Importance of Color in Chinese Culture
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Chinese culture is rooted in ethics, morality, hierarchy and behaviors. They associate different things with their culture. It is true to bring out the fact that Chinese relates its culture to various colors. The colors also carry auspicious and inauspicious meanings in their culture.
The ancient and the modern Chinese people cherish the color of red. It symbolizes Good luck. The color is used on the eve on New Year and weddings. People pack the gifts in red color during the New Year to bring good luck in the coming year. It is also a color of wedding in Chinese
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culture. The idea is based on the belief that wearing red dress on the day of wedding, it will help the couple to blow off the bad luck. The color is believed to bring good luck, happiness and joy in Chinese culture. In Chinese metaphysics, red is related with fire elements and it is regarded as energy. Red is traditionally considered as an auspicious color in Chinese culture.
The traditional Chinese associates color with various elements of nature. They regard black, red, blue-green, white and yellow as standard color. Traditional Chinese physicians corresponds the color of black with water, red with fire, blue-green with wood, white with metal and yellow with earth.
The ancient Chinese associates the color of white with brightness, purity and fulfillment. Contrary to this, it is also a color of mourning. Ancient people wore the color at the time of mourning for a death. Even today, it is still practiced in the Chinese culture. They regard the black color as the king of colors and honored black more than any other colors.
The color of yellow embodies a rich culture in the folk tradition of the Chinese. It is used for decorating royal palaces, temples, altars and all scared places in Chinese culture. It is also a color reserved for five legendary emperors in ancient China. The color is highly respected in Buddhism because it symbolizes the freedom of soul from the materialistic world.
The naming of different seasons is based on colors in Chinese culture. The season of spring was represented by greenish blue when everything overflows with vigor and vitality, summer was represented by reddish brightness, autumn was represented by white color and winter was represented by black color.
The colors in Chinese culture ha s a close relationship with craftsmanship, art, poetry and its customs. The emperors of the Ming dynasty live in houses with red walls and yellow roof tiles. The common people live in houses made of blue bricks with blue roof tiles. The intensity romantic beauty in Chinese painting is delineated by thickness of its ink. Different dynasties follows different pattern of color in their art form. Paintings of ancient Chinese were full of brightness and more systematic. The poems of Chinese were full of vibrant colors and the poets were masters at describing colors. The poets create a wonderful artistic conception with colors. The beauty of the poems created a history in the art of Chinese culture.
One striking idea of color in Chinese tradition is that they used twenty-four colors to describe the color of silk fabric like purple, red, green, deep red, bright red dark red and so on. The brilliant colors show the rich colors in ancient China.
The Chinese associates a deep relation of their culture with different colors. The colors show expression of their lives and have a deep-rooted relation with the culture.
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