The specifics of verbal content in Chinese New Year greeting cards

This study aims to analyze the verbal content of Chinese New Year greeting cards. The material for the study comprised 171 nonrecurring examples obtained from linguistic interviews of Chinese citizens, mainly Chinese youth aged 14–30 from 3 cities. A set of methods (inductive, descriptive, classification and systematization) was used to process the material. As a result, firstly, the topic of wishes was specified. Secondly, culturespecific congratulatory phrases and language means used in congratulations were identified. Thirdly, most congratulations were found to be of a complex nature. Finally, the study found a greater number of examples with variability of the ways to formulate wishes of health to parents and people of an older generation. In addition, wishes to parents and relatives were more detailed than those addressed to friends.