Darth Vader, You Can’t Eat Chinese Food With A Mask On

As many of you might already know, Chinese New Year has come and this year, 2014, is the year of the horse. To recognise and greet those who celebrate the event, some companies (and even world leaders) have created video greetings. However, all of those pale in comparison to one that comes from a galaxy far far away.

As posted on the official Star Wars youtube channel, Darth Vader, the dark lord of the Sith, along with a pair of stormtroopers partakes in a family’s spring festival dinner. At the end of the awkward video, where Vader plays nice and stormtroopers pour tea, the tagline “星”年快樂” appears in traditional Chinese.

The line, translated, means “Star” Happy New Year,” which is Chinese wordplay. The word “New” “新” sounds very similar to the Chinese word for “Star” “星”. Star Wars in traditional Chinese is known as “星際大戰”，which equates to “giant interstellar war”.

The video was shared on various official Stars Wars social media accounts in China. On Sina Weibo, one of China’s largest twitter-like micro-blogs, netizens found the video to be fun. The largest question and/or complaint is that in the video, Vader picks up a dumpling. I guess Chinese fans are just as perplexed as I am to how Vader will eat the dumpling with his mask on and all.

This is one of the cuter and better Chinese New Year’s greetings to come out this year. While Vader never says the words (it’s right there in the title of the video) — may the horse be with you, Kotaku readers.

May The Horse Be With You [Star Wars Youtube Channel, via Shanghaiist]