Mandarin Monday: The Sun, the Moon & Covid Tests

Original Vincent R. Vinci theBeijinger 2023-01-28

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Confused when trying to understand the difference between a positive and negative Covid test result in Chinese? The answer may be as easy as understanding a few celestial bodies.

While it’s pretty easy to just log into your Beijing Health Kit (健康宝 jiànkāng bǎo), tap on the section at the very bottom labeled “Query on Vaccination Services” (核酸疫苗服务查询 hésuān yìmiáo fúwù cháxún), and show the result, what if your phone's not on hand?

We hope this is the only test result you ever see!

This could lead to a prickly situation should you mix the two Chinese terms for "positive" and "negative" – which rely on similar-looking characters – while telling the 大白 dàbái (the name for the robot in Big Hero 6 repurposed for frontline medical workers) your result. Accidentally say it's positive when it's negative, and you might just find yourself on the next bus to the central quarantine facility!

Thankfully, it's pretty easy to tell the two apart in Chinese, even if you don't have your health kit on hand, as long as you remember the sun and the moon.

When your result is negative – we hope it always is – it'll read 阴性 yīnxìng. If, God forbid, you get a positive test result, it'll read 阳性 yángxìng.

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Take a closer look at the first characters of 阳 yáng, positive, and 阴 yīn, negative. 阳 yang has 日 rì, derived from the character for "sun," whereas 阴 yin has 月 yuè, a radical derived from the character for "moon."

The concept of positive and negative energy is deeply rooted in Chinese culture

Plus, put the two together and what do you get? 阴阳 yīnyáng, aka the philosophical concept typically associated with Daoism that posits opposite forces – or yin energy and yang energy – actually complement one another.

The characters for yin and yang contain the moon and sun, respectively, as a way to represent this complementary relationship of opposing forces. The moon is typically associated with yin energy, while the sun is associated with yang energy. This complimentary relationship goes further, to include negative and positive, dark and light, internal and external, female and male, cold and warm, and so on and so forth.

So, the next time you take a look at those Covid test results, think about yin and yang. This way, you won't confuse the two and slip up if a dabai asks and you've managed to forget your phone.