What is the Meaning of Colour?
Summary
To enable learners to understand and become familiar with the many meanings of colours and to promote intercultural communication. However, don't expect to force other learners to accept your point of view here. Equal communication is the most important principle.
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Introduction
Colour plays an important role in art and also has a huge impact, conveying emotion, meaning and playing an important part in celebrations and rituals. There are huge differences in what colours represent in different cultures around the world. The understanding and use of colours may vary from culture to culture, but they all reflect common human perceptions of feelings and emotions. Therefore, an understanding of and familiarity with the many meanings of colours will influence learners’ interpretations of works of art and will stimulate their interest and further exploration of the relationship between colour and art.
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Main toolkit information
Step 1: Matching (2 minutes)
Each learner matches the following colours with their meanings.
Colours: red, black, white, yellow, purple, blue…
Meaning: Loyal, upright, treacherous, irascible, stable, upright in character…
NB: This is not fixed. Learners can choose colours that are not mentioned above, and likewise provide some new meanings for these colours.
Step 2: Make a mask (3 minutes)
Learners can choose to do this on paper or draw it on an electronic device.
1. draw the outline of the face and the five senses with black paint on the paper and paint the parts of the five senses black.
2. Choose any of the colours mentioned in step 1 to fill in the empty areas of the face.
NB：Before you draw the mask, you need to announce the color you want to introduce. When the number of people selected in the same color in the group is adjusted to no more than two, the toolkit starts to run.
Step 3: Performance (8 minutes)
In groups of five, perform a short story of up to three minutes with the masks they have drawn. It is important that each learner incorporates the meanings represented by the colours on their masks into the story.
Step 4: Communication (7 minutes)
The following video is a video I created about the meanings represented by different colours in the art of Chinese opera. The purpose of this video is to provide some new perspectives. After watching the video, members of the group can share with each other what different colours mean in their own cultural contexts.
https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/The+meaning+of+color/1_df7cwosw
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