Is Dongdong Three or Five? — Epoche A2
Family lunch today in Mianyang, and one small mystery. 🎂 My grandmother said my nephew Dongdong is five. His mother laughed and said he is three. Both answers are right — they are counting in different systems. On his papers Dongdong is three. He was born in March three years ago, so he has finished three full years. That is zhousui , the counting that the school, the doctor and every form will use. My grandmother counts xusui , the traditional way. A baby is already one at birth, she says — you count the year a person is living in, not the years finished. And nobody grows older on a birthday: everyone gains the new year together at Lunar New Year. So a baby born in the last week of the old year is two before it is two weeks old. The gap between the two answers is one year, sometimes two. When my grandmother asks a new neighbour's age, she adds "zhousui or xusui?" — like asking which money a price is in. Forms and doctors: full years. Grandmothers at the table: xusui, always. Dongdong himself did not care. He spent the afternoon under the table with the cat. How old are you — and in which counting? 👇