The Color Words Between Chinese and English

Same color, different language, different meaning
Various colors express different feelings. Generally speaking, red is used when a person is angry while green is used when someone is jealous. White means frighten, Blue means a person is in a sulk and yellow means cowardice. Although both two languages use color words to figure other people or things, the same color means differently between two languages.
It is a tradition for Chinese people to use red to express happiness, luck, and prosperousness. Red is a color that always appears in festive circumstance. For example, people use red paper to write spring festival scrolls. On wedding ceremony, people use red “Xizi”. Also red powder is always used to make up pretty girls. But in English red means extremeness, dangerous, indignation, and exigency. Such as “red light, district, red alert, see red, a red battle” and so on. In Chinese yellow always reflects the meaning of eroticism. In English blue has this meaning. Therefore blue films and blue videotapes mean coprological films and videotapes. White in Chinese means beravement. People who lost relatives use white paper, wear white clothes and white caps. While in English white means immaculacy. Such as a white spirit, white day and so on. There are other fixed phrases about white. Such as the following phrases: white elephant (albatross), white collar, white-smith (silversmith), white slave, white coal, white gourd (Chinese watermelon), white lady (hand tailor cocktail), the whites (egg white), white thorn, show the white feather, white coffee, white nights (sleepless night), white man (trusty man) etc. Black symbolizes sorriness and death. In religion, black means grief, despair and death. In English we have black tidings and black Friday. Look at the following sentences and phrases:

1. The committee gave him a black (despair) eye, they turned down his suggestion.
2. He has a few black marks (misstep) against him.
3. Poor Tom, who is always the black sheep (impiety) of the family, always in disgrace.
4. Black smith (forger)
5. Blackleg (knobkerrie)
6. Blackguard (ruffian)
7. Black look (looking with anger)
8. Black magic (enchantment)
9. Black and blue (injured seriously)

10.  Black carp (herring)
11. Black future (have no future)
In Chinese if we say a man has wear a green cap, that means his wife doesn’t loyal to him. But in English green means jejune and being lack of experience, such as a green hand, a green horn and so on. Let’s look at the following sentences:

1. He is as green as grass.
2. Do not blame on him, he is only a green hand.
3. We are not so green as to believe that.

We all know that blue is the color of sea. It indicates peace and serenity. But when it turns to the emotion, it has the meaning of depression and melancholy. For example,

1. It was blue (boring) Monday and john nodded sleepily over his books.
2. You get a chance like this in a blue moon (vary rare).
3. He is a person who is always a blue nose (put on air). Blue also means indelicacy in English, such as blue film, blue talk etc.