Cultural differences between China and the West ppt

The Basic Differences between Chinese and American Cultures: A Comparative Analysis of China's Concept and American Concept

Collectivism: Generally speaking, China and other Asian cultures reflect what social scientists call "collectivism". These cultures pay more attention to group cooperation and personal modesty.

Individualism: On the contrary, Americans usually show an individualistic tendency. They attach more importance to independence. Self-realization, if not an expectation, is at least more acceptable. Americans pay more attention to "freedom" without external constraints.

Social relations: Social relations in China are more formal and hierarchical than those in the United States. China people seem to be very used to the hierarchical structure, and they can determine their behavior according to their position and convention in the structure. Americans pay more attention to informal equal relations. Americans are usually most comfortable with people of the same social status; They don't pay much attention to social class.

Friendship: Compared with Americans, China people are more likely to have several lifelong friends. They have a deep friendship with each other and are willing to help each other in any form. Americans may have many "friends" and acquaintances. These friends and acquaintances change over time, and their commitment to each other is limited.

Obligations are between people in China, and the relationship with others usually means mutual obligations. On the contrary, Americans tend to avoid interdependent relationships and situations that may lead to long-term obligations.

Task orientation and relationship orientation: China people pay attention to relationship orientation. Maintaining a harmonious relationship is more important than completing the task. In contrast, Americans pay attention to task orientation. Getting the job done is usually more important than relationships.

Harmony and "fact": China people's education is usually to avoid direct conflict, open criticism and controversial topics. They hope to maintain the harmony of people around them and leave "face" for others. On the contrary, Americans are usually willing to face up to problems, criticize problems, discuss controversial issues, and stick to what they consider to be "facts." They don't care about "face"

The role of laws and regulations: In terms of communication, China people usually trust interpersonal relationships more than written rules and procedures. Americans generally believe that written rules apply to everyone and can produce fair and reasonable procedures and decisions.

Time concept: China people are more nostalgic and more concerned about the future. Americans are usually not interested in the past, they care about the present.

Designation of identity and acquisition of identity: In China, an individual's position in society is largely based on genetic characteristics, such as age, gender and family, but this situation is changing. For most Americans, personal status is mainly based on their own achievements, including success in education and career.

This article, as the first in my series of articles on China culture, hopes to combine simple truth with practical problems and let us know what is the value of China culture. The grand view is only shallow; Family statements are disrespectful.

Today, let's talk about what culture is. After that, it makes a simple comparison between Chinese and American cultures, so as to see the great influence of culture on a society.

What is culture?

Simply put, culture is the rules and knowledge that you don't know why but are willing to accept. In practice, most people can appreciate the benefits or believe that they can bring benefits, which makes these rules and understandings become the choice of most people in contemporary times, and at this time it constitutes the main content of culture. However, if this law or understanding has been completely proved to be infeasible by objective practice, it will not be adhered to, which is also the ability of cultural renewal. Therefore, culture is mainly those rules and understandings that are difficult to give a final conclusion (belonging to the level of values and philosophy). It has four characteristics: subjectivity, continuity, collectivity and efficiency.

For example, when it comes to the Spring Festival, everyone thinks it should be celebrated and they are used to it. It's hard to say that it is necessary for everyone to celebrate the Spring Festival, but everyone can say some benefits, so naturally continue. But it is this natural inertia that has a strong social force unless the society changes dramatically or is completely eroded and oppressed by foreign cultures. The following process is not unknown to China traditional culture, nor is it more than once, but it is conquered by the rationality and strong cohesion of China culture itself. This paper puts forward two characteristics of China culture: rationality and cohesion.

The continuation of culture does not mean the loss of rationality. In fact, although the whole people participate in the debate on cultural rationality, the answer is often given by recognized social elites. However, the debate on social values needs long-term and massive social practice, so its change is slow and repetitive. Many topics, the elite of an era are often difficult to give answers. Even if rules can be deduced from some simple principles, it needs to be proved by long-term practice, which is the massiness of China culture. Confucian culture was not questioned from today, but was refuted from the first day of its birth. Historically, people have been questioning and even sharply criticizing it, but Confucianism has become the final choice because it is a social choice and has been verified by a lot of practice.

