Differences between Chinese and Western Cultures: from the Metaphor Mapping of English and Chinese Animal Idioms

All ethnic groups have their own characteristics in areas of ecological environment, social economy,literature, history, religion, development and other aspects, thus forming the particularity of national culture andmaking the culture of one nation different from that of another in many aspects. This uniqueness is reflected indifferent national languages, resulting in different expressions in their own unique idioms. In both Chinese andEnglish, people use different animal metaphors to express their emotions or describe their behaviors. However, dueto the cultural similarities and differences between different nationalities, the cultural connotations of animal wordsin English and Chinese are similar or even the same and some are completely different. This paper aims to analyzethe cultural differences between Chinese and western animal words in idioms.