cunning liguist
- 2009-04-23
First of all may I thank you for taking my comments seriously and the well-argued response.
I like the colour red and it's cultural significance in China. In fact, I have chosen red accessories for my apartment, because it makes the basically white rooms look colourful. The large pot plants I have bought also add colour to the rather neutral setting. I was just relating this an experience I had when asked, on the spur of the moment, to write some comments, post-examination, on the students' achievements. I wrote in red as my black pen was running out of ink and the Dean told me this was improper in China. So by way of a feeble excuse, in reply to your post, I mentioned this. If this is not the case,or a generalised notion from an isolated example and I am wrong, accept my apologies unreservedly.
I also use red for marking student scripts but was told that I should not put a student's name in red.
I'm a little confused now - is this bad form or not? I would certainly not have a good laugh at anyone who had taken the time to craft a reply, even if our opinions or experiences differ.
Take care
Yingwen Laoshi
- 2009-04-23
I am sure you are aware that, in China, making comments like this, in red, is consdired bad form?
As you apparently have a bit of a problem with red words, I've been careful to highlight your thoughts in black.
I'm not exactly clear about the point you're trying to make. First of all the "comments like that" sic. were not my comments. I just used red to help readers make a clear distinction between my thoughts and those of the poster I was replying to. Those comments were made by the previous poster so if it were the actual thoughts expressed that you objected to, then I can rightly say "Not Guilty!"
As red seemed to be the only colour option available, (black is available but not mentioned, nor was I aware of it) it was a natural and innocent act on my part to use that colour.
Red is considered a positive colour in China, hence it's prevalent usage during happy occasions such as marriage ceremonies. Are you saying that it's wrong to write/print things in red if the words expressed are not wonderfully positive? If red writing is such bad form, then my students must really think badly of me, because while in China I must have written about 7,000 comments in red on my student's writing papers. I think you need to clarify what "comments like this" mean. My wife has told me that what I did would not bother most Chinese people. Anyway, I'm British, and although I could be wrong, I believe the person that I was responding to is not Chinese, either.
If using red is as bad a practice as you say it is, then surely the owners/managers of this forum, which is extensively used and read in China, would not provide such a facility for use on this site. In fact if you look around this forum you will see that they use red print quite often for the same purpose as myself, to highlight, or bring attention to a particular message. For example "New" is written in red to help us distinguish which posts we may already have read from those that we haven't.
If you were just kidding then ignore my message and have a good laugh at my expense for taking your comments way too seriously.