Ten thousand years

This article is about the East Asian expressions. For other uses, see Ten thousand years (disambiguation).
Ten thousand years
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese萬歲
Simplified Chinese万岁
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyinwànsuì
Bopomofoㄨㄢˋ ㄙㄨㄟˋ
Gwoyeu Romatzyhwannsuey
Wade–Gileswan4-sui4
Wu
Romanizationvae去 soe去
Hakka
Romanizationvan4 soi4
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanizationmaahn seui
Jyutpingmaan6 seoi3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJbān soè
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabetvạn tuế
muôn tuổi
muôn năm
Chữ Hán萬歲[1]
Chữ Nôm𨷈𣦮[1]
𨷈𢆥[1]
Korean name
Hangul만세
Hanja萬歲
Transcriptions
Revised Romanizationmanse
Japanese name
Hiraganaばんざい
Kyūjitai萬歲
Shinjitai万歳
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburnbanzai

In various East Asian languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, the phrase "Wànsuì", "Banzai", "Manse", and "Vạn tuế", respectively, meaning "myriad years" is used to wish long life, and is typically translated as "Long live" in English. The phrase originated in ancient China as an expression used to wish long life to the emperor. Due to the historical political and cultural influence of Chinese culture on the East Asian cultural sphere, in the area, and in particular of the Classical Chinese language, cognates with similar meanings and usage patterns have appeared in many East Asian languages and Vietnamese. In some countries, this phrase is mundanely used when expressing feeling of triumph, typically shouted by crowds.

  1. ^ a b c Viện Ngôn ngữ học (2003). Từ điển tiếng Việt. Nhà xuất bản Đà Nẵng, Trung tâm Từ điển học. p. 1097.