天下紅雨 (Color)

Yesterday when I said " See me on Time," you might say, "Fat chance!" Or sometimes you say "once in a blue moon" to describe something that's very unlikely to happen. In Chinese we use 天下紅雨(tian xia4 hong2 yu3) , it drops red rain , or 太陽打西邊出來(tai4 yang2 da3 xi bian chu lai2), the sun rises from the west, to express the similar. When I joked about writing that "snake teacher" book,  you might think, "oh, you're just jealous! " Funny you say "green with envy" while we say "red-eyed" 眼紅(yan3 hong2)  But don't confuse it with 哭紅了眼(ku hong2 l yan3),the eyes turn red from weeping, or 殺紅了眼(sha hong2 l yang3),a phrase used to describe how a crazy killer has gone nuts and can’t stop killing.

Red is an auspicious color for Chinese. It’s the color for celebrations such as the wedding and the festival season of the Chinese New Year. People not only wear in red but also give 紅包(hong2 bao), a red envelop with money inside. Instead of gifts, we give cash to the newly wed or the new parents to congratulate them, which saves the trouble of getting gifts as well as exchange them. But紅包 also refers to bribery. In giving bribery, you 送紅包(song4 hong2 bao while 收紅包(shou hong2 bao) means receiving bribery.

In English, you’re black with rage; In Chinese, you 臉色鐵青(lian2 se4 tie3 qing) or sometimes we say, 臉都綠了(lian2 dou lu4 l), your face turn green. 青(qing) could mean both green or blue. In 青草地(qing cao3 di4), it’s green grass land while 青天(quing tian) means the blue sky. You beat someone black and blue. And in Chinese it’s 鼻青臉腫(bi2 quing lian3 zhong3), blue-nosed and swollen-faced.

Every time when I ask my students what a “blue movie” is, they will say it’s a sad movie. This is not an uncommon misunderstanding. Strange to say, in Chinese we use the color yellow 黃(huang2), to refer to porn. A blue movie is 黃色電影(huang2 se4 dian4 ying3)A dirty joke is 黃色笑話(huang se4 xiao4 hua4) A man who’s always telling those jokes could be called 黃帝(huagn2 di4), which sounds exactly the same as an emperor. 皇帝, whose robes happened to be yellow.

When it comes to colors, if someone says你很色(ni3 hen3 se4), it has nothing to do with any color 顏色(yan2 se4) but “yellow,” which means you’re obscene.

天下紅雨=天下红雨

太陽打西邊出來=太阳打西边出来

眼紅=眼红

哭紅了眼=哭红了眼

殺紅了眼=杀红了眼

臉色鐵青=脸色铁青

臉都綠了=脸都绿了

鼻青臉腫=鼻青脸肿

黃色電影=黄色电影

黃色笑話=黄色笑话