Mandarin Ducks （鸳鸯）

A few days ago, I noticed that there was a beautiful traditional Chinese painting about of a pair of “鸳鸯" (Yuan Yang1) on Jeff's bokee during which as I was reading his one of his articles.
"鸳鸯" are called known as "mandarin ducks" in English. Their Chinese pronunciation are "yuanyang". Foreigners probably think that they are just an ordinary sort of ducks, 2 but it is quite different but they are of great significance in Chinain Chinese culture for they . As they are the symbol of they represent eternal love" in China, "鸳鸯" Mandarin Ducks 3 are one of the most favorite themes popular motifs in paintings and poems. Why are “鸳鸯" these birds considered to be the symbols of love? Because they have colourful feather and an salient feature that they always pair to play. Perhaps it is because they are colorful 4 but more importantly it is due to their  salient trait feature is that they always are of being paired together in their natural habitat.   The Ancient Chinese people  believed that if a "鸳鸯" died, its partner would never be able to look for a new one to instead its position until the living died alone when one of them dies, the mate will remain in the same place until it dies from sorrow.  Unfortunately, this is only a imaginary picture of our ancestors this colorful belief is just their imagination. ActuallyIn reality they are not loyal animals as human beings this is not so as the surviving mate will look for another. Even so, they still represent the ideal love in Chinese culture.

After reading this short essay, if you are a Sinophile Chinese lover, please answer the following two questions below:

1、Why do I use plural form to describe "鸳鸯" mandarin ducks in my essay?
2、If a Chinese says,  "They are a couple pair 5 of mandarin ducks 鸳鸯", what does he mean?

PS: The attachment of picture comes form Jeff's bokee.

This is done by a Chinese lady who graduated from some Chinese institute of fine arts.  I am not sure if it is a painting or an embroidary.  I found it as I goggled either on "mandarin ducks" or 鸳鴦.  She has a website.

1.  English readers are lazy in reading long words.  They will usually ignore them at the first glance.  So instead of linking the sounds of the two characters, it is best to separate them.  It is just like splitting phone number into shorter components.  No American will write their phone number as 1234567890 but (123) 456 - 7890.  This is easier to remember things visually.  The old AT&T (US phone company before it's breakup) spent millions of dollars on researching this to make things easier for customers.  Sadly, this sort of user friendliness is no longer a practice for the company.

2.  Commas are unnecessary before conjunction such as "and" and "but".

3.  Once you had established the relationship, you don't need to write in Chinese.  Use the transliteration instead.  You must remember your article is read by everyone.  If too many Chinese characters or some strange alphabetic script, those who doesn't know them will not read your essay.

4.Quails (鵪鶉) are also a favourite motif in Chinese paintings and especially on porcelains not because of their colorful plumage but due to the auspicious sounding for "peace and security".  Chinese art is full of rebuses.

5.  "Pair" and "couple" mean the same ie "two".  However in usage, a "pair" has an implied relationship; "couple" does not".  We say a pair of lovers not a couple of lovers.  However one can say, "they are a couple" meaning they are lovers.  English is difficult in this kind of exceptions!