Cultural conceptualizations of Chinese zodiac animals in Chinese English

Xu, Zhichang; Sharifian, Farzad

doi:10.1111/weng.12351

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Each year is associated with one of the 12 animals. The birth year determines the zodiac sign, which can influence an individual’s fortune and personal traits [ 60 ]. Likewise, a substantial number of Chinese people believe that deceased family members may become ancestors in the supernatural world and continuously look after the family.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Descriptive and Phenomenological Exploration of the Spiritual Needs of Chinese Children Hospitalized with Cancer

Liu

Lam

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Spiritual well-being is the fourth dimension of health, as equally important as physical, mental, and social well-being. The shadow of death associated with cancer triggers children to explore their personal values, meanings, and life goals throughout the illness trajectory, enabling them to identify their unique spiritual needs. Chinese children are generally non-religious, unlike Western children, which affects their spiritual needs. To address the literature gaps, we applied a qualitative, descriptive, phenomenological approach for exploring the spiritual needs of Chinese children hospitalized with cancer. Purposive sampling was conducted in two public hospitals with special wards for pediatric oncology patients in Hunan Province, China. Consequently, 22 children, hospitalized with cancer, were recruited and individually interviewed using a semi-structured interview format. We conducted a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts. Four important themes were identified: the need for self-exploration, inner needs, need for a connection with others, and need for a connection with gods, supernatural powers, and fictional characters. We found that culture significantly influenced the spiritual needs of Chinese children with cancer. Hope was a key factor motivating the children to continue cancer treatment. To address their unique spiritual needs, culturally specific interventions should be developed and incorporated into their care to enhance their spiritual well-being.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Descriptive and Phenomenological Exploration of the Spiritual Needs of Chinese Children Hospitalized with Cancer

Liu

Lam

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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“…In addition, Xu, Z. et al responded to the phenomenon of Chinese cultural aphasia by adopting a holistic analytical framework based on English and linguistics and by referring to cultural concepts to decipher the cultural meanings behind the 12 Chinese zodiac signs, exploring the details of translation when Chinese culture-specific words are used in English language teaching [17]. Jiang, L. et al In order to explore the difficulties encountered by ethnic minority students in mainstream English classes.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, the loss function for slot value filling and intent recognition is calculated. The loss function is calculated as shown in Eqs (17) (18),. k is the number of intent classes in the dataset, n is the number of words after word-splitting, m is the number of slot-value classes, i…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Chinese Cultural Aphasia Phenomenon and Countermeasures in College English Teaching Based on Semantic Comprehension Models

Zhu

2023

Applied Mathematics and Nonlinear Sciences

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The purpose of this paper is to study the phenomenon of Chinese cultural aphasia and analyze the reasons for the aphasia phenomenon. Secondly, the BERT model in the deep learning model is utilized to improve the effect of various natural language processing tasks, and the English dialogue system is set up to improve the students’ English oral expression ability when introducing Chinese culture. Then, a semantic comprehension model is constructed based on the role information, and coping strategies are proposed for the current English cultural aphasia phenomenon. Finally, the results of teaching evaluation in the university English classroom and the effects of learning Chinese culture in AI-assisted English teaching are analyzed, respectively. According to the study, the teaching process stage is where the most noticeable progress is made, with a score 18.66 points higher than the pre-test score. The average score of the learning effect of students who received AI-assisted means to learn Chinese culture was 3.603 points.

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“…"Zi" in this online word is a meaningless Chinese character and only plays the role of making the pronunciation smoother. However, in the system of describing Chinese lunar years by 12 zodiac animals, "Zi" is used to stand for the first year of the 12-year lunar cycle, and the corresponding one of "Zi" is rat which is the first one of the 12 zodiac animals [6]. Therefore, based on the online word "Jie Dui Zi," the riddle "to get married in the Year of Rat" is created and widely used by Chinese netizens.…”

Section: Cultural Connotations Of Animal Metaphors In Chinese Online ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Song analyzes the differences of animal metaphors in Chinese and English in a cognitive perspective and is based on the theory of anthropocentrism [5]. Xu and Sharifian conducted a semi-structured interview and analyzed the 12 zodiac animal words in Chinese and how it is used in English [6]. Waru et al also analyze the cultural connotations of different zodiac animals respectively and the idioms involving them which do not exist in English [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Study of Different Cultural Connotations of the Word “Rat” in Chinese and English Online Language

Liu¹

2022

Proceedings of the 2022 5th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2022)

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Rat is a kind of animal that is familiar among humans, but due to the behaviors of stealing food and spreading disease, the cultural connotation and animal metaphors have become negative in almost traditional cultures. In the metaphor area, here are many comparative studies about animal metaphors of different animals in Chinese and English. Recently, new animal metaphors about "rat" in online language are also widely used, but there were scant studies about the new online animal metaphors. Moreover, there is no study that only focuses on animal metaphors about "rat," which is a research gap. This comparative study focuses on the difficulties for foreigners to acquire new online animal metaphors about "rat" and their cultural connotations in Chinese and English, along with the differences between traditional animal metaphors and new online ones. To find out the results, two new animal metaphors "Shu Ren" and "Jie Dui Zi" in Chinese and two new ones "Internet rat" and "RAT" in English are investigated. During the analysis, the origins and cultural connotations of these new online animal metaphors are found respectively and compared. The results show that new animal metaphors can be used as self-mockery instead of only describing others, and they appear due to the recent social phenomena. Moreover, the four factors of the difficulties for foreigners to acquire new online animal metaphors and their cultural connotations are society, politics, convention and language. Furthermore, this study can contribute to the area of metaphor for arising people's awareness of metaphor knowledge in animals, especially rats.

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Cultural conceptualizations of Chinese zodiac animals in Chinese English

Cited by 10 publications

References 30 publications

A Descriptive and Phenomenological Exploration of the Spiritual Needs of Chinese Children Hospitalized with Cancer

A Descriptive and Phenomenological Exploration of the Spiritual Needs of Chinese Children Hospitalized with Cancer

Exploring the Chinese Cultural Aphasia Phenomenon and Countermeasures in College English Teaching Based on Semantic Comprehension Models

A Comparative Study of Different Cultural Connotations of the Word “Rat” in Chinese and English Online Language

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