POV: For more than 30 years I thought the CNY song lyrics said, 'Hey hey ni na bu eh'. I was wrong.

Cannot unhear.

Belmont Lay | January 26, 2023, 05:30 PM

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I have a confession to make: For more than 30 years of my life I was living a lie.

I have finally learnt, in 2023, that the Chinese New Year song lyrics do not actually say, "Hey hey ni na bu eh" -- as in the Hokkien phrase.

The amazing thing about it is that you might actually know which song I am referring to based on just this one line.

Because everyone has heard this song before at some point and everyone with functioning ears knows how it goes.

I recall hearing this song ever since I have a memory.

But if you were like me, you most likely know this earworm, but not its title.

You also most likely do not know 90 per cent of its lyrics but you can mouth a bunch of lines.

And you most likely must have been singing it wrong your whole life as well.

I have some news for you.

Here was how and what I found out.

Which is the least insufferable CNY song?

A conversation I had with a bunch of friends this CNY centred around which is the least insufferable CNY song given that we have been bombarded with them for weeks now.

The riposte from the more lucid people in the group was that all CNY songs are insufferable.

These songs get played over and over again each CNY period, and they get remixed and rerecorded so much they have melded into one extended track.

But I digress.

"Hey hey ni na bu eh"

I said I could think of one CNY song off the top of my head that qualifies as the least insufferable.

The only downside was that I never knew its real title, just that I could sing a line from it with a lot of confidence.

"Hey hey ni na bu eh," I sang, putting my heart and diaphragm into that bit, belting it out with gusto and automatically reconnecting with my Chinese roots.

Everyone, in an instant, knew what I was singing about.

But then everyone said I was wrong.

While laughing hysterically.

"That's not how the lyrics go, you illiterate fool," said one person in the group, unable to catch her breath while lmfao-ing, and almost rolling on the ground.

The upside was that no one in the group also knew the song title, and it was impossible to google for it when no one knew what the real lyrics were.

For about 10 minutes.

But let's digress.

Ni na bu eh is everywhere

For a good part of my life, "Hey hey ni na bu eh" was what I heard every time I hear that song.

And I would sing along with it, either in my head or out loud.

Touch your heart: "Ni na bu eh" is something you'd hear whenever you go to the coffee shop to buy cai png or mee pok tah and there are 60- and 70-year-olds drinking beer for breakfast.

I will also catch an earful of "ni na bu eh" whenever I hear Chinese men -- it is always Chinese men -- having animated conversations amongst themselves, and the phrase peppers dialogues in place of exclamation marks.

"Ni na bu eh" is also what you say when you miss the bus, or when you come back to your vehicle and realise you have been issued a notice of parking offence, or when your favourite team doesn't score.

You hear it projected inside clubs as often as outside of it, hurled at someone as equally as no one in particular -- day or night.

In pop cultural settings, especially Singapore cinema, that phrase makes an appearance as a local marker.

Ethnicity is no barrier to hearing "ni na bu eh" mouthed by mouthy people.

I even hear it when someone walking down the street alone exclaims it to himself, upon the discovery of something that is sudden and highly disagreeable at that point in time.

Admit it: "Ni na bu eh" rolls off the tip of your tongue as easily as the seven words you cannot say on television.

What real lyrics said

So after googling for like 10 minutes, and after listening to a whole bunch of insufferable CNY songs on YouTube, the group of us finally managed to locate the song in a medley of CNY songs.

We found out that the song is called, "迎春花", or "Ying Chun Hua", for those of us who are semi-literate and a disgrace to Chinese culture as we rely on hanyu pinyin.

It really isn't "Hey hey ni na bu eh", as it is "嘿嘿哪呀哪呼嘿",which is literally "hei hei na ya na hu hei".

Mystery solved.

Another misheard lyrics

And for the life of me, I always believed the part before "Hey hey ni na bu eh" was "xing fu lai ya xing fu lai, fa ya fa da cai" (幸福来呀幸福来发呀发大财).

This somewhat translates to "May bliss come x2, let us prosper", because Chinese New Year is all about wealth -- and to a lesser extent, health.

But it was wrong as well.

It wasn't even close.

The real lyrics said: "幸福来呀幸福来呀大地放光彩", which in hanyu pinyin is, "xing fu lai xing ya fu lai, da di fang guang cai".

Which loosely means: "May bliss come x2, the lands are filled with colours" or something.

Being a lousy Mandarin speaker, the first whiff of the song lyrics proper after so many years of mishearing lyrics yielded, "幸福来呀幸福来呀大地放棺材", "xing fu lai xing ya fu lai, da di fang guan cai" -- where "大地放棺材" (da di fang guan cai) literally translates to "putting coffins in the ground".

Which is absolutely wrong as well, for obvious reasons.

Apologies to the songwriters

And this is where things got more interesting.

Some googling revealed that the song was written by the composer 姚敏 (Yao Min) and lyricist 梅翁 (Mei Weng).

"迎春花" (ying chun hua) literally translates to "Winter Jasmine", but can also mean to welcome spring blooms.

However, extended googling revealed that 姚敏 (Yao Min) and 梅翁 (Mei Weng) are the same person.

Yao Min & Mei Wang are the same person via

姚敏 (Yao Min) was the composer's real name and 梅翁 (Mei Weng) was his pseudonym.

Why this sort of arrangement was even a thing is not known, but back in 1968 when the song was written, this was probably during an era where getting credited was a different ball game.

Perhaps 姚敏 (Yao Min) wanted to be seen as capable of writing tunes and lyrics, but one person could not be seen to be monopolising a work.

The original song was performed by Teresa Teng (bless her).

At this stage, apologies are in order.

I would like to apologise to the composer 姚敏 (Yao Min) and lyricist 梅翁 (Mei Weng), who are the same person, as well as Teng.

I would like to say sorry for even thinking unquestioningly that just because I hear "ni na bu eh" in everyday life, and I hear something resembling it in a song, they must be one and the same thing.

But the one question I have for Yao Min/ Mei Weng is: What the heck does "嘿嘿哪呀呼嘿" (hei hei na ya na hu hei) even mean?

When and why would a Chinese person make that sound?

Is it primitive in nature?

This is as far as my curiosity and word count takes me.

Happy Chinese New Year, regardless.

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