Scholars still debate exactly what the first scribes drew here: some read it as a candle flame, its wick shown as the short stroke on top; others see the first burst of sunlight breaking over the horizon. Either way, everyone agrees where the picture landed — brightness, and the color it colors everything with: white.
A piece of culture
White: the color of mourning In traditional Chinese culture, white is not the color of a wedding dress but of mourning: white clothes and banners have marked Chinese funerals for thousands of years, while red was saved for weddings and luck. Yet the same character turns hopeful in the idiom 白手起家 — literally "to start a household with empty (white) hands" — the classic praise for anyone who built success from nothing, using two characters, 手 and 家, you already own.
Use it in a real word
白天
báitiān · baak6 tin1
daytime — literally "white day"; you already know 天