找朋友- Find a Friend

Title: 找朋友

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Stanley Li was born on December 8, 1962 in Guangzhou, China. He lived there until after he graduated from college, and then moved to the U.S. Growing, Stanley spoke Cantonese at home and with friends but learned and spoke Mandarin at school.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: Stanley learned this nursery from a teacher at school during music class as a way to learn music notes and words. The nursery rhyme was then sung by children during recess or field trips during the springtime or happy moments.
Cultural Context: The nursery rhyme is pervasive throughout the nation and is uniform in structure and lyric. Like other informants who learned Chinese nursery rhymes, the folklore was first obtained in a school environment from an adult.

Item:

Audio file:

Original Text:

找啊找啊找啊找，

找到一个好朋友，

敬个礼啊握握手，

你是我的好朋友。

Transliteration:

Zhao a zhao a zhao a zhao,

zhao dao yi ge hao peng you,

jing ge li wo wo shou,

ni shi wo de hao peng you

Word-for-word translation:

Seek, seek, seek,

Found a best pal,

Give a salute, shake your hand,

You are my best pal

Free translation:

Go look, look, look,

I found a good friend

Let’s salute, shake hands,

You’re my best friend

Informant’s Comments:

Stanley interpreted this as a means to make friends between little kids in China.

Collector’s Comments:

Similar to the informant’s comments, this nursery rhyme could be sung for fun as a way to strengthen camaraderie between children.

Collector’s Name: Jasmine Li

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive