2.1.4 Other Colors
“红色” is associated with jealousy or envy in Chinese such as “眼红”. However, the English color “green” can be used to express “眼红”. Moreover, the Chinese color “红色” can indicate “fortune” and “success” as well, such as “红运” or “红人”. But in English, people use the color of “white” to express “fortune”, “prosperity” and “success”. “A white-haired boy” is a person who is favored by his boss or superior; “A white day” refers to a happy and lucky day.
There are a lot of examples of the usage vacancy of color words between Chinese and English in our daily life. “红糖” is equivalent to “brown sugar”; “黑面包” has the corresponding meaning of “brown bread”; “红茶” refers to “black tea”; “purple wine” refers to “红葡萄酒”; “紫竹” refers to “black bamboo”; “黑桦” means “red birch”; “翻白眼” means “to give somebody a black look”; “抹黑” indicates “bringing shame”; “She looked a bit green” is equivalent to “她看上去脸色有点苍白”; “他冻得发紫” implies that the man is blue with cold. 中英文颜色词的非对应翻译(4):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_8613.html