# 绿色的眼睛



## Staarkali

Hello all,

i'd like to understand the use of the color here. Could it be the author use it as a metaphoric expression of erotism? if not i still wonder, i though all chinese people had black eyes...
here is the sentence:
[...]夜晚你站在路上，人人以为前面是绿灯，因为你的眼珠子是绿色的。


Here is the context:
难道只许男人朝三暮四，朝秦暮楚吗？我是不过是一个小小的，没有多大知名度的女作者，作品的灵魂就是虚构，我连表达自己心声的权利和能力都没有，如何去为自己的嘴巴写作呢？我手写我口，我心里想啥，我就写啥了，我很多不错的散文，小品文你们为啥不看，偏偏盯着这篇东西看，还自命清高地说我只有裸照，只有色情，你的眼里只有色情，所以看一切都是色情，你只抓住和留意色情的一切，夜晚你站在路上，人人以为前面是绿灯，因为你的眼珠子是绿色的。

Thanks in advance!


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## twinklestar

The colour of most Chinese eyes is black. 

绿色的眼睛 is an ironic metaphor in this context. It is not a usual expression in the Chinese language. It makes little sense only.

There's a similar expression in English - see through rose-colored glasses. If you wear the rose -colored glasses, you see the world good.


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## Rhapsodia

绿色的眼睛 has an implication of being "greedy", "rapacious". This is because in spoken Mandarin, we say "someone's eyes turn green when he sees something he likes", which means he is crazy about it. I personaly don't consider it as a metaphoric expression of erotism, however, it does tell "你" ( the reader(s) ) have a special interest in pornography. "Once they smell something erotic, their eyes would glow with green light."


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## Staarkali

Thanks to both of you, i felt something that way but couldnt explain it myself.

Now if i want to use the expression myself, how would i use :


Rhapsodia said:


> [...]"someone's eyes turn green when he sees something he likes"[...]


is there any "official" expression? or is it just common reference to use green as a symbol for greed in mandarin? why green? in the West we dont have any color for greed or desire, except red sometimes such as in Moulin Rouge or Amsterdam's Red-Light District, but because red is the color for blood, it may also symbolise fury, Communism and passion of all kind (not only sexual).

Thanks again for the explanations; 

Oh and welcome to the forum, Rhapsodia, its an honor to see your only post goes for my only recent question


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## gazagoal

here 绿色的眼睛 is alluding to '色狼' (color wolf), the common Chinese expression for sex maniac, or pervert. And you know wolf has green eyes.
You can see that from the previous sentence "只有色情，你的眼里只有色情，所以看一切都是色情，你只抓住和留意色情的一切"


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## gazagoal

'eye's turn green' is also derived from wolf, the symbol for greed in Chinese culture.


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## Staarkali

interesting to see the relation between a wolf and a sex maniac in Mandarin; but it's not convenient that 色狼 has both the meaning of sex maniac and pervert, because these expressions have totally different meaning.

Is there any other way to describe a person who is a sex maniac/womaniser/lover-boy without implying he/she is a pervert? 我在上海认识上面说的女作家这样的一些女人，但她们是sex maniac，也不是pervert。。不知道用中文怎么形容这样男女人。。


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## gazagoal

Oh, I may have misused the word pervert. 色狼 only means sex maniac and is often used humorously. Pervert is much more harsher, and its counterpart in Chinese is 变态.
花痴 is the word for female 色狼, both of which can be applied to your friends in conversation without offencing them, i guess.


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## Staarkali

interesting, thanks for the vocabulary that you suggested. As the author mentionned it, she used 女色狼 for herself but the whole text was opposing man and woman right to be libertin:

爱咋的咋的去，*我是女色狼*，不怕你反抗，不怕你诬告！本色狼不意淫禽兽，所以别骂骂咧咧了，排几辈子的队伍，都轮不上你，下辈子我是雄性，要想进入排队系统，就长漂亮点，说话好听点，学问多一点。

so she used 色狼 for a woman deliberately to contrast what morale admit for man and for woman.


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## tzyy

Staarkali said:


> interesting to see the relation between a wolf and a sex maniac in Mandarin; but it's not convenient that 色狼 has both the meaning of sex maniac and pervert, because these expressions have totally different meaning.
> 
> Is there any other way to describe a person who is a sex maniac/womaniser/lover-boy without implying he/she is a pervert? 我在上海认识上面说的女作家这样的一些女人，但她们是sex maniac，也不是pervert。。不知道用中文怎么形容这样男女人。。


色狼 literally color wolf

in English “blue pig” I believe, my high school english teacher taught me that...


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## Rhapsodia

Staarkali said:


> in the West we dont have any color for greed or desire, except red sometimes such as in Moulin Rouge or Amsterdam's Red-Light District, but because red is the color for blood, it may also symbolise fury, Communism and passion of all kind (not only sexual).



My pleasure to be of some help. Thanks!

