Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Stars might be one of the most famous songs in the world, no wonder, there was a Chinese version many years ago.
The Chinese title of this song is 小星星 (xiao3 xing1 xing1) (little stars).
However, this song of Chinese version doesn’t match English lyric exactly, if you don’t believe me, check out the lyric below.
yi4 shan3 yi4 shan3 liang4 jing1 jing1
一闪一闪亮晶晶
twinkle, twinkle, sparkling
man3 tian1 dou1 shi4 xiao3 xing1 xing1
满天都是小星星
little stars are everywhere in the sky
guan4 zai4 tian1 shang4 fang4 guang1 ming2
挂在天上放光明
hanging on the sky and glowing
hao3 xiang4 xu3 duo1 xiao3 yan3 jing1
好像许多小眼睛
hao3 xiang4 xu3 duo1 xiao3 yan3 jing
look like many little eyes
yi4 shan3 yi4 shan3 liang4 jing1 jing1
一闪一闪亮晶晶
twinkle, twinkle, sparkling
man3 tian1 dou1 shi4 xiao3 xing1 xing1
满天都是小星星
little stars are everywhere in the sky
Chinese kids love this song. When I was a preschool teacher, my American young students loved this song too.
We opened and closed our fingers to pretend to be stars and we walked around the classroom to search for stars.
I missed the fun time with my little Mandarin-Chinese learners.
I am sure we all love stars, Chinese people are not exceptional.
Actually, we have many words related to stars. If you are famous for what you are doing, you will gain an honorable title with the word “星” (xing1) (star).
For example, if you are famous for singing, you are a 歌星 (ge1 xing1) (singing star).
If you are famous for dancing, 舞星 (wu3 xing1) (dancing star).
If you are famous for telling jokes, 笑星 (xiao4 xing1) (comedian star).
If you famous for acting, 影星 (ying3 xing1) (movie star).
If you are famous for playing soccer, tennis ball, basketball or whatever ball, 球星 (qiu2 xing1) (ball star).
If you are famous in your industry, you are a 明星 (ming2 xing1) (bright star).
If you start to become famous in your field, you are a 新星 (xin1 xing1) (new star).
If you are very very famous, you are a 巨星 (ju4 xing1) (giant star).
How about you are famous for cooking? Sorry, you are not a star.
Guess what, there is a better title for this: 厨神 (chu2 shen2) (kitchen god).
From this title, you might get a sense of why Chinese cooking is very important in Chinese culture. I will talk about this topic more in my future blog.
Let’s learn more words related to stars.
If you find some stars at dawn, they are 晨星 (chen2 xing1). There is a word: 寥若晨星 (liao2 ruo4 chen2 xing1), it means there are few things or people just like there are few stars at dawn.
For example, there are many blogs about Chinese learning but there are few fun Chinese learning blogs, then we can use this word 寥若晨星 to describe this situation.
How about north star? 北极星 (bei3 ji2 xing1). Meteor? 流星(liu2 xing1).
Mercury? 水星 (shui3 xing1). Venus? 金星 (jin1 xing1) Mars? 火星 (huo3 xing1).
Saturn? 土星 (tu3 xing1). Jupiter? 木星 (mu4 xing1). Uranus? 天王星 (tian1 wang2 xing1) .
Neptune? 海王星(hai3 wang2 xing1). Pluto? 冥王星 (ming2 wang2 xing1).
Earth? It is strange, we don’t use the word “星” for the earth, we use this word for the earth: 地球 (di4 qiu2) (host ball).
I have to say, this word “地球” is more precise and interesting. Now let’s sing the song.