Interpretation of Chinese and American culture

I have a simple description of the social structure of China and the United States.

America abides by the rules. (America is based on rules)

China stays in culture. China is built on culture.

The United States is the first country to practice translating all kinds of civilization achievements into specific written provisions, so now it has the most perfect legal system, policy system and public procedures. And enjoy personal freedom higher than the rules, or the rules are embodied in the compromise between personal freedom. When rules become provisions, everything can become order. If the rules meet the needs of social production and life, it will naturally produce higher implementation efficiency. American society relies heavily on good written laws and regulations.

But rules only reflect the system level, and values are the cornerstone to promote the establishment of the system. American values include two aspects. On the one hand, it originated from the thought of freedom, equality and fraternity during the French Revolution, on the other hand, it was the transplantation of western traditional Christian culture. The United States is an alliance system that comes and goes freely, and their strength often comes from loose and free creation.

China does not have mature written and fixed rules such as systems, laws and policies, but China society as a whole is still functioning well and developing rapidly, and China has a strong self-saving power because of its strong and vibrant culture. Culture can restrain everyone's behavior at any time and promote social cooperation. This culture comes from the accumulation of history and the collision of wisdom.

The composition of China society still abides by this principle, and values are the cornerstone to promote the establishment of the system. The complexity and diversity of China's social development make it far more profound in culture than the United States. The institutional foundation of China's development is often destroyed by monarchs and foreigners. China's mature cultural wisdom has always been in the struggle with autocracy and foreign barbaric domestication. During the enlightenment of China's history, cultural achievements were often defined as some good rules, but they were easily destroyed under the monarchy. The political affairs and emerging ideas of the literati in the early Song Dynasty were quickly destroyed by foreign aggression, which caused thousands of years of ideological shackles.

Culture is irreplaceable in a society. Because the process of social development cannot be interrupted and then designed and built. Social development is an irresistible and non-selective natural evolution process. How to make progress in China is to identify the correct and suitable tradition, upgrade it from culture to rules, and at the same time gain new insights from practice with your own wisdom, so that it will become the basic system established by society together with tradition.

Comparison between Chinese and American cultures

Historically, the United States is not a country in the traditional sense, but a new interest consortium. Moreover, due to its short history, it is still in the process of development, and the cycle of social rise and fall has not been fully reflected in the United States. Therefore, compared with countries in the traditional sense, there are many incomparability. Once an inherent and unchangeable cultural attribute is formed, it can be regarded as a mature country.

Cultural contrast

According to the understanding of culture, what the United States can inherit mainly comes from the ideological achievements of the French Revolution and the traditional Western Christianity. God has become the master of its relationship with western civilization, although no one has seen it. Jesus is just a lesson plan or a tool to publicize this idea. What is the civilized norm of God? They are darkness, deception, plunder and the law of the jungle. The so-called charity, morality is only used to forgive the evil deeds of the wicked, and the occasional light is brought by God rather than people. It can be seen that although they inherited the outstanding achievements of the French Revolution, they did not break away from the framework of western traditional civilization. From the behavior of Bush, who calls himself a traditional American, we can see his traditional values. Bush can be said to be the president farthest from the freedom, equality and fraternity put forward by the French Revolution in modern times, and thus can best reflect the other side of American traditional values.

China's cultural comparison is precipitated by the vicissitudes of thousands of years, which not only contains some values and principles, but also has a lot of unique wisdom. This cultural accumulation is the result of the struggle of different schools in China's pluralistic (not unitary) history, which has been proved by long-term practice. We often say that history always repeats itself, that is to say, most of the current phenomena occur in the history of China. Therefore, it is very convincing to China people themselves and has a strong adaptability to China society.

The rationality and cohesion of China culture are the core. Confucianism has experienced many changes and ideological movements since Confucius (in fact, earlier, it was gradually produced from many tribes and agricultural production), and it can survive well because of its strong rationality. When summing up the wisdom of predecessors, Confucius' most important choice is "Confusion without words".

