The Metaphorical and Symbolic Meanings of Animals in Chinese and Western Cultures.docx

the metaphorical and symbolic meanings of animals in chinese and western culturesabstract: with the trend of globalization and the increasing cross-cultural communication between china and the west, a growing number of people have come to realize that there exist a world of differences between chinese culture and western culture. a good case in point concerns animals.this thesis analyzes and compares the metaphorical and symbolic meanings of some common animals in different cultures through two categories animals with same or similar meanings and animals with different meanings, and it explores the cultural difference in the connotative meanings of animals, thus demonstrating the practical importance of highlighting this cultural difference. it also discusses the reasons for the difference from the cultural, historical and social perspectives and points out that a thorough understanding of this cultural difference will help us to actualize effective communication in cross-cultural context. key words: animal metaphorical and symbolic meaning cultural difference中西文化背景中动物的比喻与联想 摘要: 随着世界贸易的日益全球化发展，中西方文化交流不断加深，中西方文化差异越来越受到人们的广泛关注，其中极具代表性的是动物的比喻和联想意义。由于中西方国家的自然环境、社会文化背景和风俗习惯不同，动物的比喻和联想意义也存在着很大的差异。在中西方文化中，有一些动物具有相同或类似的比喻和联想意义，但也有很多动物的比喻和联想意义截然不同或甚至完全相反。本文通过归纳、分析、对比动物在中西方文化中所具有的相同或类似、截然不同或完全相反的比喻和联想意义，探讨了动物的比喻和联想意义所折射出的 中西方文化差异，并从历史和社会文化角度分析了这一差异存在的原因，进而阐述充分认识和了解中西方文化差异的现实意义有助于实现跨文化交际中的有效交流和沟通。关键词： 动物 比喻和联想意义 文化差异1. introductionanimals are friends of human beings. they are part of peoples daily life. as time goes by, languages of all nations contain a lot of words denoting animals, including chinese and english. a close study of these animal words reveals that the images of animals vary greatly from chinese culture to western culture. people of these two cultures associate different symbolic and metaphorical meanings with animals. in chinese and western cultures, the metaphorical and symbolic meanings of some animals are the same or similar, while others are quite different or totally opposite to each other, that is, the connotative meanings of animals in china do not coincide with those in the west. many scholars have conducted researches in this field. they have discussed in detail the different meanings of animals in chinese and western cultures, and put forward a number of representative examples. however, the reasons for the cultural difference in the metaphorical and symbolic meanings of animals have not yet been deeply explored and the significance of understanding this cultural difference is still to be highlighted.this thesis makes a comparative study of the metaphorical and symbolic meanings of some common animals in chinese and western cultures. the animals are categorized according to their connotative meanings: animals with same or similar meanings and animals with different meanings. it also explores the reasons accounting for the cultural difference in the metaphorical and symbolic meanings of animals from the cultural, historical and social perspectives and points out that it is of great significance to keep it in mind that animals bear different connotative meanings in chinese and western cultural contexts; misunderstanding or even conflict in cross-cultural communication may arise if we just ignore this cultural difference.2. literature reviewas the cultural difference in the metaphorical and symbolic meanings of animals has exerted great influence on many fields in the cross-cultural communication, many scholars have conducted researches concerning the images of animals in chinese and western cultures. the researches made by tan (2002), zhou (2002) and chen (1999) are summarized respectively as follows.2.1 tan yanfens study tan (2002) holds that an animal may signify the same or different meanings in different cultural contexts. take fox as an example, both chinese and western people think of such adjectives as cunning, sly and crafty. however, a chinese cannot figure out the idiom “as happy as a cricket” so easily, as cricket is nothing but a common insect in chinese minds. still, for those animals that exist only in one particular country, it will be difficult for a foreigner to understand its symbolic meaning. for instance, a chinese man will normally feel at a loss when he reads such a sentence: “she is such a turkey.” its likely that he will take this sentence as a kind of compliment to a lady as the turkey is a popular course of dish beloved by the americans. however, he is mistaken. what is the fact is that the turkey is viewed as ugly and stupid in american culture. therefore, when it is used to refer to someone, it shows the speakers dislike and hatred for this person. according to tan (2002, p. 78), “people usually associate certain qualities and properties with certain animals, and these qualities and properties would evoke certain emotions and reactions on the part of people. although this kind of association has few or no scientific basis, it affects peoples attitude towards animals. besides, the qualities and properties an animal is associated with and the reactions and emotions they evoke vary from culture to culture.” in other words, each culture endows an animal with its specific meaning. 