Multicultural Manners : Misunderstanding: Color It Green

Arthur entertains visiting English-speaking Taiwanese business connections. Because it is March, he and his wife Jean prepare a St. Patrick’s celebration with corned beef and cabbage, green beer and shamrock and shillelagh decorations. The hosts wear green hats and have their guests don them too. The evening progresses with the hosts unaware of their guests’ discomfiture and seeming reluctance to participate.

What went wrong?

Unknown to Arthur and Jean, many Chinese believe that when a man wears a green hat, it means his wife or girlfriend has been cheating on him. Although green ordinarily has a positive meaning, as evidenced by the prevalence of jade jewelry and works of art, the exception is hats. The Taiwanese never mentioned the green hat connotations. Instead, they graciously accommodated to the St. Patrick’s traditions of their hosts. Nonetheless, it made them uncomfortable, as they revealed a year later when they knew their hosts better.

In another instance, a Cambodian refugee wore a navy blue skirt and white blouse on her first day of school in the U.S.--which happened to be March 17. The girl was terrified when her classmates began pinching her. “I felt like I was from another planet,” she recalled. Her teacher rescued her by pinning a green shamrock to the girl’s collar. Interestingly, having to wear green clothing on St. Patrick’s Day is a more popular custom in the United States than it is in Ireland.