ion, which is inevitably reflected in Chinese. For example, the sayings “妇人之见”, “头发长见识短”, “男子汉不和妇人一般见识”, “长舌妇”, etc, reflect the pejorative attitude toward women. And there are also many derogatory titles for women, such as “贱人”, “泼妇”, “母老虎”, “母夜叉”, “娘儿们”,“悍妇”etc.
Since the Chinese women’s social statuses have increased, these sayings are used much less frequently. The using of the scornful and pejorative words for women in public often gets criticism and resentment.
In English, there are also many sexist expressions. For example, a person of unknown sex is referred as “he”, or ”him” rather than “she” or “her”. A person who presides a meeting is the “chairman”, even if she is a woman. There are many other examples about it. “cow” means “(a) woman who has many children”, “mutton” means “(a) dissolute woman”, “hen” means “(a) woman who likes gossip”, “cat” means “(a) malicious woman”, “crone” means “(an) ugly withered old woman” etc.
“Nowadays, perhaps as a result of the Woman’s Liberation Movement in the 1960s and 70s in western countries, especially the U.S.A and socio-culture development, most native English speakers try to avoid sounding like a sexist.”[14] For example, they change the word “chairman” into “chairperson”, “gentleman” into “gentleperson”. When referring to human beings, people begin to use “humankind” or “ the human race” instead of “man” or “mankind”.
“Racism is the belief that certain human races are inherently inferior to others and racist language is that which shows a biased attitude towards certain racial or ethic groups.”[15] In English, no matter intentionally or not, the following words are against black people and annoying them unsatisfied. For example, “white” means “pure”, “clean”, “benevolent”, which have positive meaning. While “black” is related to “evil”, “wrongdoing”, and “dirty” such as “blackguard”, “blacklist”, “blackmark”etc. Besides, “nigger” and “boy”, for a black adult man, often have offensive meaning.
In Chinese, there is also racist language. For example, “using “蒙古大夫” for an incompetent doctors; using “小鬼子” for Japanese. “洋鬼子”,“大鼻子” for westerners.” [16] Most of these words are derogatory. It shows off that Chinese is more superior than other racial or ethic groups.
4The differences between Chinese and English linguistic taboo
Although there are many similarities in English and Chinese, different views about what is or isn’t taboo can be found in two cultures. Differences between Chinese and English linguistic taboo embody the following aspects:
4. 1. In subjects
English people place a high value on privacy. “The English have a saying ‘ A man’s home is his castle, meaning a man’s home is sacred to him; no one should come in without permission. So it is also with his life and personal affairs’”.[17] Chinese people often like to greet to others like “Have you had a meal?” This common greeting indicates we begin our conversation with our acquaintance, just as foreigners ask “How nice the weather!” But the Chinese greeting will make the foreigners suspect that you want to invite him to join the dinner. Sometimes when we get together and talk naturally about these questions: “ How about your salary?” “Are you married?”, “What do your wife/husband do?”, “How much is your skirt?” In this way, we express our care for our friends. Generally speaking, we never feel embarrassed about these conversations, but when we ask the westerners the same questions, they will think we may involve
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