Red
In Qing dynasty, the book that was authorized by the emperor is called “red book”. It is different from the “red book” in English-spoken countries which means the book with a red cover. In China during the Great Cultural Revolution, every one should keep one or two books about Chairman Mao. It was also called “red treasured book”.
In western countries, such words related with history and geography also have their proper meanings, such as red lining, red coat and red brigade. During the American Civil War, the British soldiers wore scarlet service uniform. They were called redcoat. Red brigade is an Italian terrorist organization.
White
White is a basic taboo word that reflects Chinese people abandon and disgust in both material and spiritual aspects. White symbolizes the death and ill omen in Chinese culture. Because of political influence, white symbolizes backward, rottenness and surrender, for instance, when an army fails, the soldier plays a “white flag” to show their surrenders.
In western countries, white is associated with government. For example, their president lives in White House. Another example, the White Paper is a reports published by the government about its policies on matters that are to be considered by Parliament and the White book is an official report of government affairs bound in white.
3.3 Color words and economy
In economy life, the color words are also vastly used. There are a great number of phrases and fixed usages which related to color in economic glossary. The following are some combined meanings of color words and some economy words which formed by those color words. White goods refer to household appliances like fridge, washing machines and gas stoves, whose outer shells are usually white; while brown goods are electrical products like TV sets, radios and recorders, whose outer shells are usually brown. The blue button is the broker who has the right to enter the stock exchange and the green pound is the value of the pound as a currency exchange for agricultural produce in the EEC (European Economic Community)
Red
In economy, the word red is always related to debt or bankrupt. When the net income on reckoning is negative, people use red pen to energizer. Therefore there are phrases like red figure, red ink, in the red, red-ink entry, and red balance. In addition, usages like red cent, red gold, red tip on stock market are also used frequently.
Black
In English speaking country, when people talk about black, it is always related with “bad, evil, and wicked”. For example, black money means the money with wrong source; black market means exchanging things which the government forbids or doing illegal speculated marketing. However, there is exception. Black can also mean payoff. Like red, black is also a kind of color when people keep accounts. Such as black figure, in the black, black figure nation and interest in the black.
Blue
Blue in English means unhappy and gloomy. It can also be used to describe the nobles on the upper class; for example, he is a real blue blood. Another phrase “blue-eyed boys” means the employees on which the management doted. In economy glossary, blue has many meanings, such as blue book, blue-sky market, blue-collar workers, and blue chip. Blue button means the broker who has the right to enter the stock exchange. Blue return is a kind of table that can only be used by honest taxpayer. Blue-chip rate is British favorable credit interest rate. Blue law is a kind of laws in America which forbid people from doing commercial exchange on Sunday. Blue-sky law refers to the law which used to manage the stocks. Blue sky bargaining means the agreement cannot be made because of unpractical request during the negotiation.
Green
In common English, green always means fresh or envy, but in economy English green back equal to American dollars for the other side of the dollar is green. Green power means consortium. Green meat means fresh meat. Green stamp means the ticket for helping poor people. Green sheet is the comparative table of government budget.
White
White makes one think of immaculacy in English, such as white war is the war without smoke, which always refers to the economy competition. White goods refer to the family electric equipments which are big and expensive. Others like white money, white coal, white elephant, white sale, and the white way are all useful phrase.
Grey
There are still other color words in economy life. Grey market means half-black market. Grey area means the area where many people lose job.
3.4 Color words and daily usage
People's actual life is closely related to colors. There are many color expressions, which reflect different cultural psychologies colorings both in Chinese and English. Color is a kind of visual effect. Because the mankind has the same physiological mechanism and vision nerve, the color words are not different in essence, theoretically. In different nationality, people's impression of colors and expressions are different, and the associative meaning produced by the color has nothing in common with each other. There are different and various color words and expressions in English and Chinese.
There is a typical example: Mr. White is a very white (loyal) man. He was looking rather green (feel not good) the other day. He has been feeling blue (gloomy) today. When I saw him, he was in a brown mood (worried). I hope he’ll soon be in the pink (pull himself together) again. From this, we can see many metaphors when we use color words to describe a person’s mood and behavior. It will help us to grasp the meaning of the talk if we really understand these metaphors. The following part will be devoted to the discussion of cultural differences of certain color words.
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