Confucius argued that the core of social system construction is "harmony". At the level of social system, it emphasizes abandoning war, civilizing and relying on theory to solve disputes. Personally, Confucius emphasized benevolence and learning, built a harmonious and reasonable environment through benevolence, improved his understanding through learning, avoided fighting for meaningless and wrong goals, and was able to participate in the theoretical process. Wisdom is the result of learning, faith is the realm of getting along, courage is the courage of personal progress, and righteousness is the implementation of personal responsibility to the public. Etiquette is only a rule based on these reasonable needs, and it is the embodiment of thought and wisdom. If we look at Confucius or Confucian culture and only know "benevolence" and "propriety", it will lead to the embarrassing situation of knowing what it is but not knowing why.

China's wisdom comes from natural environment and human environment. China's natural environment is the only continent in the world that is relatively independent and can constantly absorb fresh power. Geographically speaking, surrounded by mountains on three sides and water on one side, most of the surrounding areas are barren, and the Central Plains enjoys the best geographical position, naturally forming a centripetal force towards the center. In terms of climate, China's temperate climate is most suitable for human habitation and development, which fully shows the law of repeated climate cycles and reflects the relatively consistent climate environment of the whole continent, which makes it easy for tribes to have a * * * understanding of nature and society, which is conducive to integration and migration. In the process of integration, the worship of ghosts and gods of different tribes is no longer important and can not exist. Instead, it is ancestor worship, cultural worship and wisdom worship. These are the roots of China culture.

Chinese mainland, as the ultimate cultural station with all rivers flowing into the sea, is endowed with unique conditions, which makes China culture relatively independent, able to absorb the nutrition of other national cultures and pay attention to integrity, stability, harmony and longevity. Summarized as the characteristics of openness and independence, absorption and nobility. The social changes in Chinese mainland are the epitome of a complete world. At present, many so-called international diplomatic disputes can be seen from the struggle among vassal states in China at that time. With the above conditions, it is not surprising that the idea of "Yi" came into being. It takes "Yi" as the starting point and destination of wisdom, which well embodies the philosophical view of China culture.

Cultural differences between China and America

China and the United States are deeply rooted in some cultural and social differences. Here are some examples I have observed. I want to emphasize here that these views are general, but there are still some special cases.

First, individualism

Americans are quite individualistic, while eastern societies (including China, of course) emphasize family and class levels. This is a very important and influential difference. There are many examples of Americans advocating personal characteristics, and parents rarely interfere with their children's development.

Second, the right to privacy.

Americans usually respect the privacy of others. Even close friends rarely ask others too "personal" questions, such as age, salary, marital status, etc. We should also talk less about the third party. Uninvited guests (including parents) are definitely not welcome.

Third, informal.

Americans are more casual in clothes and entertainment. Most importantly, the communication between people is relatively informal, even if the age or status of the two sides are very different. There are countless examples of this. For example, many students directly address professors, while the younger generation directly address the elderly by their first names. In the eyes of many orientals, this informal expression of "surpassing generation" and "surpassing identity" is considered impolite.

Fourth, openness and directness.

Americans are quite open and direct, especially in professional discussions, and there are often arguments of different opinions (note: arguments, not arguments of striking tables or smashing microphones). On the contrary, orientals often do not conflict directly, but mediate tactfully through a third party with higher status.

Verb (abbreviation for verb) independence and self-reliance

Americans usually don't like to rely on others, and even their parents may not be willing to accept their help. Parents also encourage their children to leave home early and live independently. Teenagers in our country are developing slowly in this respect. For international students, it should be noted that the guidance professor attaches great importance to the ability of graduate students to do research independently. For foreign students who are not fluent in English, if you are rejected when you borrow notes from Americans, it doesn't necessarily mean that they hate you. It is likely that they care about each other and think that you should be independent.

