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Frontiers in Art Research, 2023, 5(10); doi: 10.25236/FAR.2023.051017.

A Comparison of the Cultural Connotation of Chinese and Western Token of Love—Take Shakespeare's Othello and Kong Shangren's The Peach Blossom Fan as Examples

Author(s)

Wu Xiaoyun

Corresponding Author:
Wu Xiaoyun
Affiliation(s)

School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University of Technology, Zhuzhou, Hunan, 412000, China

Abstract

Love tokens have existed in Chinese and Western societies since ancient times. This article compares the pledge of love in Chinese and Western cultures from the aspects of aesthetics and its connotation. The purpose is to explore how this easily neglected object affects people of different cultural backgrounds. The thesis excavates materials from historical events, ancient myth stories and poems and emphasizes the differences in the aesthetic design of specific tokens in the macro humanistic environment. Then it analyzes Kong Shangren's The Peach Blossom Fan and Shakespeare's Othello to understand further the cultural differences between the Chinese and Western love tokens. Through the analysis of the behaviours, characters, languages and plots of Li Xiangjun, Hou Fangyu, Othello, and Desdimona, the love tokens exist not only as proof and witness of love and lovesickness, more importantly, but also have a profound impact on the character's view of love and has a different degree of restraint and alienation on the characters' behaviours.

Keywords

Love Tokens; Contrast of Cultural Connotation; The Peach Blossom Fan; Othello

Cite This Paper

Wu Xiaoyun. A Comparison of the Cultural Connotation of Chinese and Western Token of Love—Take Shakespeare's Othello and Kong Shangren's The Peach Blossom Fan as Examples. Frontiers in Art Research (2023) Vol. 5, Issue 10: 102-111. https://doi.org/10.25236/FAR.2023.051017.

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