Yellow
In Chinese, yellow are mostly means filthy, obscene, or vulgar. We have phase in Chinese expressions as黄色书刊，黄色电影，黄色音乐. In English, we have the phrase yellow journalism which lays too much emphasis on scandals or exaggerates the ordinary news to a sensational degree, sometimes even with distortion. Similarly, we have Yellow Pages(黄页) both in Chinese and English. This is a book with the telephone numbers of different shops, businesses, organizations, etc., arranged in the order of different categories. Yellow Pages is a very useful handbook whose pages are yellow, but the content is not yellow in the Chinese sense.
Generally speaking, yellow is to some extent derogatory that carries the connotations of cowardice, jealousy, suspicion and contemptibility. Here is the proof:
Yellow alert = alert in advance
Yellow boy = gold coin
A yellow dog = a contemptible person
A yellow dog contract = a contract signed in the precondition that the employee will not join in the labor union
The sear and yellow leaf = an old age
Yellow looks = suspicious looks
Yellow streak = tending to be coward and chicken-hearted
Purple
In English, purple shares the same connotation as that in Chinese language. In the eye of Westerners, purple is the symbol of emperor and power. In particular, the purple refers to the throne of the emperor or the pope. “to be born in the purple” means “to be born in a royal family”; “to be raised to the purple” means “to be promoted to the position as a pope”; “purple passages” means “too florid words”, etc. In Chinese, we have 红得发紫, meaning popular to the extreme. Here, purple indicates the degree of popularity (红). Here is more:
Marry into the purple = marry into a family of high social position
Purple patches = pompous passages
Turn purple with rage = fly into a fury
Purple Heart (US) = an insignia awarded to those wounded in the battle
Grey
Grey is often used to suggest darkness, sullen weather, blue mood or gloomy outlook. For instances, He looks grey and tired. The prospect of the market is grey. He is a grey-haired man now. Grey also suggests wisdom and tact, as in the following expressions: grey wisdom, grey matter, and gray beard.
Blue
It seems that blue is a favorable word to Chinese. The blue sky, as often as not, can arouse us to yearn for a better future; the blue sea full of uncertainty induces boundless imagination. Naturally, we take it for granted that the famous song Love is Blue equals a romantic love story. In Western culture, however, blue does not associate with happiness and imagination, but gloom and depression. Take some sentences for example: He has been in a blue mood (or having the blues) since he knew that his failure in the entrance examination. In this example, those two terms mean a sad or gloomy mood. Similarly, a blue Monday carries the same feeling. Usually after the happy weekends, we are likely to feel reluctant to attend school or go back to work, thus comes the expression-a blue Monday that can be accepted and understood by both cultures.
Blue is also often associated with high social status or being aristocratic. He is a real blue blood means he is from an aristocratic family. In addition, in U.S., a book with the names of famous figures, especially top government officials, is called blue book.
Here are more to complement the word list of blue.
Blue about the gill = sin depression
Blue devils = depression and gloom
Blue film = erotic film {In Chinese, we call it 黄色电影 (a yellow film literally).}
Once in a blue moon = occurring only once in a thousand years
Blue in the face = look pasty
Blue murder = horrible screaming and shouts
Sing the blue = sin low spirits; very depressed
Out of the blue = a thunder from the clear sky; the sudden coming of something unexpected
4 The common misunderstanding of color words
The color words can make up a group of words, and these new words are particularly rich in cultural associations. So, color words in English and in Chinese may have the same and different associations. It is natural that English terms of color may have cultural associations that are not transparent to Chinese learners of English as a foreign language. In other words, although some color words stand for abounding connotations in English, but there are few connotations in Chinese. Therefore, these color words will become the barrier of understanding the cultural connotation. According to these associations, we still can find some extended usage of color words.
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