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By using comparative analysis, the paper attempts to study the differences between Chinese loong and English dragon under the context of culture. It also analyzes the cultural causes of different conceptions of loong and dragon and proposes some solutions to overcome cultural barriers in Sino-western cultural communication. Thus the readers can get a better understanding of their different conceptions in different cultures, so that misunderstandings and obstacles can be reduced to improve the effectiveness of cross-cultural communication.
II. Comparison on Differences between Chinese Loong and Western Dragon
2.1 Conceptual Differences Between Chinese Loong and Western Dragon
Under the different context of language and culture, Chinese people and Westerners have different conceptions of Chinese word loong and English word dragon.
2.1.1 The Conception of Loong in China
In Ancient China, Dragon occupies a very important position in Chinese mythology. It shows up in arts, literature, poetry, architecture, songs, and many aspects of the Chinese conscience. Loong is regarded as totem in ancient times. Chinese people in ancient times admired loong though it is just an imaginary animal in the legend. According to the archaeological studies, even 7,000 years earlier than recent times, ancient Chinese people had begun to observe all kinds of ceremonies, in which they showed great respect and honor for loong. From Chinese people’s point of view, loong, broadly speaking is a mythological creature. Loong has been regarded as the symbol of China and Chinese people. China is called dong fang ju long——a huge oriental country. In China, the traditional symbols of royalty are loong and feng. The word loong stands for the Chinese king or emperor and feng for the queen. Therefore many things which are connected with the king or royalty contain the word loong, such as long yan which means the appearance of the emperor, long ti which means the body of the emperor and long pao which means the robe for the emperor. Besides, loong is supposed to bring good luck as an auspicious creature.
In Modern Chinese Dictionary, the original meaning of loong is a kind of a supernatural animal, which has the head of camel or horse or snake, the horns of a deer, the eye of a rabbit, the ears of a cow, the scales of a carp, the claws of a hawk, the palm of tiger, whiskers and beard. Loong has no wings and it will become Ying long（翼龙）after a one-thousand year’s self-tempering. Loong is generally regarded as benevolent, powerful, worshipful and good luck. It is also thought of as the primary source of wind and rain, especially in laborers’ opinion. Furthermore, loong, which appeared on the description of Chinese fairy tales, often said to situate in the bottom of sea or river. In lunar calendar, the second day of February is a traditional festival of long. On this day, people pray for spring rain and good harvest.
Loong can be regarded as imagery of heroes and wise persons. There is a record in the old text The Story of Three Countries, which says that “徐庶见先生，先主器之，诸先生曰：‘诸葛孔明者，卧龙也，先主岂愿见乎?’”Here, Xu Shu regarded Zhuge Liang as latent long, which means that Zhuge Liang’s wisdom and talent were buried.
The English word dragon is from Latin DRACON—a large snake or serpent. The Oxford English Dictionary gives this definition an imaginary animal with wings and claws who can breathe out fire. Obviously, since the Chinese dragon and Western dragon cannot find the proper counterpart in each others culture, transliteration should be adopted to translate this object full of exotic style.
The word loong was created on the base of the pronunciation of its counterpart character in Chinese at least 60 years ago. In 1940s, “Loong” has firstly appeared in the packaging of Loong Voong cigarettes. As we all know the Chinese character “龍”is an ideograph, so is the “long”. In “loong”, double “o” look like the two big eyes of the loong. By contrast, the Chinese pinyin long looks more like a one-eyed loong. Besides, long is similar to the English word “long”, which has a lot of meanings that may make people feel confused. When it is an adjective, it means a large amount in length, distance and time. For instance, “long long ago, a long journey”. When it is a verb, however, it means to desire strongly or persistently. For instance, “he longs to go back home”. For these two reasons, that‟s why “long” wasn‟t adopted to be the best transliteration.