中美家庭价值观对比-英文版

Differences of Family Values Between China and America

Abstract :This paper tries to make a comparison of different family values between China and US, which appeared in many fields, for instance, the American emphasis the individualism but Chinese focus on the collectivism, the relationship between family members and their attitudes to each other are also quite different,the life style influenced by family values are varied. Reasons for these differences are complex, including different customs, cultures and social backgrounds and so on.

Key words: family values, life styles, cultures, differences.

Ⅰ.Introduction

Family is the most basic unit of all human society. It reflects the ethical values of a society, its cultural characteristics and the unique features of a nation. People begin to learn anything about the world and their culture through the family they are brought up in. What you think, how you act, even your language, are all transmitted through the family from the wider cultural context.

Family values are the core in the research of cultural values, and it has a huge influence on people’s thoughts and behaviors. So if we want to get a glimpse of the cultures of two different countries, it is necessary to know their different family values. In this paper we will analyze family values from different aspects, including the decisive family values, the attitude to the family members and their relationships, and the influences of family values.

Ⅱ.The differences of family values.

A.The individualism VS. the collectivism

The American emphasize the personal independence, while Chinese emphasize on the whole family, not any individual member. Children in America have more freedom than that in China. Their parents rarely interfere with their private affairs, and usually try to enhance children’s all-around abilities when they are young. They

handle their own affairs themselves and try to get support from their colleagues or experts who work in the relevant field, and their family members only give suggestions to them. The key point of its society is freedom. Obviously, we Chinese pay more attention to the interest of whole family than that of any individual’s. In China, children usually live with their parents even after they are grown-up, since Chinese people want a more united family and closer relationship between family members. The living style in China is different compared with that in America. Chinese people like to live with their parents and they think this kind of living style may help them have more opportunity to understand other family members. This kind of living style can narrow the gap between family members and when anybody faces with a problem, the others can help him effectively and efficiently. The living style also reflects that Chinese people mainly emphasize the whole family but not the individuals, which is quite different from Americans.

B.The attitude to the family members and their relationships in China and

America.

Chinese people have a big family with variety of relatives, which may be easy to cause competition and suspicion. So in order to maintain order and family harmony, they particularly advocate showing respect to their seniority in the light of the theory of law and discipline rite of Confucius. And 'Act you role well' is the key to a harmonious family relationship. All the family members should be ranked strictly and according to their position in the family hierarchy they would be treated separately and be required to do what they should do. So in traditional Chinese family, the elder is highly respected. Parents bring up their children, then after parents are getting old, it is their children’s responsibility and duty to care for them and give them both material and spiritual support. In the traditional Chinese family, father was always the centre. It is not because the feudal concept that man is superior to woman, but also for what man has earned is the main source of family’s incoming and usually man earns more money than woman. And woman is responsible for the family house working. Though most household affairs are solved and decided by mother, the most important thing related to the whole family are determined by father. Between parents and