中美跨文化交际

Causes of Sino-US Cultural Values DiversityGeographical environmentThe natural environment plays a crucial role in the process of a culture formation. To a large extent, human activities rely on and are limited by the environment. Different geographical location between China and the western world creates different cultural characteristics.There are four major characteristics to Chinese geographical environment: the large land area ranking as the third of all countries in the world, the great population accounting for a quarter of the worlds, the most diverse terrain symbolizing by great mountains and rivers, and the most complex climate varying in all kinds. Therefore China owns inland culture combined with magnificent mountains-image and beautiful water-image, grand unification and colorful specialties.The main features of the natural environment of the western culture, however, are just the opposite. The ocean has become the cradle of Europe, the Americas and the Oceania, as well as Western culture. The Europe is the birthplace of Western culture. There are two major characteristic features of European geographical environment. One is that most of European countries border on the sea. More than four-fifths of European boundary line is bounded by the sea. Another is that the mainland terrain is mainly plain. The European average height is the lowest in the world, and the climate is mild and humid. The rich land had raised various ethnic groups who became powerful and frequently migrating and endlessly fought against others. The Westerners had to combat the natural environment surrounded by the sea and poor living conditions. They were eager to conquer the sea and nature which create the features of expansion, adventure and openness of Western culture. Historical causes of China Cultural ValuesAs one of the four ancient civilizations, agriculture plays an important role in Chinese culture. Ancient Chinese got together to farm on the fertile land and were more likely to believe in collectivism. For very little migration, they tended to live a stable family life. Therefore, Chinese culture was established on the foundation of agricultural family system and treated the parents as the center. Thus, Chinese always combine the individual value with family, collectivity and even nation. From a historical perspective, in the Western Zhou Dynasty, China has established a unified state and produced the initial collectivism –“Every inch of ground across the country belongs to the king. Every general commanding troop s has to serve the king.” Then Emperor Wu in the Han Dynasty carried out a policy of proscribing all non-Confucian schools of thought and espousing Confucianism as the orthodox state ideology, which made Confucianism become the core of Chinese culture. Confucianism advocates that “one must first cultivate oneself and put family in good order before he can govern the country and bring peace to the world” and stresses individual capacity of moralcriterion. People show their individual values by examining themselves in three ways each day, thus resulting in Chinese introversive type of character. Confucianism also emphasizes on “the three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues” which establish some strict rules for people’s behavior and obsession of hierarchy in daily life. Therefore, Chinese culture values focus on authority rather than on facts, and on collectivism rather than on individualism, which embodies the thought of great unification in ancient China.Historical Causes of American Culture ValuesAmerican culture came from the ancient Greek and Roman culture. Ancient Greece and Rome had experienced a long history of national migration, which led to the loose kinship of family and the early appearance of interpersonal contractual relationship in European society. After the establishment of Christianity, the religion had had great effects on people’s belief and encouraged people to pay attention to the individual. Many people believed in the credo -- “Every man for himself and God for us”.After the discovery of the American continent, many European people from different countries flooded into it and everyone reserved the equal right. Only did they work hard, some of them would made their “American Dream”come true. They would become millionaires and even presidents finally. As for people’s social status, the racial hierarchy makes very little sense. After the independence of America, the belief of freedom and equality had won the heart and mind of the people. Economic BackgroundEvery value has its own economic background, including American individualism and Chinese collectivism. During the early time of American capitalist economy, the vibrant commodity economy succeeded in the competition with natural economy and occupied the market for almost 100 years. Under the effects of commodity economy, every American had to pursue and expand individual value so as to survive. And then the individualism came. However, Chinese had been bound in lands of the natural economy for several thousands of years. They had lost the chance to self-improve and could not get rid of the circumstances of relying upon collectivism even after the decades of planned economy. Chinese needed to communicate with others and rely on the relationship to improve itself, and they shou ld tie themselves with groups so tightly that they couldn’t be ignored.Ways of ThinkingThe Americans believe in the rationalism and take it as the basic principle to treat their family members and deal with family affairs. The American parents think that the obligations of raising and educating children are equal to their responsibilities forthe society. Since the upbringing children is compulsory, children’caring for their parents in old ages in return seems to be unnecessary. And the old parents are also happy to think that the nursing home should be a fine destination which comes from the American social security system and cultural practices as the unethical practice.However, Chinese place high value of affection. The family education deals with the relationship of family members on the basis of ethics and affection. Taking children as part of their private property, the Chinese parents raise children sympathetically and affectively in every way possible in view of individual face-saving and honor, hoping to gain children’s maintenance when they are in their old age. It implies that the children should care for their parents in return. Now we can easily imagine that Chinese parents “have great ambitions for children”, which has led to educational utilitarianism.。