Competitiveness of intransitive verbs

The development of American society is driven by competition. "Work hard and have fun" is the style of most people. They all like to overwhelm their opponents in oral debates, and this "last word" style is of course a manifestation of competitiveness. Their spirit of competition and challenge is also fully displayed in sports competitions, and even when they call it "playing", they are quite serious. Ordinary Americans are crazy about a team, and they often use it to vent their emotions. For example, when the school team plays, the school police often have to check the audience who enter the stadium and prevent them from bringing wine into the stadium. During the game, the audience is noisy and often throws things around. Some entertainment performances are also a bit puzzling. For example, one trick is to throw a female cheerleader from the bottom of the audience, and the first-class person will throw her up again until the highest-class one is thrown down again; Accidents happen occasionally. I am also a fan, but I watch TV at home to avoid losing money at the scene. Moreover, it is necessary to count the time after the game and avoid walking on the road, because fans are happy to win (if they see the driver honking his horn, they don't have to listen to the report), but they are depressed and angry to lose. Both results are crazy. Some hot-blooded boys do more strange things. One thing to emphasize is that most Americans are very disciplined and don't harass others unless they are venting.

Seven, public etiquette.

Americans usually respect the peace of others. Needless to say, in the opera house, even in the theater, you can enjoy it silently. The conversation voice when eating in the restaurant is also quite low, which is quite different from the noise of boxing and drinking in China. The queue is very orderly, and it is absolutely rare to refuse to cut in line and rush to get on the bus. Drivers usually obey traffic rules, such as not running red lights when no one is around at night, respecting pedestrians and letting passers-by cross the road first. Students from countries that don't obey traffic rules should be especially careful when studying in the United States.

Eight, friend mode

The definition of "friend" in the American population is broad and different. For example, friends at work, friends who play ball, friends who go to school, friends who drink, and so on. In addition, the United States has a vast territory and a large population mobility, and friends rarely confide personal things, so friendship is relatively "warm". China people's friendship is usually "one hair pulls one hair and moves the whole body". If you disagree with each other, try to avoid meeting each other, which is more ups and downs. Borrowing money from friends is common in China, but it is rare in the United States.

Nine, the use of funds mode

China people usually make a conservative budget, while Americans are close to the "limit" and tend to spend beyond the budget (which is also related to the large use of credit cards in American society). Americans are very willing to buy things, especially buying a house and a car, and they are more "Jewish" in eating and drinking, especially treating guests; On the other hand, China people are willing to spend money to entertain guests.

X. world outlook

Perhaps because of the prosperity of the United States in recent years and the biased emphasis on education in some aspects, most Americans are "home-centered" and have a superficial understanding of other countries. Americans' ignorance of world geography is a very sad thing for the National Geographic Society. There is a joke in the United States: residents of a state in the northeast wrote to the state government to ask about the situation in New Mexico, and the answer was actually: We are not familiar with the situation in other countries and have no comment.

A preliminary understanding of the cultural contrast between China and the United States

I met an American recently. Talking about a lot of things. Suddenly interested in America. With regard to education, the United States/kloc-must go to school before the age of 0/6. It's all free. You can't live without it. However, China's nine-year compulsory education still needs money, and the national conditions have no choice. The American education fund is part of the tax revenue. They never know that there are promising schools, and it is unimaginable that they need donations to go to school. Regarding the environment, in China, they feel that they can't breathe, can't smell the smoke and can't run. Although we think the roads are much cleaner than before, they wonder why there is rubbish everywhere, alas. Think we don't pay attention to the public. You can also smoke in public places. Regarding freedom, they will feel that many websites will be blocked and many American websites will be inaccessible. Their views on many things are more casual, because there is no history, only 300 years, and we are influenced by long-term traditions. As for marriage, there are 1 divorce in three marriages in the United States, so it is very normal for a stepfather or stepmother. But in China, they wonder why some people want a divorce, and some people will advise them not to leave. They pay more attention to privacy. There are at most two people in a dormitory. If they don't feel uncomfortable, there are still few people. There won't be two people who want to check out. They all belong to their dormitory, and everyone understands. I still need to find a student hotel. Hehe, about the changes since I came here, I always say that China is the enemy of the United States, and that China is developing rapidly and will soon catch up with the United States. But after they came to China, they felt that there was a big gap, and they were totally different. How can they say whether they can catch up? China is very traditional, and China will be unfair to women. These are all human rights issues, but I feel that this is not the case. It is still much more open than I expected, and men and women are very equal. Regarding racial discrimination, racial discrimination does exist in the United States. Many people just don't like people of other colors, and there will be parties that only whites can attend. As for families, many people in America don't get married as long as they don't have children, but live together because they know they will get divorced. It would be easy if they didn't have children anyway. They can't imagine that we still need to consider our parents. Because they were kicked out of their homes at the age of 18, they didn't care about their parents when they were old. So when I said what I would do for my parents, they felt very strange. As for joking, they really joke about everything. When men and women are together, cancel masturbation, imitate the opposite sex masturbation, and talk about their favorite sexy love. They are all only 20 years old. It's really different from us. The first average age 18, 19. As for entertainment, we mostly stay in the dormitory on weekends, and they will definitely go to bars or clubs. There are so many differences, but the essence lies in history. I prefer their freedom and openness. I will definitely go to America once and see more. When she saw Miami Beach in transporter2, she said that her home was on the beach in Florida, which was simply beautiful. Another experience is that many of them were born outside the United States. When I was a child, I met one who lived in several places with my hometown, but they all got along well without any strange feelings. What an immigrant country.

