Differences of Color Words between Chinese and English Cultures

The differences between Chinese and English color words are as follows:

1. Black

Black has a heavy and mysterious feeling in China culture, which symbolizes seriousness and justice. For example, Zhang Fei and Li Kui jy in traditional Peking Opera both use bad faces. At the same time, it also symbolizes evil. For example, a sinister and vicious person is a "black heart".

And black is basically a taboo color in western culture. It symbolizes death, bad omen and disaster. For example, at funerals, people usually wear black clothes; "unlucky words" are translated into "black words"; Second, it also symbolizes evil and crime, such as: "villain, rogue" translated into "rogue"; In addition, it also symbolizes shame, humiliation, depression, anger and so on.

2. Blue

In Chinese, blue usually brings people peaceful and beautiful associations; In addition, blue also means "shabby", so people rarely use blue as decoration on major festive days.

In English, blue has the extended meaning of "high social status, great power or good family background", for example, "blue room" refers to "the reception room of the president of the United States in the White House, which is used to meet close friends and relatives"; Blue also represents a specific identity occupation, such as: "blue collar" refers to "people engaged in manual labor"; In addition, as we all know, in western culture, blue has other negative meanings such as melancholy and sentimentality, such as "pornography" translated into "blue movies".

3. Red

Red is that color advocate in China culture. It symbolizes auspiciousness, jubilation, prosperity, liveliness and beauty. For example, a woman's beautiful face is a "beauty".

In western culture, red mainly refers to the color of blood, which means bloodiness, violence, terror and danger. For example, "red ruins" refers to fire; Red is also often used emotionally. When someone is angry, it is usually described as "seeing red" or "being angry". In addition, there are negative meanings such as "losing money".

4. yellow

In China, yellow is a kind of development and variation of red, and it is an auspicious color, such as "Auspicious Zodiac", and the royal robes and imperial edicts are all yellow.