Jia you! Jia you! Jia you!…
From Sports Day at high school and inter-department competitions at university, to national and world championship meetings in the big city, this has always been the cry of encouragement (lit. ‘more oil’). Now, I’m giving serious consideration to starting The campaign to save “Jia you”.
Why? Because it is with great sadness that I have to report an end to this time-honoured and familiar call for sporting effort. Here’s the new officially sanctioned cheer, courtesy of the BBC:
Life will never be the same again.
I imagine this will take off because Chinese citizens are used to acting collectively. It seems a bit ‘in your face’ with regard to foreign visitors in my opinion, if for no other reason than it is directed at the home team only. One world; one dream?
Just for the record, I’m banning it in the classroom. “Jia you” is fine, though.