83 Cantonese Proverbs in One Illustration

83 Cantonese proverbs in one illustration
A super-awesome illustration “The Great Canton and Hong Kong Proverbs” featuring 83 Cantonese proverbs in one picture.
If you look closely, you can see examples such as a ghost covering one’s eyes (鬼揞眼), a girl releasing a paper aeroplane (放飛機), blowing a horn under the bed (床下底吹喇叭) and a tortoise passing a sill (龜過門檻).
A cool way to illustrate the beautiful and metaphorical nature of Cantonese. The original illustration was published in Chinese on Hong Kong independent media “Passion Times“.

 

 

The Cantonese Proverbs

Can you find all 83 proverbs?

01 上山捉蟹(難上加難)02 鬼揞眼 03 有錢使得鬼推磨 04 鬼畫符 05 鬼拍後尾枕 06 多個香爐多隻鬼  07 呃鬼食豆腐 08 扮鬼扮馬 09 放飛機 10 樹大有枯枝 11 床下底吹喇叭(低聲下氣)12 佛都有火 13 老貓燒鬚 14 拉牛上樹  15 豬乸會上樹  16 開籠雀  17 兩頭蛇  18 床下底劈柴(撞板) 19 玻璃夾萬(有得睇冇得使)20 上面蒸鬆糕 下面賣涼粉 21 掛羊頭賣狗肉 22 大石砸死蟹 23 倒瀉籮蟹 24 賣魚佬洗身(冇晒聲(腥)氣)25 煲電話粥 26 冬瓜豆腐  27 倒吊沙煲(窮到冇米)28 十個沙煲九個蓋 29 刀仔据大樹 30 賊佬試沙煲 31 冇柄遮(死撐) 32 甩繩馬騮  33 馬騮執到桔 (執到寶咁開心)34 運桔 35 鬼食泥 36 盲公食湯圓(心中有數)37 食拖鞋飯 38 食人隻車 39 食碗面反碗底 40 食死貓 41 放葫蘆(吹噓)42 放飛劍(吐痰) 43 企喺城樓睇馬打交(袖手旁觀)  44 飛象過河 45 事急馬行田 46 過橋抽板 47 和尚擔遮(無法(髮)無天) 48 牛唔飲水唔撳得牛頭低 49 冇鞋挽屐走 50 馬死落地行 51 捉到鹿唔識脫角 52 一竹篙打一船人 53 缸瓦船打老虎(盡地一煲)54 船頭尺(度水) 55 黑狗偷食 白狗當災 56 豬籠入水(八面亨通) 57 濕水炮仗  58 菠蘿雞(一味靠黐)59 單眼佬睇老婆(一眼睇晒)60 狗仔抬轎(不識抬舉)61 畫隻耳上牆(當你耳邊風) 62 摸門釘 63 狗咬狗骨 64 死雞撐飯蓋 65 炒魷魚 66 劏白鶴(湯白喝)67 風扇底傾偈(講風涼話)68 風吹雞蛋殼(財散人安樂) 69 打蛇隨棍上 70 禾稈冚珍珠 71 雞食放光蟲(心知肚明)72 冇厴雞籠(自出自入) 73 籠裏雞作反 74 一雞死一雞鳴 75 老鼠拉龜(冇掟埋手)76 扯貓尾 77 捉黃腳雞 78 貼錯門神 79 龜過門檻(唔上唔落)80 騎牛揾馬 81 執死雞 82 水過鴨背 83 咁大隻蛤乸隨街跳

 

 

 

If you are looking for details of each proverb, you can find the English translation, Cantonese romanization and the audio files on the Cantonese Resources blog. 

 

 

Inspiration for the illustration

In 1559, Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel created the oil painting “Netherlandish Proverbs” which illustrates many Dutch proverbs to praise the Dutch culture. In 2014, 阿塗(Ah To), a Hong Kong cartoonist and illustrator,  was inspired to do the same to propagate the Cantonese culture and language. Ah To has a few published books on Cantonese language with cute illustrations. He has also produced a handful of lifestyle goods.

 

Isn’t Cantonese such a beautiful language? I’m inspired to put in more effort to learn more about it. 

 

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