2.2 zhou huafangs study zhou (2002) argues that the cultural difference in the metaphorical and symbolic meanings of animals is a perfect reflection of the unique cultural traditions and ideology of china and the west respectively. zhous point of view can be divided into three aspects. in the first place, a myriad of words and expressions concerning animals do exist in chinese and english language. because theyre born in different cultural backgrounds, for certain animals, they may have different meanings in different countries. for example, in chinese culture, the peacock is generally viewed as a beautiful bird. it is adored by most chinese people and it is taken as a symbol of beauty. however, people in english-speaking countries do not share the chinese peoples view in this regard. according to an english person, the peacock always likes to show itself off and therefore, its an arrogant bird. as a result, the peacock has some derogatory association in english language. take the magpie as another example, the chinese think its the symbol of auspiciousness, but to the western people, it stands for gossip. the inconsistent connotative meanings of animals in china and the west may bring about cultural crash, which should be paid attention to. secondly, in chinese and western cultures different animal idioms may have the same metaphorical and symbolic meanings. take the english horse and the chinese “牛” as an example, its interesting to note that quite often the chinese equivalent of the image of the english horse is “牛”, as the expressions “talk horse” and “as strong as a horse” are translated into “吹牛” and “壮的像头牛” respectively. in addition, the english “lion” and the chinese “虎” can also be called a pair of equivalents in some cases. in english culture, the lion stands for royalty and dignity. it is “the king of the beasts”. but we chinese people do not think so highly of the lion as the westerners do. truly, the chinese would also admit that the lion is a kind of formidable and powerful animal, but for us, the images such as dignity and royalty are reserved specially to “虎”. in chinese peoples eyes, its the tiger that is “the king of beasts”. thirdly, despite the differences, still many animals have the same or similar connotative meanings in chinese and western cultures, such as the cunning fox, and the venomous snake. the reason of the correspondence in the meanings of animals is easy to figure out. mankind, be he chinese or westerner, has something in common. chinese and english-speaking people share quite a lot in their exploration and understanding of the objective world. actually, the similarity and consistence of different cultures is the very foundation on which cross-cultural communication is based. it ensures that communication between different cultures can go on smoothly. its known that the connotative meaning of an animal is closely knitted with many factors such as the historical and cultural backgrounds of that particular nation, its social life, customs and conventions. thus zhou (2002) reminds us in her paper that in practice we should try to avoid interpreting those animal idioms of other nations according to our chinese way of thinking.2.3 chen dezhangs study according to chen (1999, p. 234), “the connotations of animal words in one language do not necessarily coincide with those in the other”. this is consistent with the points of view of the above-mentioned two scholars. besides, chen goes one step further on the cultural difference of the connotative meanings of animals. chen (1999, p. 236) addresses the issue from another perspective. he points out “the similarities and differences in the connotations of animal words in the two languages is a point to be taken into consideration in translation”. for example, he says it would be improper to translate the english proverb “you cannot teach old dog new tricks” literally as “你教不会老狗新把戏”， since no chinese would like himself to be called “狗”. these scholars have addressed many aspects of this issue and highlight from different perspectives that animals have different symbolic and metaphorical meanings in chinese and western cultures, such as turkey, peacock and magpie, and theyve spotted those prominent examples like the dragon, dogs and horses. this thesis makes an attempt to give more examples and state systematically the metaphorical and symbolic meanings of those common animals in chinese and western cultures and enumerate some cases of misunderstanding because of the ignorance of such difference, thus demonstrating the practical importance of highlighting this cultural difference.3. metaphorical and symbolic meanings of animals in chinese and western culturesbecause of different historical and cultural backgrounds, customs and conventions, the symbolic and metaphorical meanings of animals vary greatly from chinese culture to western culture. in chinese and western cultures, some animals bear the same or similar symbolic and metaphorical meanings, while others have quite different or totally opposite meanings, that is, the connotative meanings of animals in china do not coincide with those in the west. in this part the writer of this thesis is to list some common animals in china and the west and state their metaphorical and symbolic meanings systematically and clearly. 3.1 similar metaphorical and symbolic meanings of animalswhen visiting shenzhen university in nov. 1995, doctor eugene a. nida, american theoretician on translation makes a report in the title of “relationship between language and culture”, in which he states that languages and cultures all over the world are amazingly similar. indeed, as far as the image of animals is concerned, there are a good many animals which usually bring the same or similar feelings to both english and chinese people, such as fox, snake, crocodile, wolf and so on. in other words, these animals have similar metaphorical and symbolic meanings from china to the west. to begin with, both chinese and english-speaking people show no favor towards the fox, which is always knitted with such derogatory words as cunning, sly and crafty. from the expressions “as cunning as a fox”（像狐狸一样狡猾）, and “a fox in lambs skin”（披着羔羊皮的狐狸） we can sense chinese and western peoples distaste for this animal.chinese people dont like snakes. they think the snake is ugly, venomous, and viperous, hiding itself in the grass and always getting ready to attack. english-speaking people, too, dislike it. they associate the snake with the serpent that seduces eva into eating the fruit of the tree of wisdom in eden. it is because