EVERY CHINESE KNOWS THE MEANING OF "XUE HUA PIAO PIAO" IN YOUTUBE OR TIK TOK VIDEOS 

What Is "XUE HUA PIAO PIAO, BEI FENG XIAO XIAO"?

| 什么是 “雪花飘飘，北风萧萧”？

In the early of 2020, a Chinese typecast actor, also as a live video streamer on Kuaishou app (one of China's popular live streaming platforms), uploaded a small selfie-singing video to the platform and tried to share with his fans. In the video , he just sang a few words casually, with the lyrics of "Xue Hua Piao Piao, Bei Feng Xiao Xiao" included. At the time, the lyrics perfectly fitted the cold weather in the winter season and also the entire snowing white environment where he stayed in the video.

2020 年初的时候，来自中国的一位特型演员，同时也是一位快手播主，上传了一段自拍的小视频和粉丝们分享。视频里，他随意地哼唱了几句，歌词正是“雪花飘飘，北风萧萧”。这句歌词完美贴合了当时的寒冷天气以及白雪苍茫的背景，十分应景。

Unexpectedly, this video called someone's attention and so did the lyrics of "Xue Hua Piao Piao, Bei Feng Xiao Xiao". Then it quickly went viral and spread on overseas networks outside of China, especially on YouTube and Tik Tok.

意想不到的是，这段视频包括这句歌词引起了网友的注意，随后迅速在海外网络上传播开来。

Now some people may have already known its source but more people may not. Many people may even have no clue about the meaning of "Xue Hua Piao Piao, Bei Feng Xiao Xiao".

现在，部分人对这段歌词的来源可能略知一二，但还有更多人并不清楚，甚至对“雪花飘飘，北风萧萧”的含义毫无概念。

No matter where you have heard of "Xue Hua Piao Piao, Bei Feng Xiao Xiao", what types of online videos or what languages you watched, you should probably know that this lyric was neither in English nor any other western languages. It was written or read in standard simplified Chinese.

无论你曾在何处听说过“雪花飘飘，北风萧萧”，从哪类视频或通过哪种语言获知的，你都该知道这首歌词既不是用的英语，也不是用的其他西方语言，而是以标准的简体中文来书写和朗读的。

Actually, the original source of "Xue Hua Piao Piao, Bei Feng Xiao Xiao" is the climax part from an old Chinese song named "一剪梅 (yì jiǎn méi)" performed by a famous male singer "费玉清 (Fèi Yùqīng)" in China. This Chinese song was firstly released in China in 1984 and then went popular in the 1980's to 1990's. Obviously, this song is not the kind of young people's favorite songs at present but is their parents'.

事实上，“雪花飘飘，北风萧萧”这句歌词最初来源于一首经典的中文老歌《一剪梅》，由中国著名男歌手费玉清演唱。这首中文歌最早于 1984 年在中国地区发行，随后流行于中国的 20 世纪 80 - 90 年代。显然，这首歌并不是当代年轻人喜爱的那类歌曲，而是他们父母那一辈的珍藏曲目。

So what is exactly the meaning of "Xue Hua Piao Piao, Bei Feng Xiao Xiao" in Chinese?

那么，“雪花飘飘，北风萧萧”的中文意思究竟是什么？

This lyric is written in Simplified Chinese as "雪花飘飘，北风萧萧", with eight-but-six-different Chinese characters included.

这句歌词使用了八个但有六个完全不同的中文汉字，中文里写作为“雪花飘飘，北风萧萧”。

It consists of two neat and parallel Chinese phrases, both using rhyme words "飘 (piāo)" & "萧 (xiāo)" ending with the pronunciation of "iāo".

它由两个工整对称的中文短语组成，均使用了押韵的汉字“飘 (piāo)” 和“萧 (xiāo)”，以带有“iāo”的发音结尾。

“雪花 (xuě huā)” means the snowflakes in English, and "雪花飘飘 (xuě huā piāo piāo)" describes the scene of snowflakes dancing in the cold winter.

