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Ⅲ.Cultural connotations of yellow and “黄”
 However, even though Chinese and English nations have a nearly same understanding to natural colors, their distinguished cultural backgrounds cause them to have different feeling about the associative meaning, implication, and allusion of colors. There are so many factors: custom, geographical condition, way of thinking, religious belief, and national psychology, as well as the difference of language expression( 金惠康,2002:34 ).
“Yellow” and “黄” have both positive meanings and negative meanings. As the color of gold and the sun, “yellow” is the symbol of wealth, honor and power.  Yellow paper with magic incantations is regarded by superstitious people as a means to expel evil spirits. “黄道吉日” is a day suitable for doing some important things, such as holding wedding and opening ceremonies. Born with yellow skin, cultivated in the yellow soil, and taking the Yellow River as their place of origin, the Chinese people take pride in their belonging to the yellow race, we call ourselves proudly as “炎黄子孙”. According to the five-element theory, the color “黄” is the symbolic color of “earth”, standing for the center of the universe and is regarded as a color of nobility. It has been said that Xuanyuan, a legendary ruler and one of the earliest ancestors of the Han Nationality, was called “黄帝” (Yellow Emperor) because he often wore yellow dress and yellow hats. What’s more, in Chinese, “黄” is the same in pronunciation as “皇”, so the yellow color has been the color of emperors and the color term “黄” has been used to symbolize imperial power. There are quite a few expressions with “黄” related to the emperor. The imperial dress is called “黄袍”; the palace emperors lived in is “黄宫”; Huakai, a canopy used specially for the emperors is called “黄盖”, an imperial edict is called “黄榜”. In the expressions mentioned above, “黄” can be replaced by “皇”. The idiom “黄袍加身” means  some one become the king. Another idiom is “飞 黄腾达”, which comes from a legend saying that a horse called “飞黄” in the heaven could fly into the sky at a high speed. Later, people use this idiom to imply a quick promotion. In addition, “黄” is usually associated with gold because of similar color, thus “黄” and “金” are used together referring to “precious”, such as “黄金周”, “黄金季节”, “黄金时代”, and so on. Yellow facial mask in Chinese operas often represents brave characters. In English, there is a phrase “a yellow ribbon”, used as a symbol of welcome for those people who will return home, and thus “to hang yellow ribbons for somebody” is to give a warm welcome for one’s return. However, “yellow” and “黄” are used negatively 本英语毕业论文由英语论文网www.51lunwen.org整理提供on some occasions. Both “yellow” and “黄” imply warning. “A yellow card” or “黄牌” is originally a card held up by a football referee to show that a player has done something wrong. Later it is used generally throughout the world as a symbol of warning. “A yellow line” is a line of yellow paint along the edge of a street in Britain which means one can only park the car for a short time or in particular time; while “double yellow lines” are two lines of paint that mean one cannot park there. “A yellow alert” is a preparatory warning. What’s more, “yellow” and “黄” have their specific meanings. In English, “yellow” is used to mean “jealous”, because Judas w本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。