We noticed something interesting recently. In the news reports on the Chinese New Year, Chinese media started to use the word Loong to replace Dragon, which they’ve usually used before.

This is a Chinese Loong. This is a dragon in Western culture.  If you check their body, head and claw, you will find out that they are totally different creatures.

So what is the difference between a dragon and a Loong?

Dragons in Western cultures have often been depicted as winged, horned, and capable of breathing fire. They are envisioned as greedy and gluttonous, with voracious appetites. They are often identified with Satan.

In Chinese culture, however, Loong is a symbol of good luck, elegance and braveness. Chinese people are all proud to call themselves as descendants of the Loong.

Now we can see, the dragon, seen as an evil spirit in Western culture, is a negative image, while the Chinese Loong, representing good luck, is adored by its people.

So, why did people translate Loong into dragon?

We might need to attribute this problem to the missionaries who first translated this word. Due to the difference between Chinese and English languages and their cultures, the missionaries borrowed the word dragon to describe Loong.

Actually, Loong is not a new English word. It was first used by British missionary Joshua Marshman in 1809 as the phonetic annotation for "龙" while translating The Analects. But he used dragon while describing this creature. Later on, Robert Morrison, another British missionary, considered the "Father of Anglo-Chinese Literature", translated Loong into dragon in A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, the first Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary. Since then, people kept using dragon to describe Chinese Loong.

This year, for the first time, the Lunar New Year is part of the UN holiday calendar. Chinese New Year themed activities, art forms and performances have caught global attention.

It is time to let people to know the real Loong, and eliminate a misunderstanding that has been there for centuries.

Last but not the least, Chinese people are the descendants of Loong, not dragon. 

Reporter Yan Yiqi, Xiao Yanyan, Zhao Yaxin