Abstract Color preference in Chinese folksongs is examined from the perspectives of themes, ethnicity, and geographical environment. The results yield that self-organization property of language system plays the role in color use and color preference varies with theme, ethnicity, and geographical environment. Specifically, the color of white is preferred by twenty-three ethnic minorities and the color of red is much more popular among the Han. Only in love songs, the preference for white and red exhibits an approximate north and south dimension. The study shows that digital approaches related to colors in folklore are an effective and promising tool to explore human’s response to colors.