"Never Give Up" Chinese / Japanese Scrolls

See also: Tenacity, Indomitable Spirit, Fortitude, and Perseverance

You can buy Never Give Up characters on a custom wall scroll or portrait here.
Start by clicking on the button next to your favorite title below...


  1. Never Give Up

  2. Never Give In / Never Succumb / Never Lose

  3. Undaunted After Repeated Setbacks

  4. Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight

  5. Tenacious / Tenacity

  6. Always Try to do Better

  7. No Fear


Never Give Up

 yǒng bù fàng qì
Never Give Up Scroll

The first character means “eternal” or “forever,” and the second means “not” (together, they mean “never”). The last two characters mean “give up” or “abandon.” Altogether, you can translate this proverb as “never give up” or “never abandon.”

Depending on how you want to read this, 永不放棄 is also a statement that you will never abandon your hopes, dreams, family, or friends.


See Also:  Undaunted | No Fear | Hope

Never Give In / Never Succumb / Never Lose

 kesshite akirameruna
Never Give In / Never Succumb / Never Lose Scroll

決して諦めるな is a Japanese term that informally means “never give up.”

It's also a Japanese way to say “never surrender.”


Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.


See Also:  Tenacity | Perseverance | Hope

Undaunted After Repeated Setbacks

Persistence to overcome all challenges

 bǎi zhé bù náo
 hyaku setsu su tou
Undaunted After Repeated Setbacks Scroll

百折不撓 is a Chinese proverb that means “Be undaunted in the face of repeated setbacks.”

More directly translated, it reads, “[Overcome] a hundred setbacks, without flinching.” 百折不撓 is of Chinese origin but is commonly used in Japanese and somewhat in Korean (same characters, different pronunciation).

This proverb comes from a long, and occasionally tragic story of a man that lived sometime around 25-220 AD. His name was Qiao Xuan, and he never stooped to flattery but remained an upright person at all times. He fought to expose the corruption of higher-level government officials at great risk to himself.

Then when he was at a higher level in the Imperial Court, bandits were regularly capturing hostages and demanding ransoms. But when his own son was captured, he was so focused on his duty to the Emperor and the common good that he sent a platoon of soldiers to raid the bandits' hideout, and stop them once and for all even at the risk of his own son's life. While all of the bandits were arrested in the raid, they killed Qiao Xuan's son at first sight of the raiding soldiers.

Near the end of his career, a new Emperor came to power, and Qiao Xuan reported to him that one of his ministers was bullying the people and extorting money from them. The new Emperor refused to listen to Qiao Xuan and even promoted the corrupt Minister. Qiao Xuan was so disgusted that in protest, he resigned from his post as minister (something almost never done) and left for his home village.

His tombstone reads “Bai Zhe Bu Nao” which is now a proverb used in Chinese culture to describe a person of strong will who puts up stubborn resistance against great odds.

My Chinese-English dictionary defines these 4 characters as “keep on fighting despite all setbacks,” “be undaunted by repeated setbacks,” and “be indomitable.”

Our translator says it can mean “never give up” in modern Chinese.

Although the first two characters are translated correctly as “repeated setbacks,” the literal meaning is “100 setbacks” or “a rope that breaks 100 times.” The last two characters can mean “do not yield” or “do not give up.”
Most Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people will not take this absolutely literal meaning but will instead understand it as the title suggests above. If you want a single big word definition, it would be indefatigability, indomitableness, persistence, or unyielding.


See Also:  Tenacity | Fortitude | Strength | Perseverance | Persistence

Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight

Always rising after a fall or repeated failures

 shichi ten hakki / nana korobi ya oki
Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight Scroll

七転八起 is a Japanese proverb that relays the vicissitudes of life, with the meaning “seven times down eight times up.”

Some would more naturally translate it into English as “Always rising after a fall or repeated failures” or compare it to the English, “If at first, you don't succeed, try, try again.”

