“If You’re Happy Clap Your Hands” is a popular repetitive children’s song, stemming from an old Latvian folk song.

Music to this song coincides with the music of the song “Molodejnaya” written by Isaak Dunayevsky for the 1937-1938 Soviet film Volga-Volga. Another version was written by songwriter Alfred B. Smith (1916–2001). It has, like many familiar childhood cantations, been altered in various ways over the years for various uses.

The original song as it is known to many people begins:

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
If you’re happy and you know it,
And you really want to show it,
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
A common variation of the fourth line is “Then your face will surely show it.”

The song usually proceeds with other verses that replace “clap your hands” with alternate phrases such as “stomp your feet.”

Here is Chinese version of If you’re Happy Clap Your Hands. Watch the video to listen to the Chinese children’s song. You can replay the song by clicking the “play” button. Click here to download the song with English translation and Pinyin in PDF file.

Due to the size of the program, content in the frame below may display blank. Simply refresh the current webpage or press F5 on your keyboard for the refresh function. (Please enable your computer audio and increase the speaker volume. You can hear the song and follow the sound track):

Related posts:
Chinese mythology: Pangu and Nüwa
Chinese mythology: Nezha Riots the Seas
Chinese folktale: The Snail Girl
Chinese mythology: The Magic Locus Lantern
Chinese children’s story: Kitty Goes Fishing
Chinese children’s song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Tags: Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | Bilingual Baby, Fourth Year, From Lina | Lina | October 28, 2011 3:15 pm | Comments (0)