Igor Kagan
OmniResearch, Inc.
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Abstract |
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It is well known that Chinese prefer red and green colors to all other colors. Essentially all artifacts and manifestations of the original Chinese culture bear signs of this particular inclination. However, it's unclear what is the origin of this apparent color preference. We propose a very simple hypothesis that accounts for these observations and helps to acquire a deeper insight into many puzzling phenomena of Chinese culture. |
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Introduction |
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The peculiar tendency of Chinese nation to dye everything with red and green colors is one of a less studied mysteries of the ancient Chinese culture. Recent observations reported overwhelming prevalence of the red and green colors used for decorations of Chinese scenery in many exhibitions (Masha T., Vlad K., personal communications). Although no attempts (at least to the best of author's knowledge) have been made to account for these observations by elucidating possible differences in spectral sensitivity properties of retinal pigments (which are responsible for the color vision) between Chinese subjects and the rest of world population, it is very unlikely that these differences exist. In the same time, it is well appreciated that Chinese art reflects deepest aspects of the nation's philosophy and tradition, and the lack of information about any of its facets may prevent us from proper understanding of China's past, present, and future. Given the importance of understanding Chinese art and culture by Western civilization, especially in the light of rapidly increasing impact of Chinese nation on the current development of world community (not to mention the relative percentage of Chinese in the world population), we set out to explore the nature of Chinese color preferences using simple yet powerful engineering approach. |
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Methods |
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We constructed uniform red and green rectangular patches using the following code, written in Matlab 5.2 (MathWorks) programming environment (Fig. 1, upper panel): figure subplot(2,1,1) patch([0 1 1 0],[0 0 1 1 ], [1 0 0] ) % red patch patch([1 2 2 1],[0 0 1 1 ], [0 1 0] ) % green patch The last vector argument (shown in bold) in each patch command is RGB (Red-Green-Blue) value of the patch color.  Figure 1. Computer simulation of red and green summation. Upper panel: basic red and green colors. Lower panel: red and green mixture results in yellow color (in the middle). |
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Results |
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We note that mixture of red and green colors of any hue and intensity invariably yields various tones of yellow color (Fig. 1, lower panel). It can be proved using simple vector summation operator on the respective RGB values: [1 0 0]+[0 1 0] = [1 1 0] (1) or, for any arbitrary red (r) and green (g) tones (r and g values may vary in the range of [0:1]): [r 0 0]+[0 g 0] = [r g 0] (2) The lower panel of Fig. 1 was produced using the following code: subplot(2,1,2) patch([0 1 1 0],[0 0 1 1 ],[ 1 0 0]) % red patch patch([1 2 2 1],[0 0 1 1 ],[0 1 0]) % green patch patch([0.5 1.5 1.5 0.5],[0 0 1 1 ],[ 1 1 0]) % yellow patch |
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Discussion |
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Our results demonstrate that combination of preferred Chinese colors, namely red and green, yields yellow color. In the following, we show how these findings may explain the phenomenon of color preference in Chinese. Yellow color unquestionably has been associated with Chinese nation. Although there is actually only one "human race" – Homo Sapience species – mankind always has been classified in according to melanin content of the their skin. Nations from Southeast Asia tend to have extra layer of outlying skin that produces a yellowish tint1. Thus, Chinese belong to "yellow race". Consequently, Chinese are often called by various nicknames that incorporate word "yellow" or its derivatives. But more important is that, according to the ancient Chinese legend, about 5,000 years ago, Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor, happened to rule part of the Yellow River valley2. He and another leader, Yan Di, or the Fiery Emperor, are said to made great contributions to the progress of civilization. Today, Chinese all over the world regard them as their earliest ancestors, calling themselves "Yan-Huang's descendants". Accordingly, numerous classical Chinese tractates and tales are in one or another way associated with the Yellow Emperor. Thus, very interesting picture emerges. On one side, we have single, and most prominent, yellow color. On the other hand, this color may be considered as a sum of two other colors, namely red and green, as we showed in the Results section. In other words, using conventional Chinese methodology, the combination, or the union, of red and green gives rise to yellow. In fact, the whole issue becomes more and more reminiscent of the traditional Yang and Yin concept, in which each element is opposite and complementary to its counterpart while together they constitute ch'i - a material force that governs the universe, and from which man and all other phenomena come. It is widely accepted that balance of ch'i is crucial. In men moral and physical health come from a proper balance of yin and yang . Analogously, a global equilibrium of red and green (that unite to generate yellow) is essential for a well-being of Chinese nation. Taken all this into account, our results strongly suggest that red + green = yellow paradigm we have described is nothing else but a linear transformation (from transcendental to spectral domain) of the ancient Chinese yin + yang = ch'i concept. Moreover, we notice that manifestations of this transformation are not solely related to the realm of Chinese decorative culture. Leading structures of Chinese society, probably being aware of deep roots of the color paradigm, are trying to maintain a proper balance of red and green at all basic levels of China existence. For example, presently "Red China" is essentially the last country in the world that does not abandon the "Red Symbolism" and still maintains "Red Ideals" as an integral part of its regime. In the same time, China is surely one of the most "green" countries in the world. Recall that only in China there is a death penalty for poaching or killing of some protected animal species3! And only in China the government really tries to control its population birth rate, using strict, but effective measures! So, the vital balance of red and green is supported both at micro-levels as spectral content of a regular environment and at macro-levels in social, political and economical spheres. In summary, our demonstration of the origin of color preferences in Chinese nation allowed us to reveal some interesting (and unexpected) features of Chinese culture. |
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Acknowledgments |
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We thank Masha T. and Vlad K. for insightful comments and useful discussion. |
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References |
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[1] Steven McDaniel. How Many Human Races are There? http://www.concentric.net/~Sdm6205/creation/races/races.html
[2] Chinapages. Ancient China.
[3] PANDA CONSERVATION COMES OF AGE.
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