The Chinese character fu, 福 (fú), means good fortune, blessing and happiness. It is the most common word on Chinese New Year decorations, written in black or gold on a red diamond of paper and pasted on doors, walls and cupboards. Often it is hung upside down, on purpose. This page explains what the character means, why it is turned over, and where it should stay the right way up.
What 福 means
Fu is a broad, warm word. It covers luck, but also a good life in general: health, family, enough to live on and peace of mind. Classical writing lists five blessings, 五福, in the Book of Documents (《尚书·洪范》):
- 寿: a long life
- 富: wealth
- 康宁: health and peace
- 攸好德: a love of virtue
- 考终命: a peaceful end to life
Wishing someone fu wishes them all of these. That is why the character appears on everything from New Year scrolls to birthday cakes, and why the bat, whose name 蝠 is pronounced the same, became a lucky animal. More of these puns are in our guide to Chinese good luck symbols.
Why fu is hung upside down
The reason is a pun. “Fu is upside down” is 福倒了 (fú dào le), which sounds exactly like 福到了 (fú dào le), “fortune has arrived”. Turning the character over says, in a playful way, that good fortune is already here.
Upright or upside down: where it goes
Not every fu is turned. A common custom in many households:
- Main door: upright. The front door is where blessings are welcomed in, and many families feel an upside-down character there looks careless, so the main door’s fu stays the right way up.
- Rice bins, water containers and cupboards: upside down. These hold the household’s supplies, and the reversed fu wishes that they stay full.
- Rubbish bins: upside down. Here the idea is that fortune is not thrown out along with the rubbish.
Practice varies, and plenty of homes simply turn every fu over. Either way is understood.
When to put it up
The fu is usually put up in the last days before Chinese New Year, after the house has been cleaned, together with the couplets and other decorations. Chinese New Year 2027 falls on Saturday 6 February 2027; the full set of decorations and where they go is in our guide to Chinese New Year decorations. Many families leave it up all year until it is replaced at the next New Year.
Fu in everyday words
The character turns up all through ordinary speech. 福气 (fúqi) means being blessed or lucky in life; someone who “has fu”, 有福, is fortunate in family and circumstance. 祝福 (zhùfú) is the everyday word for a blessing or good wish, and 福星高照, “the star of fortune shines high”, is a favourite New Year wish. Characters with warm meanings like this are often chosen for personal names, and our page on choosing a Chinese name explains how surnames, generation names and meanings fit together.
Famous fu characters
Writing fu is a calligraphy tradition of its own, and emperors wrote it as a gift to officials. The best known is a fu attributed to the Kangxi Emperor, carved in stone at Prince Gong’s Mansion in Beijing and often called “the first fu under heaven”, 天下第一福. Reproductions of it are among the most popular New Year prints.
The character also sits behind the New Year greeting habits on our page of Chinese New Year greetings, many of which wish the listener fu in one form or another.