mming from the spirits of bullfighters. so the red rag (or red flag) that bullfighters use to provocate bulls is considered annoying. according to the random house dictionary, red further develops to be the synonym for political radical. furthermore, red has some extended meanings, such as cruelty, disaster, trivial formalities, etc. red alert�alarming in emergency a red battle�a cruel battle in which a lot of lives have been lost be caught red-handed�be caught on site have red hands�commit a murder red ideas�revolutionary concepts red ruin�fire(as a disaster) red tape�bureaucratic writings in the red�in debt don’t care a red cent�don’t care at all 2.2 white to most Chinese and westerners, white has some meanings in common. white suggests purity, innocence and honesty. e.g., mary is a white girl. (pure and innocent) tom is a very white boy. he never tells lies. (honest) but in this sense, what does the term a white lie mean? can a lie be pure and innocent? actually, a white lie is a harmless one, intended not to hurt someone. for example, your mother bought a dress for you that she was very satisfied with, and wanted to know if you liked it. maybe in your mind, it was out of the fashion or the color was not to your taste. but you said, “oh, i really like it” in order not to let her down. it was a lie, but a good-intentioned lie. the connotation of white in Chinese also includes something unhappy. at funerals, Chinese pay respect to the dead and express their sorrow by wearing white and writing elegiac couplets in white paper. in the west, however, white is the traditional color for the brides at weddings, and to wear white at funerals would be offensive. so care should be taken in translating the phrase红白喜事. to avoid misunderstanding, we can put it simply as weddings and funerals. talking about red and white, there is an interesting coincidence in Chinese a...