The first Kanji is literally “7.” The second means “fall down” (sometimes this Kanji means “turn around,” “revolve” or “turn over” but in this case, it holds the meaning of “fall”). The third is “8.” And the last is “get up,” “rouse,” or “rise.”

Basically, if you fail 7 times, you should recover from those events and be prepared to rise an 8th time. This also applies if it is the world or circumstances that knock you down seven times...
...just remember that you have the ability to bounce back from any kind of adversity.

Note: This can be pronounced in two ways. One is “shichi ten hakki” or “shichitenhakki.” The other is “nana korobi ya oki” also written, “nanakorobi-yaoki.”

Special Note: The second character is a Kanji that is not used in China. Therefore, please select a Japanese calligrapher for this title.

Tenacious / Tenacity

 wán qiáng
 gan kyou
Tenacious / Tenacity Scroll

頑強 means “Tenacious,” “Hard to Defeat,” or “Dogged.”

Alone, the first character means mischievous, obstinate, or stubborn. But it loses some of the mischievous meaning when the second character is added.

The second character means strength, force, power, or better.


See Also:  Determination | Dedication | Devotion | Never Give Up

Always Try to do Better

 sara ni ue o me za su
Always Try to do Better Scroll

This Japanese proverb literally translates as: [After having achieved a fair degree of success,] one should still try to do better.

Others may translate this as “Always try to improve,” or “Always try to be better.”


Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.


See Also:  Never Give Up

No Fear

(2 characters)

 wú wèi
 mui
No Fear Scroll

無畏 literally means “No Fear.” But perhaps not the most natural Chinese phrase (see our other “No Fear” phrase for a complete thought). However, this two-character version of “No Fear” seems to be a very popular way to translate this into Chinese when we checked Chinese Google.

Note: This also means “No Fear” in Japanese and Korean, but this character pair is not often used in Japan or Korea.

This term appears in various Chinese dictionaries with definitions like “without fear,” intrepidity, fearless, dauntless, and bold.

In the Buddhist context, this is a word derived from the word Abhaya, meaning: Fearless, dauntless, secure, nothing, and nobody to fear. Also, from vīra meaning: courageous, bold.


See Also:  Never Give Up | No Worries | Undaunted | Bravery | Courage | Fear No Man




This in-stock artwork might be what you are looking for, and ships right away...

Gallery Price: $100.00

Your Price: $49.88


The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...

Title CharactersRomaji (Romanized Japanese)Various forms of Romanized Chinese
Never Give Up永不放棄
永不放弃
yǒng bù fàng qì
yong3 bu4 fang4 qi4
yong bu fang qi
yongbufangqi
yung pu fang ch`i
yungpufangchi
yung pu fang chi
Never Give In
Never Succumb
Never Lose
決して諦めるなkesshite akirameruna
kesshiteakirameruna
keshite akirameruna
Undaunted After Repeated Setbacks百折不撓
百折不挠
hyaku setsu su tou
hyakusetsusutou
hyaku setsu su to
bǎi zhé bù náo
bai3 zhe2 bu4 nao2
bai zhe bu nao
baizhebunao
pai che pu nao
paichepunao
Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight七転八起shichi ten hakki / nana korobi ya oki
shichi ten haki / nana korobi ya oki
Tenacious
Tenacity
頑強
顽强
gan kyou / gankyou / gan kyowán qiáng
wan2 qiang2
wan qiang
wanqiang
wan ch`iang
wanchiang
wan chiang
Always Try to do Better更に上を目指すsara ni ue o me za su
saraniueomezasu
No Fear無畏
无畏
muiwú wèi / wu2 wei4 / wu wei / wuwei
In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line.
In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese.


Dictionary

Lookup in my Japanese & Chinese Dictionary

All of our calligraphy wall scrolls are handmade.

When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.

Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!

When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.


A nice Chinese calligraphy wall scroll

The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"
single-character wall scroll.
We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.

A professional Chinese Calligrapher

Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.

There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form of art alive.

Trying to learn Chinese calligrapher - a futile effort

Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.

A high-ranked Chinese master calligrapher that I met in Zhongwei

The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.