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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/41669
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The English language evolves from the English people, and the English people live way up there, away from the equator. So, it is no wonder that the English language will reflect this.

- He was a tall, pale man.
- She looked pale and sickly.
- He turned pale with fright.

The Chinese language evolves from the Chinese people, and the Chinese people live in a geographically large region. It has its own vocabulary to describe the face.

- 脸色蜡蜡黄 ("sickly skin")
- 皮肤雪白 ("skin as white as snow", "snowy-white skin", "very light skin")
- 浓眉大眼 ("dense eyebrows and big eyes")
- 红彤彤的小脸蛋 ("red cheeks")

Translated into English, I realize that I am forced to describe a person's face from an English speaker's POV. The original Chinese version is very descriptive on a physical level, but a literal English translation would be meaningless. I think that 脸色蜡蜡黄 has to do with East Asian/Chinese physiology, describing the sickly East Asian face in the same way _pale_ is being used in English contexts on sickly-looking people.

Now, my big problem is this: how to describe the physiological responses of very dark-skinned people?

I suppose you can just describe a sickly, dark-skinned person as, well, _sickly_ or _weak_. The person cannot be _pale_, as paleness implies pale skin color as well as physical health status of the person.

Original score: 2