Color Green in Chinese Culture

In Chinese learning, color learning is an important part. In Chinese culture, colors have deeper meanings under the visible appearance. The meaning of different colors. For example, you are not supposed to present a green hat as a gift to your Chinese friends. Why? Let’s learn colors in Chinese culture.

The color green is a very special color in Chinese learning. In English, green means new, young or freshman. In Chinese, there is a saying called “wear a green hat”. If  “他被带了绿帽子” or he is wearing a green hat, it means he was betrayed by his wife or girlfriend.

Why is this saying? It comes from a story.

The story says: Long time ago, the husband often went on business trip, leaving his wife at home. She was so lonely and empty that she dated her neighbor and unluckily they were caught being together when the husband returned. The husband forgave them, but they were still in contact. One day, they came up a plan: The wife will let the husband wear a green hat to fight cold, and when the husband went out, her lover would come and date her. Thus, wearing a green hat means someone is betrayed by his wife or girl friend.

Are you interested in this story? 

The color green has other meanings. In China, 绿色食品 or Green Food means food which causes no damage to the environment. Besides the color green, there are a lot of colors that have very different meanings from the ones in English.

Five donts with Chopsticks

Chinese culture is a big part of online Chinese learning. However good we are at the wording, we may not be able to use the language properly if we know little about Chinese culture. In this article, we will learn five don’ts when using Chinese Chopsticks. Actually learning mandarin is not just to learn Chinese characters, grammar or pronunciation.

Chopsticks or kuai4 zi are the most commonly used tools for dining in China. It is convenient, light and easy to wash. But we should be careful when using chopsticks because there are many taboos that you should avoid by all means.When you do business with Chinese people, you may have used chopsticks, but do you know the taboos of using this dining tool? The followings are five things you are not supposed to do at table.

No.1: Don’t point to people with chopsticks, which is easy to understand. This is just like pointing to someone with your finger. Both of them are considered impolite at dinner.

No.2: Do not hold chopsticks in your mouth and suck them. It is regarded as lack of behavior in China, especially for women. If you suck them, you are very likely to make strange noises, which is often quite annoying. When a kid does this, it is not as bad as an adult does it, but it is not right anyway, so the parents or teachers will stop him or her from doing so.

No.3: Do not use your chopsticks to hit the bowl or the plate, either when you feel bored or happy. That’s what beggars do when they beg for food.

No.4: Do not put your chopsticks in the middle of a bowl of rice before eating. In China, people stick up lighted incenses to remember their pass-away ancestor. This behavior is very like the activity of showing respect to the dead, so it is the biggest taboo you should avoid at a Chinese home.

The difficult part lies in the cultural aspect. That’s why we should attach equal importance to culture learning when learning mandarin.

Festival Series- Mid-Autumn Festival

We will get to know more Chinese festivals. Mid-Autumn Festival, that will be the topic of today’s online Chinese lessons. This festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, usually in October in Chinese lunar calendar.

So, how does this festival come into being?

It all begins from a story: there were said to be ten suns in the sky, which scorched all crops and drove people into dire poverty. A hero named Hou Yi ascended to the top of the Kunlun Mountain and, directing his superhuman strength to full extent, drew his extraordinary bow and shot down the nine superfluous suns one after another. He also ordered the last sun to rise and set according to time. For this reason, he was respected and loved by the people and lots of people of ideals and integrity came to him to learn martial arts from him. A person named Peng Meng lurked in them.

One day when Hou Yi led his disciples to go hunting, Peng Meng, sword in hand, rushed into the inner chamber and forced Chang E to hand over the elixir. Aware that she was unable to defeat Peng Meng, Chang E made a prompt decision at that critical moment. She turned round to open her treasure box, took up the elixir and swallowed it in one gulp. As soon as she swallowed the elixir her body floated off the ground, dashed out of the window and flew towards the moon.

Chinese food and chopsticks

When we are learning Chinese, we should make full use of the vast learning resources from the Internet, among which Chinese culture is easily accessible.

 A lot of people have heard Chinese food from online Chinese. Chinese food is quite famous for its various flavors and styles etc.

There are many kinds of food in China such as Cantonese food, Sichuan food, Shanghai food. So how do these cuisines taste? Cantonese food is a bit light, Sichuan food is very hot, while Shanghai food is rather sweet. 

In the north of China, people often eat noodles and dumplings. In the south of China, people eat a lot of rice and seafood.

Another culture about Chinese food is the dining tools. To many people, Chopstick or kuai4 zi is a headache, because they can hardly pick up the food with chopsticks. But the Chinese people can handle it pretty well since they were very young, let’s say 4 or 5 years old. That’s why a foreigner in China will be very impressive if he can use the chopsticks to eat food.

Chopsticks are the main dinging tools in China. Chinese children start with a spoon but will adapt to chopsticks as early as they are 3. A lot of students who learn to speak mandarin will send chopsticks to their friends because chopsticks symbolize straightforwardness, because of its shape. Chinese chopsticks don’t have pointed tip, unlike the Japanese style that is refined to pick out the bones for their main diet, fish. Chinese chopsticks are mostly of bamboo, but today there are more and more wooden ones and plastic ones.

For online Chinese learners, Chinese culture is important in that it will help you better understand the language and generate your interest in speaking Chinese

Mandarin Resources:

HSK grammar

Chinese cultural embarrassment

With China’s increasing influence, the intercultural communication between Chinese and foreigners has become more and more frequent. And a lot of people has started learning Chinese. It seems the online Chinese is going rather hot outside China, but what is going on domestically?

In China, people, especially the youth group, tend to neglect the importance of Chinese tuition and its rich culture. They usually pay more attention to foreign language acquisition than mandarin. That’s why a lot of young people are not standard in mandarin speaking. Some can only speak local dialect.

Various factors can account for this situation. For example, a good command of a foreign language may help young people in China get a good job while Chinese skills may be of no significance in one’s job hunting and even their career. As a result, some students may not value Chinese language as English.

Besides, nowadays fewer and fewer universities stimulate Chinese language study in campus, which has caused it to be marginalized. Under this circumstance, Chinese language becomes less and less popular in universities. So, the Chinese should also speed up their steps to learn Chinese language and Chinese culture as foreign Chinese learners do.

If you are condidering learning Chinese too, you can start by taking online Chinese lessons, or access free online learning resources. 

hskcourse.com is an online platform for HSK exercises, that has structured hsk grammar lessons. This site aim to help you not only successfully pass the exam, but gain confidence in using Chinese language.