Language is the boundary of thought, and the aesthetics of a nation will inevitably leave traces in language. Just like when Chinese describes beautiful women, it will use words such as sinking fish and falling geese and closing the moon and shy flowers.
In Russian, there are also phrases like "her eyebrows lie like two black bears lying down", which makes us look a little funny, to praise the eyebrows.
Therefore, today I plan to start with the Russian language, with the help of the cultural differences between China and Russia, and study the aesthetic logic of the fighting nation with you.
Aesthetic phenomenon in Russian
When Russians describe a beautiful face, they will say "beautiful like scarlet flowers attract the eyes", red is a symbol of beauty in russians, such as Moscow's Red Square, which actually means "beautiful square".
Chinese who love red, of course, will also use red when describing the beauty of appearance, and there are expressions such as "red lips and white teeth", "square peach and plum", "red face" and so on in Chinese.
When saying that the eyes are beautiful, Russians will say "cornflower (blue) eyes", or "eyes cut by the grass" (Russians think that slender eyes are beautiful), "falcon-like eyes", generally have a clearer metaphor and image.
▲ The eyes of the supermodel Sasha Luss are very much in line with the aesthetics of Russians
The Chinese formulation is rather vague. We would say that autumn water cuts the pupil, which means that the eyes are like ripples on the surface of the autumn water; Gu Panshenghui means that the black and white eyes are bright and moving. What these words have in common is that they convey primarily a feeling rather than a specific visual impression.
Russians are beautiful in the thickness of their eyebrows, and they express them quite directly, such as saying "eyebrows lie like two black bears" and "eyebrows like sables".
▲ On the left is the sable
Chinese will use "mountain", "silkworm tentacles", etc. to describe beautiful eyebrows, such as "Spring Mountain Eight Characters", "Eyebrow Dai Ru Shan", "Moth Eyebrow Man Wei" and other idioms, all focusing on the beauty of the shape of the eyebrows themselves, rather than the amount of hair.
▲ Zhen Huan painted a typical moth eyebrow
Hair as a key factor in determining the appearance of the face, Russians naturally will not ignore. In Russian, words to describe the beauty of hair include "thick and thick", "fluffy and shiny", etc. There are similar expressions in Chinese, such as plump and prosperous hair (jiǎn), red face and green sideburns, etc.
But unlike Chinese who think that long, silky, thick, loose hair is beautiful, russians think that beautiful hair should be long and thick braids.
Therefore, when Russians describe the beauty of women's hair, they will use idioms such as "the whole of Moscow knows the beauty of girls' braids", "brown braids are like silk belts", and "beauty is blonde braids".
▲ Russia's famous "hair blogger"
As for the skin, Russians will use the terms "white as a swan", "whiter than snow", "whiter than milk, blush like blood" to describe the beauty of girls' facial skin.
There are similar sayings in Chinese idioms, such as "ice muscle jade bone", "apricot face peach cheek" and so on.
In terms of body beauty, Russians prefer the biological beauty of physical fitness and strength itself.
They usually use idioms when describing a man in great shape, "athletic body", "heroic body", "huge meat mountain", etc.
When Chinese describes the physical beauty of men, it mostly uses qi YuXuan, heroic posture, personable, Yushu Linfeng, which is biased towards manners and temperament aesthetic idioms.
▲ Qi Yu Xuan Ang's King Huiwen of Qin
Idioms such as Biao-shaped han, Kong Wuqiang, and tiger-backed bear waist, this idiom that describes a tall and strong body is often pejorative.
▲ Lu Zhishen & Zhang Fei have the characteristics of a weak "sense of intelligence"
In addition, the Russian aesthetic of male appearance is basically ignored. As long as a man is tall and muscular, even if he looks ordinary, he can be labeled as a "handsome man".
In China's male aesthetic consciousness, the face is a part that cannot be ignored. The aesthetic focus revealed by the idioms "face like crown jade" and "look like Pan'an" are all men's faces.
▲ Luo Yunxi is really Pan An himself
In addition to the aesthetic preference for male bodies to be healthy and strong, the Russian language describes women's bodies, and "strong" and "slightly fat" are also positive words.
It can be found that in terms of body aesthetics, we differ greatly from the Russians' perceptions. Also using the metaphor of trees, when we say that a woman's body is beautiful, we will say "weak willow wind".
