Celebrating The Tiger

曾曉明

The Chinese New Year has arrived， people celebrated the Year of the Tiger.

Do you know anyone born in the Year of the Tiger？ What’s their personality like？ Are they brave， strong， tenacious and sympathetic？ If so， then they are a typical“tiger”.

In Chinese culture， tigers are considered the king of all beasts. They symbolize power， energy， protection， generosity and unpredictability. Tigers are regarded as fearless creatures， so that’s why in China you can see images of tigers on the walls of temples and houses to ward off disasters and danger.

Tigers have an important cultural significance not just in China， but acrossAsia.

As they mostly live in Asia， for many people in the West they have become a cultural symbol of Eastern countries. For example， strong economies in the East—Singapore， South Korea， China’s Hong Kong and Taiwan—were called“The Four Asian Tigers”. In the book Life of Pi， Canadian writer Yann Martel chose a Bengal tiger as the partner for Indian boy Pi on is survival adventure in the Pacific Ocean. rench fashion brand KENZO takes the tiger as ts main theme when it tries to embody Eastern lements with European design.

Instead of tigers， lions are considered as he king of all beasts in the West. Brave warriors were given the name“the lion”. In urope， the animal is a national emblem for ngland as well as for Norway， Spain， Belgium nd 13 other countries.

But in the West， tigers are also seen as a ery powerful animal. In English， if you want omeone to calm down， you can say to them， easy tiger”. Another famous phrase is：“eye of he tiger”， which means fierceness and strength.

Tigers are also one of my favorite animals. first learned about the beauty of tigers as a hild， while watching animal documentaries. If ou ask my mom， she’ll tell you that my most recious toy while growing up was my toy tier， which I still treasure dearly to this day. As young animal lover， I felt so sad that they were an endangered species and I wanted to elp protect them.

This is why I love that China has its animal zodiac system， as it shows the connection， nderstanding and respect that humans can ave for animals.

Just like tigers serve as a symbol of protecion in Chinese culture， we can only hope that n the Year of the Tiger more people can learn bout tigers and help protect them and their abitats from further destruction.

中國的新年已經(jīng)來到，大家慶祝虎年的到來。

你認(rèn)識(shí)虎年出生的人嗎？他們有著怎樣的性格？他們勇敢、堅(jiān)定、頑強(qiáng)又富有同情心嗎？如果是這樣，那他們就是典型的“老虎”。

在中國文化中，老虎被視為百獸之王。老虎象征著力量、活力、保護(hù)、慷慨和難以捉摸。人們認(rèn)為老虎是無所畏懼的動(dòng)物，所以在中國你能在寺廟和房屋的墻壁上看到老虎圖像，人們以此抵御災(zāi)禍和危險(xiǎn)。

不僅在中國，老虎在整個(gè)亞洲都有重要的文化意義。

由于老虎大多分布在亞洲，對(duì)許多西方人來說，老虎已經(jīng)成為東方國家的文化象征。例如，東方的強(qiáng)大經(jīng)濟(jì)體——新加坡、韓國、中國香港和中國臺(tái)灣——被合稱為“亞洲四小龍”（英文譯為tiger）。在《少年派的奇幻漂流》一書中，加拿大作家揚(yáng)·馬特爾選擇了一只孟加拉虎，作為印度男孩派在太平洋上求生的伙伴。法國時(shí)尚品牌KENZO以老虎為主題，試圖以歐洲設(shè)計(jì)體現(xiàn)東方元素。

在西方，公認(rèn)的百獸之王不是老虎，而是獅子。人們稱呼勇敢的戰(zhàn)士為“獅子”。在歐洲，獅子出現(xiàn)在英國、挪威、西班牙、比利時(shí)以及其他13個(gè)國家的國徽上。

但是在西方，老虎也被視為一種非常強(qiáng)大的動(dòng)物。在英語中，如果你想表達(dá)希望某人冷靜下來，你可以對(duì)他們說“老虎，放松點(diǎn)”。另一個(gè)著名的短語是：“虎之眼”，這意味著兇猛和力量。

老虎也是我最喜歡的動(dòng)物之一。我第一次領(lǐng)略到老虎之美，是在小時(shí)候看動(dòng)物紀(jì)錄片時(shí)。如果你問我的母親，她會(huì)告訴你，我在成長過程中最珍貴的玩具就是我的玩具老虎，直到今天我仍然非常珍惜它。……