The Differences of Colors in Chinese and English Culture

By Kang Linyu

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the B. A. degree

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

May, 2017

Acknowledgments

During the past four years, there are some people that I must give my thanks to them for helping me not only on study but also in my life.

First of all, I want to show my sincere heart to my tutor for her kindness and patience in guiding my paper. With the process of the paper, a lot of problems arise, such as the amount of references and the format of paper. I am worried about these, but in her again and again patient guidance, I improve a lot and become more positive.

Secondly, thank you very much -my class teacher. You are the first teacher I meet at the university. The impression of you is gentle and kind. You smile most of the time, which, relaxes me from an unfamiliar environment and gives me a sense of intimacy. When you show us around the campus, you are so careful and explain to us with passion for the function of every building. When we have the first lesson, many students go into the wrong class but our class not.

Thirdly, I must say thank you to all my teachers. All of you are kind and helpful to me and give me a feeling as a child in home. You teach me not only knowledge but build up my confidence to be better.

Fourthly, it’s hard for me to say thank you face to face to my parents. However, in my heart, there are so much gratitude which continues to increase. I am not a good child and make trouble everywhere. In my mind, you always come to the teacher’s office frequently and take responsibility for my troubles.

Lastly, thank for you all my friends. In the process of writing a paper, I have a lot of trouble, which led to my bad mood. Sometimes, I can’t control my temper and you have become a scapegoat. At that time, you never mind and in turn to comfort me by jokes.

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Review of Literature 1

2.1 Overseas Study of Colors 1

2.2 Study of Colors at Home 2

3. The Contrast of Connotation of Some Common Color Words between Chinese and English 2

3.1 Color of Red 2

3.1.1 Color of Red and the Chinese Culture 2

3.1.2 Color of Red and the English Culture 4

3.1.3 Difference of Red in Two Cultures 5

3.2 Color of White 6

3.2.1 Color of White and the Chinese Culture 6

3.2.2 Color of White and the English Culture 6

3.2.3 Difference of White in Two Cultures 7

3.3 Color of Black 8

3.3.1 Color of Black and the Chinese Culture 8

3.3.2 Color of Black and the English Culture 9

3.3.3 Difference of Black in Two Cultures 9

3.4 Color of Yellow 9

3.4.1 Color of Yellow and the Chinese Culture 9

3.4.2 Color of Yellow and the English Culture 10

3.4.3 Difference of Yellow in Two Cultures 11

4. Causes for Differences 11

4.1 Differences in Living Environment 11

4.2 Differences in History Development 11

5. Conclusion 12

References 13

The Differences of Colors in Chinese and English Culture

Kang Linyu

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

Abstract: A variety of colors constitute our varied world and people who live in the world are associated closely with colors. Being a more important part of language, colors can reflect the characteristic of local culture. Although Chinese and English have bountiful words to show different colors, the meanings of the same color differ in two cultures. We should not only concentrate on the basic meaning of them, but need to pay attention to their profound symbolic meaning for the symbolic meaning of colors in different national languages tend to have different characteristics. And some characteristics even constitute people’s love and taboo of colors after the extension. As our country separated from the vast majority of English-speaking countries for thousands of miles, the geographical location, the natural phenomena, the historical background, and the aesthetic psychology are so different that people may have various feelings of colors and the expressions are not the same. In this thesis, we put focus on differences of connotations of some color words in Chinese and English culture. The purpose is to help more people learn well about the differences of colors in Chinese and Western culture and to avoid the conflicts caused by cultural differences in intercultural communication.

Key words: colors; Chinese and English culture; differences

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