Culturally speaking, there is an association of yellow flowers with death.  Thus, in China, the giving of yellow flowers as a present to a living person is a taboo. 

Culturaly, Chinese people do love and appreciate receiving and giving flowers.  Each type, each color of flower has a meaning. 

And for yellow flowers, the meaning I do know is "forget about me", eventhough sometimes a yellow rose sumbolizes "victory".   I do believe your GF reacted a bit too much knowing that you, as a foreigner, probably were not aware of local meanings for flowers and colors.  She should have accepted them, thank you and then aske you if you meant the meaning conveyed.

The color in China related to death is WHITE, not yellow, in flowers and clothes too.  When you go to a funeral, you dress in white clothes, send white flowers.

Sorry HappyExPat you are right the color associated with death is white and as I said yellow carries a connotation of death, not of forget about me.  Additionally, it has something to do with the original radical of the word yellow in ancient Chinese.  It is the same reason it is improper to give pears as a present in a formal setting as the original radical of the word pear in ancient Chinese had a radical close to the radical for the meaning of death.

And as for sending white flowers, sorry again, no, that is a funereal observance of less-than-Chinese origin.  Depending upon the degree of closeness of the deceased to your friend or colleague, one should offer money in a simple little white envelope, with  a medium bow, and not offer the amount of RMB 250 which is considered an inauspicious amount.

I am sorry that I cannot agree with you here.  Truly.

double post by mistake

Hey Happy, earlier today I used this site as a tune up class for a student who is going to England in two weeks. My goal was to let her see that when she travels she should be ready for different opinions on things she may not have considered.  I let her read this question and subsequent answers........ eventually. Before she saw the answers she said that yellow flowers signify death in some circumstances. She is 18. And now I am confused as I thought white was the colour usually associated with death.

Sometimes during evenings, if there is no good movies on satellite dish, my GF and me sit and read some of the posts here.  I DO LEARN A LOT FROM HER OBSERVATIONS,  since she is Chinese, 41 years of age, and I am not. 

On this particular post, she pointed out to me that four things are important when giving flowers in China :
1.- type of flower.
2.- number of flowers.
3.- color of flowers
4.- how they are given to the receiver.
Ahe even said that how the arrangement is made, ribbon or not, etc had a meaning, but not so popular today.
According to her, and confirmed by a few sites on Internet, The color of flowers is very important. Different colors have different meanings. In general, red, yellow and lilac are all positive colors. Red symbolizes luck and prosperity, yellow (particularly a yellow rose) is the color of victory, but depending on how is given could be interpreted also as "forget me", and lilac represents modesty, which is a highly valued Chinese virtue. White flowers should be avoided as they are a sign of death.

Now, could it be possible that in different regions of China, color of flowers have different meanings ?.  Or could it be because Buddhist monks use yellow robes as a sign of mourning ?

Another thing she pointed out to me, and she just buried her father a few months back, was that she explained burial customs.  According to her, neighbors do provide lots of food during wake and burial period (lots of eating and drinking I was told happens there).  Distant friends do bring hongbao, and real close friends and family do offer white flowers and wear white clothes.

I am not trying to prove that any one is wrong, nor that I am right. I am just expressing the opinion of a local Lady who has received many flower arrangements in her life, she was and still is a model for clothes and was quite succesful and sought by many for her skills and looks. She even told me that if you hand out the flowers vertically, bud up, means one thing, if bud down means that the opposite of the meaning is meant, and if horizontal is even another meaning. To me, truly amazing !.

And last, it is a pleasure and a refreshing fact that we can differ in a civilized way, without name calling and all other BS commonly used here.   Be sure that for the next few days I will search further on flower meanings in Chinese customs, my curiosity has been aroused !