“雪花”指的是英文里的雪花，“雪花飘飘”描述的是在寒冷的冬天里漫天雪花飞舞的情景。

“北风 (běi fēng)” literally means the northerly wind in English. In the second half of the sentence "北风萧萧 (běi fēng xiāo xiāo)", it is used to describe the cold wind howling since many Chinese people thought the northerly wind was always the coldest.

“北风”字面上的意思就是来自北向的风。许多中国人认为从北方吹过来的风总是最寒冷刺骨的，因此在后半句歌词“北风萧萧”里，北风用来形容冷风呼啸的寒冷天气。

Did it sound similar? Yes, both two Chinese phrases in the lyric of "Xue Hua Piao Piao, Bei Feng Xiao Xiao" are actually used to describe one thing, that is, the very cold weather and environment in winter.

是不是听起来有点相似？是的，“雪花飘飘，北风萧萧”这句歌词里的前后两个中文短语其实都是用来形容一件事，即冬天里寒冷的天气和环境。

How to Speak "Xue Hua Piao Piao, Bei Feng Xiao Xiao" Accurately?

| 怎样用中文正确读出“雪花飘飘，北风萧萧”？

We have heard of various pronunciations about reading "Xue Hua Piao Piao, Bei Feng Xiao Xiao", most of them with a little strange accent and tone. It is because that some pronunciations in standard Chinese do not exist in English pronunciations. Therefore, it may lead to some pronunciation barriers when learning Chinese pronunciations and language.

我们听过各种关于“雪花飘飘，北风萧萧”的读法，其中大多数都带有一点奇怪的口音和声调。这是因为标准汉语里的某些发音在英语发音中不存在。因此，在读部分中文汉字时容易出现发音障碍。

If you have already got the basic knowledgement of standard Chinese Pinyin and its pronunciation rules, you could learn to read "Xue Hua Piao Piao, Bei Feng Xiao Xiao" well  quite soon with each Chinese Pinyin we offered as below.

若你已经掌握了标准汉语拼音及其发音规则的基本知识，根据以下提供的拼音就可以快速学会用中文读出“雪花飘飘，北风萧萧”。

Standard Chinese Pinyin:

Xuě Huā Piāo Piāo, Běi Fēng Xiāo Xiāo

汉语拼音：雪 (xuě) 花 (huā) 飘 (piāo) 飘 (piāo)，北 (běi) 风 (fēng) 萧 (xiāo) 萧 (xiāo)

If you are not good at Chinese pronunciations, you may also get some hints from the following.

若你并不擅长中文发音，那么可以从以下内容中获得一些技巧。

雪 (xuě):  its Chinese pronunciation is a little bit difficult for many beginners.

"x" in Chinese Pinyin is pronounced similar to "sh" /ʃ/ pronounced in English (such as /ʃ/ in "shall").

"uě" in Chinese pinyin is pronounced similar to read /ju:/ (such as /ju:/ in "hue") plus /e/ together.

So 雪 (xuě) is similar to the pronunciation of /ʃ-ju:-e/, close to the way of speaking English words like "shell" or "shoal" or "shoe".

Don't forget to speak the third Chinese tone, that is, the falling and rising tone in standard Chinese pronunciation system.

雪（xuě）：发音对汉语初学者来说相对较难。

“x”的中文发音类似于英文里“sh”的发音 /ʃ/ （如 sh 在 “shall”里的发音）；

“uě” 的中文发音类似于将英文里的 /ju:/ （如单词“hue”的后半部分） 和 /e/ 连起来读。

因此，“雪（xuě）” 字的中文发音相当于连读 /ʃ-ju:-e/，听起来与英文单词 “shell”、“shoal”、“shoe”比较接近。

另外，记得还要出读汉语拼音里的声调：第三声。

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