Wordplay marks Chinese New Year celebrations

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Millions of Chinese visited families and sent text messages to friends on Sunday, the first day of the Year of the Tiger, with a traditional love of wordplay taking on a political twist in some telephone text greetings.

Streets were quiet on New Year's day, as Chinese gathered at home to eat foods whose names are homonyms for words associated with prosperity, fortune and long life.

Fireworks blanketed Beijing skies at midnight on New Year's Eve, and phones beeped continuously with New Year's greetings. Some used the many Chinese words that sound alike to send sly puns on Chinese leaders' names and famous sayings.

One text message played on the names of China's president, Hu Jintao, premier Wen Jiabao, vice president Xi Jinping, vice premier Li Keqiang, and security chief Zhou Yongkang.

"In the Tiger year, I wish your cardgames will be as lucky ("hu") as Jintao, your wallet as thick ("bao") as Wen Jia, your mood as calm ("ping") as Xi Jin, your abilities as strong ("qiang") as Li Ke, your body as healthy ("kang") as Zhou Yong," read the message.

Other text messages riffed on famous sayings by some leaders of China's ruling Communist Party, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

"Chairman Mao said, this text message makes all your troubles paper tigers! Chairman Deng said, it doesn't matter if you are an earthling or a space alien, everyone who gets this message is lucky," another message read.

The message was a play on Deng's famous saying, "It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice" while Mao said, "The United States is only a paper tiger".

A few Chinese visited temples in the morning, to pray for a good year. Others will flock to temple fairs throughout the week, to enjoy the crowds, food stalls and performances.

"We are Buddhist, so we believe that when we celebrate the holiday, we should pray to Buddha to protect the family and bring us health," said Zhang, offering incense at Baiyun Temple, Beijing's largest Daoist temple.

"Then tomorrow we will go out to have fun, but today is dedicated to praying to Buddha."