"Learning Makes My Mother Happy"
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From AntC:
Kid's T-shirt in a Carrefour, downtown Taichung. (I think an English-speaking kid wouldn't be seen dead in it.) [VHM: American English: "wouldn't be caught dead" — usually, in my experience]
wǒ ài xuéxí
我愛學習
"I love studying"
xuéxí shǐ wǒ mā kuàilè
學習使我媽快樂
"Studying makes my mom happy"
That's from a Confucian viewpoint of filial piety.
This is from a Maoist standpoint of party loyalty:
"Good good study; day day up" (1/14/14)
The Sinitic notion of xuéxí 學習 ("study; learn") goes all the way back to the Confucian Analects: 子(zǐ) 曰(yuē) ： 學(xué) 而(ér) 時(shí) 習(xí) 之(zhī) ， 不(bú) 亦(yì) 說(yuè) 乎(hū) 。"The Master said: 'To study and regularly practice (what you have learned), is that not enjoyable?'".
It's interesting that the resultant binom, xuéxí 學習 ("study; learn"), is composed of that paramount Confucian virtue, xué 學 ("study; learn"), and the surname of the paramount leader, xí 習/习 ("practice; review").
Selected readings
"Blindly busy" (8/26/18)
"Beat of the person awarded" (6/12/14)
Chinese Wikipedia entry on xuéxí 學習 / 学习 ("study; learn")
Japanese Wikipedia entry on 学習（gakushū がくしゅう）
Equivalent Sino-Korean term: hakseup
Equivalent Sino-Vietnamese term: học tập
David Morris said,
August 19, 2025 @ 3:11 pm
Presumably purchased by the mother for the child, not by the child …
AntC said,
August 19, 2025 @ 8:48 pm
@DavidM hehe. You could argue the 'makes my mother happy' phrase is ambiguous as to who's doing the 'learning'.
BTW It might be school holidays here, but the streets are as busy as ever with kids in school uniform going to lessons. Presumably extra study. There are 'Cram Schools' in every suburb.
wgj said,
August 20, 2025 @ 6:00 am
As an ironic statement a Five-Eye kid absolutely would. Even as a non-ironc statement an Indian kid probably would.
Victor Mair said,
August 20, 2025 @ 9:38 am
@AntC
'Cram Schools'
Do they still call them bǔxí bān 補習班?
Joel said,
August 20, 2025 @ 6:03 pm
To be honest, I've always seen these shirts as intended to be darkly ironic on the parents' behalf. I saw a kid wearing a t-shirt that something like "ting ma ma de hua" (listen to/obey mom) (which itself may be a reference to a song by the Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou) in Vancouver BC a few years ago – I asked his mom "ta tinghua?" She enthusiastically responded "bu tinghua!"
AntC said,
August 20, 2025 @ 8:44 pm
I'm assured 'bǔxí bān' is still the term. I'll try to get some photo confirmation. There's an intersection nearby with a 'cram school' opposite an upmarket Cambridge English Exam place, and a (rather scruffy) American English School with no signage in Mandarin.
Michael Watts said,
August 21, 2025 @ 5:41 am
This makes me think that it's a reference to a meme in Chinese culture, because I once saw a Chinese student of my acquaintance, working on her undergraduate thesis, change her wechat avatar to an image with the very similar text (in English): "I LOVE THESIS. THESIS MAKES ME HAPPY."
Victor Mair said,
August 21, 2025 @ 6:52 am
AntC went out and did some further investigation. He found, and documented with a series of photographs he sent to me, that they now seem to avoid the expression "bǔxí bān" (perhaps it is now considered somewhat crass and crude) in favor of more elegant expressions, but many of them still retain the English designation "cram school".