Russians will say that "this woman is as tall and well-proportioned as a birch tree." It is hoped that women should maintain a certain sense of strength while having elegant beauty.
Russian is more abstract in describing clothing than the body, such as russians who use "beautiful does not need jewelry" to describe a girl who dresses very well; "red berries that taste bitter" to describe a girl who is beautifully dressed but vicious inside.
It is not very deliberate to emphasize the material or production cost of clothing, and think that the more simple and beautiful it is. Therefore, most of the idioms related to clothing in the Russian language are used to belittle and criticize Chinese clothing.
Unlike Russian, Chinese usually directly describes the beauty of clothing, such as "dressed in chuchu" means to say that the color of the clothing itself is bright and dazzling.
And it will also emphasize the preciousness and rarity of beautiful clothing materials. Like the idiom "Cui Qiu Zhu Wei", "Qi Luo Zhu Shoes", "Light Qiu Slow Belt" focus, is nothing more than materials.
In addition, "clean" is also one of the russian requirements for the beauty of clothing, for example, in Russian, there is an idiom such as "those who wear clean clothes are more respected by others".
In describing the beauty of behavior, Russians will say "like a falcon taking off", "walk like a gray crane", "walk like a floating peacock", etc.
▲ Russia's "national essence" ballet reflects their aesthetic of gait
In Chinese, literary terms such as Falling Generous, Pavilion Andy, Yao Xiang Shunbu, Hongxuan Fengyi, and Graceful Na Duozi are used to describe the elegance and elegance of manners.
▲Delicate Chinese classical dance
Aesthetic characteristics of Russians
From the above aesthetic phenomena, we can summarize the three characteristics of Russian aesthetics. One is to have a strong geographical and cultural identity, a preference for health, strength, and a lot of analogies with animals in language.
In the alpine regions, russians, as hunters and nomads, live in a much harsher environment than in the warm and humid eastern part of China. Therefore, russians' physical aesthetics for both men and women are based on "being able to work" and "survivability" as key indicators.
Russia, like Chinese, prefers white skin, but Russians prefer white and red skin, and they think that simple white skin is very pathological.
Chinese like the white skin itself, and there is no problem with blush.
▲ There must be blush russian nobles & white-skinned Fucha empresses
The abundance of life in the wild also makes Russians like to use a large number of animal metaphors to describe people. For example, the beauty of male power is associated with bears, cows, etc.; the beauty of women's elegance and lightness is associated with birds such as swans and gray cranes.
The Chinese rarely use animals as metaphors, especially when describing female beauty, and we almost only use plants, moons, and jade as objects of analogy.
Second, Russians' aesthetic standards for women will change due to changes in their marital status.
Russians believe that the physical beauty of unmarried women can be slim and elegant.
The beauty of married women is strong, even fat. Diligent in housework and labor, carefully raising offspring, making them more attractive.
Third, Russians believe that love is related to beauty, and that inner beauty is far better than external beauty. There are many idioms in the Russian language that describe external beauty, and the emphasis is on praising love.
Compared with external beauty, Russians also attach great importance to inner beauty. In Russian culture, inner beauty and outer beauty are separate and even contradictory in the vast majority of cases.
▲ Gorgeous, cold & plain, sunny
In the Description of the Russian idiom, most beautiful women are snake and scorpion beauties, and the situation that we are familiar with "people are more beautiful" is less likely to exist.
Seeing this, everyone should have the same feeling as me, that is, Russia, as a country that exports handsome men and beautiful women to the world, the traditional cultural aesthetic concept is so natural and simple, unpretentious.
The bloated Russian aunt, who is often ridiculed by us, is the eternal "heroic mother" in their eyes.
Small, humble-looking, extraordinary-minded, noble-sould figures can also be key players in Russian literature.
Levin in Anna Karenina
Perhaps it is precisely because of this natural and sincere aesthetic that Russian literature, music, dance, painting and art can move so many people across cultures and have such a high status in the world.
▲ Isaac Leviathan's oil painting "March"
Repin's "The Porter on the Volga" is the peak of critical realist art in the 19th century
In this way, our own cultural aesthetic concepts can also be more diverse and inclusive, more warm - for example, women can also be "beautiful because of strength", "girly" is not necessarily something to pursue.
At the same time, it also makes us feel how necessary it is to not rest on our laurels and actively study multi-aesthetic culture for spiritual and even physical and mental health. Effectively relieving appearance anxiety is really more than just talking.