Golden dragon, golden harvest, golden sun, golden this, golden the other. Do chinese have some fetish with gold?
Golden Gate, golden arches, golden parachute… do Americans have some sort of gold fetish? Most cultures value gold and use it as a reference for something desirable.
No more or less than any other culture, I would guess.
Actually most Asian cultures have a reverence for gold.
Gold is the sign of prosperity. A BIG BIG difference between the West and the East is, in the East, if you are prosperous, you LOOK prosperous. You wouldn’t *dream * of wearing ripped jeans if you were rich, even if they were brand name and cost $200. This is how “fat” came to equal “prosperous” as well.
So you wore gold. Gold is what the kings wore. It is one of the highest elements in Indian society.
Gold is also a portable bank account. The more gold you had, the more set you were for life.
I have seen a staggering number of companies in Asia/Pacific Rim that were named for (at least the names translated to) prosperity terms. LG, the electronics company, is “Lucky Goldstar”. Common words in company names I have worked with include “Lucky”, “Golden”, “Happy”, “Good Luck”, “Fortune” and others like that. I have been told the name is intended to bring good fortune to the company, and the custom is quite common.
While we’re on it, why are so many Chinese restaurtants named “Garden” and “Palace”?
In addition, around Chinese new year in the two asian countries I have spent time in (Singapore and Hong Kong) there are lare amounts of gold items that people buy: statues, figurines, jewelry. These are given as gifts to family members in hopes of prospetity for them.
The gold there is usually 24 karat and VERY gold looking, unline the more common 14 karat we see most often in the US.
See how many “Goldens, Gardens or Palaces” show up with this Chinese Restaurant Name Generator 