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CharmYou Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary
The colors in English
In English colors are used more accurately. The black tea is called red tea in Chinese because the liquid of black tea seems red to our Chinese eyes. And we don't distinguish brown hair from blond hair, they're basically called yellow hair in Chinese.
I would say Asians have yellow skin in Chinese, but I don't know if Asians' skins can be referred to as yellow in English. So, here is my question. What's the skin color of Asians that you would call in English? Can I say we have yellow skin even though the skin color is not accurately yellow?
I would say Asians have yellow skin in Chinese, but I don't know if Asians' skins can be referred to as yellow in English. So, here is my question. What's the skin color of Asians that you would call in English? Can I say we have yellow skin even though the skin color is not accurately yellow?
Top answer
Traditionally Asians, especially East Asians, were described in the West (at least in English) as having "yellow" skin, even though this is hardly accurate as you point out. I didn't realise it was also that way in China itself. Nowadays, this use of "yellow" has acquired undesirable connotations of racial stereotyping, and may be considered offensive, so I would recommend that you avoid it.
- Traditionally Asians, especially East Asians, were described in the West (at least in English) as having "yellow" skin, even though this is hardly accurate as you point out.
- I didn't realise it was also that way in China itself.
- Nowadays, this use of "yellow" has acquired undesirable connotations of racial stereotyping, and may be considered offensive, so I would recommend that you avoid it.
- You could safely refer to "Asian skin colour".
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6 Answers
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Traditionally Asians, especially East Asians, were described in the West (at least in English) as having "yellow" skin, even though this is hardly accurate as you point out. I didn't realise it was also that way in China itself. Nowadays, this use of "yellow" has acquired undesirable connotations of racial stereotyping, and may be considered offensive, so I would recommend that you avoid it. You c
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GPYYou could safely refer to "Asian skin colour".Which, as we all know, can vary as much as tones in Caucasians, Blacks, Islanders, Native Americans and Latinos. I think it's better to use a color-related term rather than an ethnic term. I once new a man from India who had a perfect white chocolate skin tone, which greatly set off his lavender eyes. [ That'
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No. These are comments that pertain to Americans and American English:
I would say "dark-complected" or "light-complected."
In the US, "yellow" referred to the Japanese, who were our enemies in WWII. It was a big insult to call someone "yellow."
Someone who used the word "yellow" to refer to an Asian would be a racial bigot. Refer to someone as an Asian-American.
"Black
I would say "dark-complected" or "light-complected."
In the US, "yellow" referred to the Japanese, who were our enemies in WWII. It was a big insult to call someone "yellow."
Someone who used the word "yellow" to refer to an Asian would be a racial bigot. Refer to someone as an Asian-American.
"Black
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AlpheccaStars"Red" or "redskins" are pejorative.But you can get around this by using a foreign language. Calder built a stabile to stand in front of the opera house at Indiana University called "Red Skin", because, as I recall it, the football team used to be "The Redskins". This had to be changed to "Peau Rouge". So now it's only offensive to speakers of
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