Third series of the renminbi

Transcription

HI everyone, welcome to LearnHowToChinese! I m your host Vienne and in this video, I ll share 5 interesting facts about Chinese currency, also known as RMB. Have you subscribed to our channel yet? We are a team dedicated to helping you learn Mandarin Chinese and interesting Chinese culture. If you like our videos, please share them with your friends and family. Have you ever seen RMB in person? The first series of RMB was printed in 1948, a year before the People s Republic of China was established. For this reason, the first series of RMB didn t have the country s emblem printed. RMB paper bills are colorful and they tell stories about Chinese people. So far, there are a total of five series of RMB. The first three series of RMB tell stories about revolution and social unity. During that time period, the country was in a difficult time, dealing with internal and external conflicts. In the 1970s, the situation changed. The country made adjustments to its political direction and it was the beginning development of the Chinese economy. The fourth series of RMB highlights the beauty of China as a multi ethnic country. And the fifth series is what we re using now. The first series of RMB was released by The People s Bank of China in 1948. There were 12 different values and 62 versions. During that time, China was experiencing a serious inflation due to the political instability. The highest value of RMB was ¥50,000, compared to today s highest value of ¥100. It was 500 times more compared to today s currency. You can imagine the difficult situation people had to deal with on a daily basis. People had to carry thousands of RMB just to buy a pack of matches. Compared to the highest value ¥50,000 in the first series, the highest value for the second and the third series are ¥10 RMB. In other words, the value of ¥50,000 was only wroth ¥5 when the second series of RMB was released. Now look at the print, a group of people standing in the front. These people represent different occupations a scholar, a farmer, blue collar worker and governor. This print has a nick name and is translated into a big unity or Chinese people call it 大团结 [dà tuán jié]. The message is about all people belonging to the same social class and they can all be involved in politics. More interesting fact in the third series is that each paper bill contained 5 written languages besides Chinese characters and they are Mongolian, Uygur, Tibetan, Zhuang and Hanyu pinyin, which many of you are using to learn Mandarin Chinese. My favorite currency is the fourth series because the focus was no loner on politics but on the beauty of China. You can see that each paper bill captures two minorities on the front and a beautiful landscape on the back. In China, there are 55 minorities plus the Han nations, which accounted for about 91% of Chinese population. As you already know RMB has changed five times since under the leadership of the People s Republic of China. Imagine Chinese people having to adjust to new currencies five times in around 60 years. It could be confusing for some people. It is especially true for the fourth and fifth series of RMB since their designs are similar. For example, on the back of both series captured the beauty of various Chinese landscapes. In 1999 when the fifth series of RMB was released while the fourth series still in circulation, some Chinese people got confused between ¥10 in the fifth series and ¥50 in the fourth series. The confusion was because both currencies had water features on the back, one is 壶口瀑布 [ hú kǒu pù bù ]. ] and the other one is长江三峡 [cháng jiāng sān xiá]. The latest series of RMB added ¥20 but at the same time, canceled ¥2. Adding ¥20 is to help leverage the heavy use between ¥10 and ¥50. It s necessary because things are getting more and more expensive due to the inflation caused by the growing economy in Modern China That s all for today. I m sure there are more interesting facts about RMB. We would like to hear from you so leave a message if you know or discover something cool about RMB. Happy learning. Bye.