of the serpent that adam and eva, ancestors of human beings, have been forced out of the eden and exposed to hardship and danger ever since. in western peoples minds, the serpent is the incarnation of satan (thats why satan is quite so often called the old serpent in the west.). it is the snake that brings disaster to mankind. in this sense, english-speaking peoples hatred for snakes is even more acute than that of the chinese. from china to the west, people are inclined to link crocodiles with derogatory feelings. there is hardly a person who does not know that “crocodile tears” (鳄鱼的眼泪) means insincere sorrow. this animal brings negative emotions to people both in chinese and western cultures.there is no doubt that people from both chinese and western cultures are familiar with wolves, the character of which is ferocious, and brutal. indeed, in some literary works, such as 狼图腾, the wolf is depicted as a noble species with willpower of iron. nevertheless, when people think of the wolf, mostly they think first of its coldblooedness and brutality. from what has been discussed above, we may say for sure that the metaphorical and symbolic meanings of many animals are correspondent with each other in china and the west. this is because mankind, be he chinese or western, has something in common. chinese and english-speaking people share quite a lot in their exploration and understanding of the objective world. this is the very foundation on which cross-cultural communication is based.3.2 different metaphorical and symbolic meanings of animalswhile many animals have similar images in chinese and western cultures, still more dont. these animals are associated with different qualities and arouse different emotions. in some cases, their associative meanings may be simply opposed to each other. the following are some representative animals and their respective associations.dogs must be one of the animals people are most familiar with in the two cultures. however, peoples attitude towards them differs. according to a survey done by chen (1999, p. 238), “most english-speaking people think the dogs first quality is friendliness and therefore stands for friendship while most chinese think the dog stands for faithfulnessthere is a clear difference of the stress”. in the west, people view the dog as mans best friend. dogs make a good companion. they are mans most favorite pets. usually, when a westerner talks about his pet dog, he would rather refer to the dog as “him” or “her” rather than “it”. sometimes, when one dies, he would leave all his property to his pet dog. this exemplifies the close relationship between western people and the dog. in english language the word “dog” is widely used: “lucky dog” (幸运儿), “every dog has his day” (凡人皆有得意时), “love me, love my dog” (爱屋及乌) and so on. in one word, “dog” can be used to denote anyone in the west. by contrast, although lots of chinese also like the dog and keep it as pet, the general image of the dog in chinese language is derogative, as can be seen in such expressions as “狗崽子”， “落水狗”，“狗急跳墙”，“狗嘴里吐不出象牙”，“狗拿耗子多管闲事” etc. the difference in metaphorical and symbolic meanings of the dog in chinese and western cultures is a point to be taken into consideration when we do translation between the two languages. it explains why we cannot translate “you cannot teach old dog new tricks” literally as “你教不会老狗新把戏”, as no chinese would like himself to be called “狗” (chen, 1999). cats do not enjoy the same reputation as dogs do in the west. admittedly westerners also keep cats as pets, but to many people, they are mysterious and odd. in western legend, the cat is the incarnation of the devil. a cat, especially a black one, is usually linked with witch and evil. so the westerners feel a profound fear for black cats. this is especially true for british people. its said that one would get misfortune if he comes across a black cat in a dark friday evening. thus english-speaking people associate unpleasant emotion with cats. actually the word “cat” can be used to refer to an evil-minded woman whod like to speak ill of other people. the image a cat gives the chinese people is quite on the contrary. in china, cats, together with dogs, are mens good companions. chinese people like cats very much, partly because they catch rats and partly because they look pretty and mild.chinese and western peoples understanding of the horse and the ox also differs from each other. in old days, the horse is the animal most widely used in farming and transportation in the west. western people are most familiar with horses in their daily life. as time goes by, a good many expressions concerning the horse occur and accumulate in english, like “talk horse” and “as strong as a horse”. its interesting to note that quite often the chinese equivalent of the image of the horse is “牛”， so the above two expressions should be translated into “吹牛” and “壮的像头牛” respectively. its not difficult to figure out the reason. in china oxen are the animal that is widely used in farming and with which chinese people are most familiar. we chinese have a special love for the ox, as can be shown in lu xuns“俯首甘为孺子牛”. in chinese peoples mind, the chief quality of the ox is being hardworking. however, people from english speaking cultures dont think so. the expression “a bull in a china shop” tells us that instead of hardworking, western people usually associate the bull/ox (“牛” has a bigger semantic field than the ox/bull ) with awkward and imprudent people. to people from english- speaking countries, “the king of the beasts” is the lion, which stands for royalty and dignity. from such expressions as “regal as a lion” and “majestic as a lion”, we can easily figure out that the lion enjoys a very high prestige in the west. no wonder the british would like to call themselves “the british lion”. in contrast, chinese people do not think so highly of the lion as the westerners do. truly, the ch