Objects Endowed with Meaning, Cultures View Through Metaphor: An Observation of Chinese-Arabic Cultural Similarities and Differences Reflected in Figurative Language in Teahouse

As one of the most expressive rhetoric phenomena with the longest history, figurative language is more than a literary device but also an embodiment of man’s pursuit of cultural roots. Despite their differences in history, society, natural environment as well as religious values and literary traditions, China and the Arab world, both eminent old civilizations of the Orient, do present considerable cultural commensurability and universal values. These common traits and differences are reflected in the use of figurative language. Proceeding from the figurative imageries employed in Teahouse, a masterpiece of modern Chinese theatrical art, this article explores into the form and Chinese cultural connotations implied in these imageries, followed by an analysis of the corresponding figurative language in the Arabic version of Teahouse translated by Abdel Aziz Hamdi, Egyptian sinologist and translator. The form, artistic expressiveness and cultural implications of examples of figurative language are therefore studied so as to provide new perspectives in cultural similarities and differences between China and the Arab world as reflected in the use of figurative language.