Abstract

Metaphors are commonly used linguistic expressions that introduce abstract concepts through concrete experiences. They are often culture-laden, reflecting the most fundamental values in human life, and thus they can be a gateway to understandings of cultural values. In Chinese metaphors, food and gustatory experiences are frequently found because of their unique values in Chinese culture, and food tastes are often used to describe human emotions and cognition, in a way which marks the difference between Chinese and English tastes. This paper explores the cultural implications of Chinese taste metaphors through the use of the Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese, which is an online collection of authentic texts. Using the five Chinese taste words, “suān (sourness), “tián” (sweetness), “kǔ” (bitterness), “là ” (spiciness), and “xián” (saltiness), as the keywords, the findings reveal that the usage of Chinese saltiness, spiciness, and sweetness was mainly taste-based, bitterness was mostly used metaphorically, and the use of sourness appeared to be mixed. In particular, Chinese sourness and bitterness had their culture-specific metaphorical meanings, which linked to negative connotations, including sad emotions, suffering, and difficulties, and the positive encouraging connotation of bitterness-related metaphors that indicated efforts also reflected the unique value of suffering in Chinese culture. The findings echo Zheng-dao Ye’s claim that in Chinese, taste is used to describe feelings, thoughts, and knowledge that involves intellectual and emotional meanings, which may derive from the Buddhist influences, Chinese culinary styles, and also the inseparability of Chinese diets, inner harmony, and health. Finally, this paper proposes some suggestions for future studies for a fuller picture of the relation between cultural values of tastes and metaphors.