CRCCAsia
Why Chinese People Have a Nominal Age?
Jīnnián nǐ duōdà le?
今 年 你 多 大 了？
How old are you this year?
This is always a hard question for most Chinese. It is said that in the world, perhaps only Chinese people have two ages, an actual age 实岁shísuì, and a nominal age 虚岁xūsuì.
shí suì
实 岁
xū suì
虚 岁
The actual age 实岁shísuì is easy to explain. But what is a nominal age 虚岁xūsuì? How to count it? That is really confusing.
Some people think that an actual age plus one is the nominal age. In fact, this is not so correct.The method to calculate a nominal age is like this:
according to the Chinese nominal age system, a person is counted as one year old on the day of birth, and if the birth happens in the end of the Lunar New Year, he would be two years old at the turn of the Chinese New Year. After the child had his two years birthday, as the nominal age count, he is a three-years-old kid.
Therefore, in calculating the nominal age, the Chinese New Year is a particularly important point of time, every Spring Festival, the nominal age of citizens should be added one. If a person's birthday is in the second half of the lunar calendar, and that leads to a result, his nominal age becomes two, before his actual age achieves.
Nominal age is usually exaggerated by 1 to 2 years as compared with actual age.
Source: Thebeijinger
