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Alex Lo

Our chief executive seems to think it's the Year of the Sheep. Many Hong Kong people would think or at least act like it's the Year of the Ram.
In his controversial Lunar New Year greeting video, another storm in the teacup really, Leung Chun-ying urged Hongkongers to be more like yang, the Chinese character for sheep, rams, goats and even ewes. But from the rest of his message, it's clear Leung meant yang as sheep.
"The 12 Chinese zodiac animals represent 12 character types," he said. "Sheep are widely seen to be mild and gentle animals living peacefully in groups.
"In the coming year, I hope that all people in Hong Kong will take inspiration from the sheep's character and pull together in an accommodating manner to work for Hong Kong's future."
Clearly, he was describing the behaviour of sheep.
But most Hong Kong people are nothing like sheep. In fact, many are more like rams, if by that we mean the opposite of sheep in the characteristic of their behaviour.
Few people would consider rams docile or gentle creatures. Rather they can be extremely aggressive and confrontational, especially during mating season. They headbutt and bite and are known to cause serious injuries or even death to humans and themselves.
To be politically neutral and zoologically correct, it's probably best to refer to the new lunar year as that of the yang as goat.
According to Professor Ho Che-wah, head of the department of Chinese literature at Chinese University, ancient Chinese ate six types of meat - horse, cow, goat, pig, dog and chicken. Only rich people and aristocrats could afford to eat goats, so it was also a status symbol.
Given how those other animals are all featured in the Chinese zodiac, Ho argues the ancients were clearly thinking about goats when they constructed the zodiac.
A survey on scmp.com of readers' preference for the translation of yang finds 58 per cent of 600-plus who voted prefer to have it as goat. So maybe we should try to compromise, politically and linguistically.
We are clearly not sheep, yet are not as aggressive as rams in heat. We are more like goats, which can be uncooperative and stubborn but not dangerously violent.


Baa humbug! Hong Kong people are nothing like sheep

CY Leung and his wife pose with children in the Year of the Sheep greeting. Photo: Hong Kong Government

CY Leung urges Hongkongers to ‘be like sheep’ in Lunar New Year message

Opinion

News

Hong Kong

Our chief executive seems to think it's the Year of the Sheep. Many Hong Kong people would think or at least act like it's the Year of the Ram.


Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

My Take

Baa humbug! Hong Kong people are nothing like sheep

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Our chief executive seems to think it's the Year of the Sheep. Many Hong Kong people would think or at least act like it's the Year of the Ram.

Our chief executive seems to think it's the Year of the Sheep. Many Hong Kong people would think or at least act like it's the Year of the Ram.