A comparative list of Chinese and American cultures

Release date: April 23rd, 2006 12: 56 Author: Ding Bai Source: Blue Boiling Space of Luohe Information Port.

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(USA) (China)

"mine", "yours", "ours" and "yours"

Enjoy service request approval

Uniforms hate uniform worship

Everything is in place. Everyone is in position.

The recipient's address is under the envelope, and the recipient's address is above it.

On the first floor

Black funeral, white funeral

French is the world center on the map, and China is the world center on the map.

"Asians look alike" and "Europeans look alike"

"I" (pointing to the chest) "I" (pointing to the nose)

Parisians look down on mainlanders, while Beijingers look down on outsiders.

Tanning and whitening

Raise your hand and call a taxi. Raise your hand and call a taxi.

Walking in the street, piling up shit and eating dog meat

Knife and fork and bread, chopsticks and rice.

Send flowers to the ground, send rice to the ground.

Tian breakfast xian breakfast

Quiet and gloomy restaurant noisy and bright restaurant

"Hello, have you left?" "Hello, have you eaten?"

Take a bath and wash clothes often.

Shame others and save yourself.

Exaggerate the value of gifts and belittle the value of gifts.

When guests yell at each other to open presents, they will look at them quietly after they leave.

Travel in a T-shirt and suit.

"Happy New Year" and "Congratulations on getting rich"

Walking dogs and birds

Take pictures of scenery and people.

Sit on the ground, squat on the ground.

The car honked its horn and accused others. The car honked to warn others.

Women smoke fashions, men smoke fashions.

Comparison between Chinese and American cultures

China

Just say something nice with your mouth. . . (error)

Crosstalk: a touted game

Sketch: Huyo's trick

Martial arts: flying around on a tightrope, actually nothing. Anyone can imitate and recite lines.

United States of America

Performance art (action) plus competition philosophy (truth)

Rugby: A Game for Strong Men

Ice hockey: experience speed and passion

Basketball: Skill and Coordination, Speed and Confrontation

Baseball: A Smart Man's Game

Action movies: all are real kung fu. Are you strong enough? Have you practiced in the gym? Someone has been practicing since childhood. Why do you think this is not true? Because you can't imitate it.

UFC: Who has a strong mental will when fighting in infinite flow? Who is the real hero, sign the death certificate first. The most dangerous and real fighting on earth, almost every KO, every injury.

American wrestling: a game for strong men.

Therefore, men who love sports, keep fit and are competitive in this world are more real.

China people need to exercise, strengthen themselves, and make themselves brave and confident. China people need to strive for the first place, not friendship first and competition second. This is the true national spirit. China people need to find their goals and know their ideals. To change society. Instead of being a slave to survive.

And those men who like reciting poems are fake, because he always compares ancient times with modern times. In fact, we should study modern studies instead of ancient literature.

I hope these are helpful to you!