1500字大学英语论文
月饼制作-
Differences
between Chinese Cultures
and
Western Cultures
As the
technology of communication and transportation
developed
rapidly,
more
and
more
contact
with
the
West
is
unavoidable.
Finding
out
the
differences
may
help
us
come
to
a
better
understanding
of
Western and Chinese culture.
Here are ten typical and
generalized differences between Chinese
cultures and Western
cultures.
Firstly, Western culture emphasizes
self-reliance and Chinese
culture
trends towards helping each other. Westerns
believe that people
should rely on
themselves. They also expect others to do the
same. On
the contrary, Chinese are
taught to help others from their childhoods
(Though there are some moral troubles
in the society recently). The
essential
difference is that Westerners view help as
voluntary and
Chinese may take it for
responsibility. Thus Westerners may only help
people in emergency case and in which
they really need help.
Secondly,
Western
culture
and
Chinese
culture
have
different
opinion on rights of individuals.
Westerners generally feel that the rights
of individuals should not sacrifice for
the collective and they should have
the
right
to
decide
for
themselves
whether
sacrifice.
On
the
contrary,
Chinese might despise the rights of
individuals, especially in the ancient
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1
页
time. In the ancient China, people have
no right of individual. Their rights
are controlled
by the
“
group
leaders
”
, such as officials
and emperors.
Sometimes,
they even did not know how
“
l
eaders
”
did about their
rights.
Thirdly, there is difference in
rank and power between Western
culture and Chinese
culture. You may find that Westerners generally
less
respect the elder than Chinese.
Because Westerners insist that people
are equal. However, respecting elder
and high-rank persons is the
tradition
in China. Therefore, Western societies may try to
limit the power
of government
officials. In China, officials and the elders are
much
respected; at least we are
expected to respect them.
Fourthly, in
Westerners minds, there is a clear distinction
between
public and private.
In other words, Westerners have
little
“
human
feeling
”
which
Chinese have a lot. In China, the high-ranking
persons will prefer
the persons who
have better relationship with. The private feeling
will
affect the public affair.
Nevertheless, public affair have little business
with private friendship or relationship
in the West. It means that
“
you are
the best friend of the
manager
”
help little about
“
the manager is going
to
fire you for some reasons
of company
”
.
Fifthly, Chinese and Westerners have
different communication styles.
Westerners seldom beat around the bush
as they express their ideas very
directly. This kind of communication
style is called
“
low
context
”
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2
页
because people are easy to
get what is the whole idea of the speaker. On
the contrary, Chinese tend to
communicate in an indirect and subtle
way.
This
kind
communication
style
is
called
“
high
context
”
because
people
need
to
gain
information
from
many
aspect,
such
as
body
language,
where the speaker
is talking and so on.
Sixthly, Western culture is
“
loose
”
culture
and Chinese culture is
“
tigh
t
”
culture.
“
Loose
”
Tight?
“”
? What
do they mean? The loose and the
tight describe the conformity.
Westerners may tend to tolerate what people
do in improper way. This accounts for
the high crime rate in the West in a
respect. In contrast, there are more
restriction on people in China. There is
a clear consensus as for what is and is
not acceptable act.
Seventhly, the family ties which
Chinese attach importance to are
looser
in Western countries. For example, in China people
are expected
to take care of their old
parents. In most families, people keep a good
contact with their old parents and in
some families, people and their old
parents live together. However you may
be disabled to find an English
word means
“
the love between family
members
”
. In the West, the
elders
do not live together with their
sons and daughters. They are mostly
self-
reliant in almost all
respects.
Eighthly, there is difference between
Western culture and Chinese
culture
about the distinctions of in/out-group. Chinese
treat outsides and
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