I would nag a bit more for "red" -- 红。 In Chinese, we have a few phrases with "red" and "eye" -- 红眼儿， 红眼病， 眼红。 
红眼病 is a contagious medical condition when your eyes get infection and turn red, -- pinkeye. However, it is also used to describe someone who is envious or jealous seeing others to have achievements, fame, etc. It is funny to know that Chinese use "red eye" to say "jealous" while English would use "green" instead. 
眼红，in many cases, it means the same as 红眼病 in the sense of jealousy，but in other cases, it also means furious. In "仇人相见，分外眼红" (extremely furious when meeting a fued/enemy).
红眼儿，contrary with 白眼儿， is a colloquial way of saying (mainly in the north part of China) of grandchild(children) who are from sons, and 白眼 refers to the grandchild(children) from daughters.  It has a similar implication with 红人，which means favored by someone. As in Chinese culture, once daughters are married, they are no longer the family member of her own parents' home, rather the belonging of her husband's home. Thus granddaughters from daughter's side would be 外人 （outside people）.


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## Aoyama

We know that 色 is a euphemism for sex. You find it in 好色鬼 , =+- "sexual maniac, pervert, someone _oversexed_ ".
This being said , I agree with 





> interesting to see the relation between a wolf and a sex maniac in Mandarin; but it's not convenient that 色狼 has both the meaning of sex maniac and pervert, because these expressions have totally different meaning.


I don't really see (or understand) 色狼 as having a sexual connotation (but that may be only because of my ignorance) ...


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## Staarkali

tzyy said:


> in English “blue pig” I believe, my high school english teacher taught me that...


 I may be wrong but i always thought 色 was used for its phonetic (Se4 as in Sex) and not because of its meaning (color).

I have never come across with "blue pig", although "pig" alone is a all-time favourite for ladies about men with inappropriate manners.



Aoyama said:


> I don't really see (or understand) 色狼 as having a sexual connotation (but that may be only because of my ignorance) ...


 No, as gazagoal explained and as i starting to feel it myself, 色狼 only means sex maniac/lover-boy/womaniser (whatever expression "talks" to one), and doesn't refer to anything sexual by itself.


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## Aoyama

> I may be wrong but i always thought 色 was used for its phonetic (Se4 as in Sex) and not because of its meaning (color).


 色 has been used as a euphemism for *lust* (more than sex _per se_) for centuries, in Chinese as well as in Japanese, where it is pronounced _shoku_ or _shiki_.


> 色狼 only means sex maniac/lover-boy/womaniser (whatever expression "talks" to one), and doesn't refer to anything sexual by itself.


Only ... I guess it does then "refer to something sexual by itself" (outstandingly).


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## englishelp

Actually, let me correct a long-standing misconception here. The Chinese race has *BROWN* eyes, not black eyes. The misconception comes partly from songs and poems that refer to the Chinese as people with black hair and black eyes.


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## alvin_liao

englishelp said:


> Actually, let me correct a long-standing misconception here. The Chinese race has *BROWN* eyes, not black eyes. The misconception comes partly from songs and poems that refer to the Chinese as people with black hair and black eyes.



Seems it happens to be you that are misleading non Chinese native people. Ask anyone at any corner of China, the answer will always be exactly "BLACK". Besides, the concept "black eye" doesn't come from songs and poems as you said, it is simply common sense in China. No explanation needed.


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## englishelp

Simply because most people think Chinese have "Black" eyes does not mean that this is true. As I said, this is a *mis-conception*. 

You may refer to this Wiki article on human eye color. 

According to this article, the human race has the following types of eye colors: 


2.1 Amber
2.2 Blue
2.3 Brown
2.4 Gray
2.5 Green
2.6 Hazel
2.7 Red
2.8 Violet
Black is not even listed here. If you read the section on "Brown", you will find a picture of a brown human eye. That is precisely the eye color we have. Many people mistakenly think it is black whereas it is actually dark brown. The article does say that "Very dark brown irises may appear at a glance to be black". 

But still, we need to be precise here. Brown is not black. I hope this misconception will be corrected soon. 

By the way, this applies to other two East Asian races as well: Japanese and Korean.



alvin_liao said:


> Seems it happens to be you that are misleading non Chinese native people. Ask anyone at any corner of China, the answer will always be exactly "BLACK". Besides, the concept "black eye" doesn't come from songs and poems as you said, it is simply common sense in China. No explanation needed.


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## alvin_liao

TO englishelp:

So, you are quite good at lecturing, and meanwhile, fearing that you will waste every chance to eliminate "misconceptions" shared by many for decades or even longer. Unfortunately, here is not an forum for scientists who want everything to be perfectly "precise".

Let me tell you something more:

When one gets hurt emotionally, he or she will probably say "My heart breaks". And now, are you going to "correct" him or her like the following?

"No! We all know in fact, nothing really happens to the heart. So this kind of expression is a silly  huge MISCONCEPTION!"

Now, have you realized how absurd and naïve you are in fact?


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