Difference of the traditional culture thought also reflects the national characteristics inevitably. Chinese traditional philosophy mainly takes the Confucianism as the basic skeleton and mixed with Taoism before 1840. Britain is among the few western countries which have glorious history. The Christianity culture and the western philosophy are the main body of the English culture. For example, the definition of “龙 /loŋ214/ (dragon)” in Chinese dictionary is:
“我国传说中的神异动物，有鳞，有爪，有脚，能走能飞，能游泳，能兴云降雨 (Dragon is a mystical animal in the Chinese legend, with scaly skin, claws and legs. It can fly and swim and can creat clouds and rain.)”.
For thousands of years in the Chinese culture ‘dragon’ is quite familiar with the Chinese nationality and has the favorable impression. ‘Dragon’ in Chinese is a commendatory word, it has rich national characteristics. In the Chinese culture dragon is not only a symbol of nobleness and mystery, but also a metaphor referring to the emperor with supreme power. Therefore, in ancient China, when the emperor is angry there is an old Chinese saying “龙颜大怒 /loŋ214jan35ta51lu51/”, here “龙颜/loŋ214jan35/” refers to the face of the emperor. And the descendants of the emperor are called “龙子龙孙 /loŋ214ʦi214loŋ214sun55/ (the offsprings of the dragon)”. In Beijing, the building style of the Imperial Palace is around the theme of dragon. Dragon is also symbolizing the outstanding people, contains the commendatory meaning as authority, strength, talent and propitiousness and so on. So nowadays in China all the parents cherish the dream of “望子成龙/waŋ51ʦi214ʦʰeŋ35loŋ214/ (expecting their children to be the dragons)”, the Chinese connotation is that the parents expect their children to be somebody.
However, in the English dictionary, dragon is defined as “a mythical monster, usually represented as a large reptile with wings and claws, breathing out fire and smoke”. Because of the influence of the Bible, in the western culture, “dragon” is a symbol of monster without any good connotation. So in western countries, the people become discolored when hearing the word “dragon” since it is often used to refer to the person who is cruel. As a result of the influence of the Christianity culture, in English “dragon” also has the meaning of “the sea monster (refers to whale, shark, alligator and sea python and so on)”. English phrase “the old dragon” means “king of the monster”.
Generally speaking, in English the word dragon has a derogatory sense when it is used to refer to somebody. English Language Dictionary explain: If you call a woman as a dragon, you mean that she is fierce and unpleasant. So “亚洲四小龙/ja51 ʦou55 si51 ɕiao214 loŋ214/ ”is often translated as “the four tigers of Asia”, not “the four dragons of Asi”.
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