Why is white the color of death to the Chinese? It's a real pain in my arse. One time I gave Poor George this very pretty white scented candle and he just about had a fit. "You never give something white to a Chinese person!" he proclaimed.
Coaster Punchman
I don't want to be responsible for strengthening your relationship, but have you tried just asking him why? I understand your reluctance if not however. If he's freaked out by a candle who's to say how he'll react when you question his heritage. No matter how much your cat pictures annoy me I wouldn't wish murder on anyone.
As a species superstition is built into us as a survival instinct. If a tiger rips our heads off we learn, pretty quickly, that tiger's are bad and invent the spear. But this can also misfire. For example, if one person buys a rabbit's foot and has a stroke of luck, the mind links the two together. The end result is a lot of unlucky, slightly poorer people and a boom in the Bunny wheelchair trade. Even worse than this we can't accept this life is all there so we invent things to make life more exciting. That’s why, for example, when 2000 years ago an unwed teenage mother had an unplanned pregnancy and blamed it on God, she became famous enough to appear in oil stains and cooked bread. Thankfully, those who've reached guru status know that all superstitions are foolish. Except those about Nirvana, black cats and Richard Gere.
Regarding Poor Georges Chromataphobia, it is entirely possible it is unique to him. Maybe his mother suffered from a cleanliness OCD and kept the house spotless. As white shows dust without mercy it would have been contraband, and so he was trained, as a child, to fear white. Not knowing any different he would naturally assume that all Chinese people felt the same way. All of our religions have been spread in a similar way. Or it could be that some lover of white in his town was blighted by misfortune. The brain links, the rumours spread and before you know it sales of Daz plummet.
The fear of white does seem to be documented however, albeit very sparsely, so we can assume Poor George is not alone in this delusion. Perhaps the great firewall of China has prevented the western world from discovering the true extent of the superstition, indeed no-one seems to be sure why these phobia exists but the most likely reason white is associated with death is due to the white cloth used to enshroud corpses, the pale skin of a dead person, and the stark whiteness of bones and skeletons.
In the Western world we bury our dead in sombre coloured dress suits and don't have a habit of looking at skeletons for entertainment, so we associate black with death instead.
In short though, we may never be certain why the Chinese fear the colour white until the Aliens that founded the human race come back and explain themselves. And as this won't happen till 2012 (as everyone knows) we've still got a while to wait.
And to be honest, surly any American citizen would be horrified if you offered them something white after labour day.
