中国兔年怎么就成了越南猫年？
传说中，佛祖邀请万物生灵参加渡河大赛，最先到达彼岸的十二个动物将获得成为生肖的荣耀。由于不会游泳，猫和老鼠这对密友决定伏在水牛背上搭个便车。但是当他们即将到达终点的时候，两面三刀的耗子将猫推下了水，从此这对挚友翻脸成了天敌。
在越南民间传说中，这个故事的版本稍有不同。据传，是道教中至高无上的神——玉皇大帝举办了这场比赛，而在越南版中，猫是会游泳的。
“这个问题要从人类学和文化的角度来解释，”巴黎高等学术研究院的专家菲利普-帕潘称，由于如今许多越南人都有中国血统，最佳解释还是在于语言的不同：“在汉语中，表示兔子这个含义的汉字是‘卯’，它的发音近似越南语的‘meo’，后者在越南语中是猫的意思。由于发音的混淆造成了词义的改变。”
不管生肖之别是如何阴差阳错产生的，如今的越南人并无意愿将生肖象征物与中土大国保持一致。
“对越南人来说，没有彻底复制中国是体现了民族自尊心，”来自曼谷近代东南亚研究机构的贝努瓦-德-特雷哥罗德说：“这种相似中的差异贯穿越南文化始终。”
政治因素在其中也起到微妙的作用。两国长期在边界领土问题上存在争议。一名来自河内的自由撰稿人陶清玄说：“我们不知道为什么会选这十二种动物作为生肖，但如今‘中国’和‘中国人’成为两个常常引发争议的敏感词。尽管把这些太当回事显得有点蠢，许多越南人庆幸没有与邻国一样。”
76岁的越南资深演员洪柏兆说，越南人仅仅是更喜爱猫。“大部分的越南人都出身农民，”他说：“兔子对越南农民毫无帮助，但是猫却是农民的好帮手，它能捉老鼠，防止稻谷遭遇鼠害。”
本周四当越南人开始欢度春节的时候，那些鼠年、马年和鸡年出生的人要避讳最先迈入家门，据说这样会招致霉运。“算命先生说今年是运势平平的一年，谁都知道猫狗相克。”陶清玄说道，她与许多人一样，期望算命先生的预言能有助于自己的运程。但她仍希望同样属狗的丈夫和儿子在今年能够打破令人失望的预言，过得丰富多彩。至少在这一点上，中国人和越南人是一样的。
How the Chinese rabbit became a cat in Vietnam
HANOI - While much of Asia celebrates the Year of the Rabbit, Vietnam is striking a note of independence from the dominance of Chinese culture and marking the beginning of the Year of the Cat。
The two communist countries remain ideological allies and have endorsed a similar transition to a market-oriented economy。
But their relationship evokes strong emotions and contradictions in Vietnam, where many bitterly recall 1,000 years of Chinese occupation and, more recently, a 1979 border war。
While the smaller nation has held onto many Chinese words, customs and traditions, it still feels a strong need to set itself apart from its giant neighbor。
The two countries share 10 of the zodiac calendar's 12 signs-- the rat, tiger, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. But the Vietnamese replace the rabbit with the cat and the ox with the buffalo。
Exactly why they opted for different animals remains unclear, but several scholars say the split can be traced back to the founding legends of the zodiac calendar。
One of these stories goes that Buddha invited animals to take part in a race across a river and the first 12 to reach the shore would have the honor of appearing on the calendar。
Unable to swim, close friends the cat and rat decided to hitch a ride on the ox's back. But as they approached the finish line, the two-faced rodent allegedly pushed the cat into the water -- and the pair have been sworn enemies ever since。
The Vietnamese tell the tale somewhat differently. According to them, it was the Jade Emperor, a Taoist god, who organized the race. And in their version, the cat knows how to swim。
"There are anthropological and cultural explanations," said Philippe Papin, an expert on Vietnamese history at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris。
But since many of today's Vietnamese have Chinese origins, the most likely explanation lies in linguistics, he said。
"The Chinese word for rabbit is 'mao', which sounds like 'meo' in Vietnamese, where it means cat. As the sound of the word changed, so did its meaning," Papin said。
Regardless of how the split came about, the Vietnamese today have no interest in bringing their zodiac signs into line with the Middle Kingdom。
"For the Vietnamese, it's a matter of national honour not to have copied China completely," said Benoit de Treglode, from the Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia in Bangkok。
"This form of distinction in imitation can be found throughout Vietnamese culture," he added。
Politics play a role too with Beijing and Hanoi increasingly at odds over a number of long-running territorial disputes。
"We don't know exactly how the selection of these 12 animals happened," said Dao Thanh Huyen, an independent journalist based in Hanoi。
But "now that the words 'China' and 'Chinese' can become a source of controversy or even lead to arguments, many Vietnamese are happy not to be like their neighbor, even if it is fairly silly to take these things too seriously."
Hoang Phat Trieu, a retired Vietnamese actor, says his compatriots simply prefer cats to rabbits。
"Most of the Vietnamese people are farmers," the 76-year-old said. "The rabbit has nothing to do with Vietnamese farmers, while the cat has always been a very good friend of farmers, trying to kill the rats that threaten their crops."
As Vietnam marks its Tet Lunar New Year on Thursday, those born in the Years of the Rat, the Horse or the Rooster will be careful not to be the first to enter a house -- as this is said to attract bad luck。
"This year is going to be an average year according to fortune tellers," said Huyen. But she hopes her husband and son, both Dogs in the zodiac calendar, will make the year more interesting than the disappointingly dull prediction。
"Everybody knows how cats and dogs get on," she said, proving that the desire to make astrological predictions work in your favour is universal。
In that, at least, the Chinese and the Vietnamese are alike
