Warning light colours on Chinese aircraft.
 

Just a curious question about how things are in China, particularly Chinese designed and built aircraft.

It's accepted convention in the West (and I think around the rest of the world) that Green = Good and Red = Bad.

So when something happens correctly, such as putting the gear down, you get green light. When something goes wrong or you get a failure you get a red warning light. Generally.

But in China the colours are reversed. Red is good, green (I think) is bad. What brought it to mind was looking at a picture of the Chinese stock exchange. Gains are marked in red, losses in green.

So my question is, what is the convention on Chinese aircraft? Do they follow the international norm and have danger/warning lights in red, or do they follow their own national convention and have good things in red?


I wonder if it would have a human performance dimension. When I saw the picture of the Chinese stock exchange it had a caption that things were bad, shares down over 8%. I was momentarily confused, thinking "Really? Everything looks ok to me, all those companies shares are up and in the gree... Oh wait, no, no that's bad, they're all down." I wonder if Chinese pilots ever get that when flying a Western aircraft and red lights come on.

Green is also considered bad in the US, it's just that they choose to demonstrate it with 5.0 litre SUVs.

They are following normal conventions.

True story... during the Cultural Revolution, many wanted to reverse the meaning of traffic lights so that red means 'go' while green means stop.

(But given the number of times I've almost been run-over by ignorant drivers in Beijing, I think many still believe that red means "hey lets drive through anyways").

So what you are saying is any light equals good and no light equals bad! :ok:

5.0L? Whoever needs such an econobox? Gimme my 454! (7.4L)

The color red is associated with prosperity and money in Chinese culture. Hence its use in the stock exchange specifically. Ever notice how much red and gold is prevalent in Chinese decorations in businesses and restaurants they run? It's all about bringing in the CASH$$$!!!