12. Red — China’s Favorite Color
A: Chinese people also like the red color a lot. China used to be called the red country in the past. Even now, Chinese people like to refer ourselves as Chizi, meaning the red descendant.
B: Traditionally, red represents the motherland and authority. Official uniforms of the Tang Dynasty were red. In the Qing Dynasty, different shades of red were used on official caps to show different ranking. Even nowadays, headlines of official documents are still painted in red. This is why they are called red-head documents.
A: Red is also a highly-regarded color among ordinary people.
B: yes, because it represents happiness. For example, the word double happiness used for weddings is red. The bride wears red clothes, which is different from the white gowns of the west. During Chinese spring festival, people will give Hongbao or red packets with money inside to the children as well wishes. Couplets hanging on both sides of the doors are written in red. Even the outfit of Zhongkui, the door god whose portrait is hung on the door is red. The word red equals prettiness. The expression ‘hongyan’meaning red color is a synonym of a beautiful girl. Red is also one of the most popular words used in the names of Chinese women.
A: You told a lot about how people like the red color. In traffic lights as well as in soccer, red means stop prelimination.
B: This is how the westerners like to use the red color. Because red is very bright, it is good for warning purposes. But it doesn’t really have any negative meanings. In China, the red color was abused during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. The country was overwhelmed with red flags、posters、 unbans and Mao’s badges, etc., and was therefore called a red sea.
A: Ironically, although there was worship of red, no one dared to wear red clothes. Everyone was in either green or blue uniforms. That’s why westerners refer to the Chinese as blue ants at that time.
B: I guess red clothes were somehow associated with the meaning of beauty in the red color. During those special years, beauty was considered bourgeois. So anyone who dared to wear red would be drowned in the red sea. |