we call, quite literally translated, "real age". the fact that another birthday is celebrated on new year's (note chinese new year not january 1st) gives every person a "fake age" or "feint age". the feint age is always one year older than the person's actual age. for example, if someone turns 14 on their actual birthday, their fake age will become 15 once the next new year's comes. legally, chinese people's ages are recorded according to "real age". socially and culturally, a person's age is their "fake age". this goes especially for younger adults and below. so if someone were to ask casually a 12-year-old what their age was, the proper reply would be 13 because it is assumed that is the "feint age"."
I also found another website that discussed birthdays: http://www.est-direct.com/china/cncaps.php?lang=en.
Chinese Caps: Chinese Age, Chinese Birthday Date, Calculation of your Chinese Age
The Chinese count the age starting from the birth, every Chinese lunar year which you will traverse count for one year more however your month of birth.
A baby born on December 24, 2010, for example, will be 2 years old on January 1, 2011, because it will have traversed 2 years 2010 and 2011, whereas its Gregorian age is one week.
In the final analysis, you will always have a year even 2 years more in Chinese age in Chinese lunar calendar than your Gregorian age in solar calendar.
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The above website seems more accurate to me. Please share your thoughts and research.
Sources: http://www.est-direct.com/china/cncaps.php?lang=en.
http://www.helium.com/items/718358-guide-to-chinese-birthday-customs
http://www.foodbycountry.com/Algeria-to-France/China.html
http://www.birthdaycelebrations.net/chinesebirthdays.htm
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/159359
Well researched and interesting choice of articles. Very helpful information. In terms of which source may be accurate, I feel that the birthday calculation is a good question for our host family while in China.
ReplyDeleteYour grade for this post 3 points.