Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional customs - What are the main differences between Chinese and western cultures?

What are the main differences between Chinese and western cultures?

1, different thinking modes

China: The way of thinking is macroscopic, which enables China people to better grasp the overall situation. Generally speaking, China pays more attention to Confucianism, is courteous and honest, usually more reserved, and pays more attention to etiquette when thinking about problems.

West: Good at micro-thinking and rigorous thinking, which is due to the micro-thinking mode, making the West enter the scientific society earlier. Generally, open thinking is advocated, and the way of thinking is very direct. The way of thinking pays more attention to some interests and is slightly individualistic.

2. Chinese and western science and culture present different civilization backgrounds.

Scientific culture was born in the west. As early as in ancient Greece, the pursuit of pure knowledge and "useless" knowledge by freemen cultivated and shaped the curiosity and rational tradition of exploring natural secrets in western culture. The establishment, development and perfection of metaphysics provide beneficial thinking training for the further pursuit of establishing a strict and self-consistent logical system.

The dispute between nominalism and realism in Christian scholasticism directly brewed and promoted the birth of modern science. Modern science, such as truth-seeking, experiment, falsification and quantification, has formed its own cultural tradition and has gradually become the ethical norm and spiritual pursuit of science. Since then, modern science has vividly demonstrated the rich connotation of "knowledge is power" with its powerful explanatory power and persuasiveness.

Similarly, in the process of understanding and transforming the natural world, the people of China have also formed a civilized tradition with distinctive characteristics. Conforming to nature, paying attention to holistic thinking, systematic thinking and dialectical thinking, and emphasizing the unity of man and nature, life perception and forgetting words are important characteristics of China traditional culture represented by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.

She guided the people of China to get along with people, society and nature effectively, and made outstanding achievements in calendar, agriculture, medicine and astronomy. China attaches importance to the traditional cultural characteristics of wholeness, relevance, comprehensiveness, inclusiveness and sensibility, which is different from the western scientific culture that emphasizes rationality, criticism, analysis, experimentation and accuracy.

Scientific culture based on different background colors is bound to be different, each with its own characteristics and strengths, and needs to communicate and learn from each other. It must be admitted that as far as modern science is concerned, China is backward. In particular, China needs to learn from the advanced western developed countries, carry forward the modern scientific spirit, be modest and sincere, and be willing to be a primary school student.

3. Different family cultures

China society attaches great importance to the concept of family, and the isomorphism of family and country is its typical feature. China pays more attention to family life and lacks collective life. When choosing between the collective and the individual, we often focus on the collective concept and organize the society with isomorphic ethics. It is precisely because of this that our country is called an "ethical" society.

Western society pays more attention to the development of individuality and insists on taking individuals as the basis of development, while the formation of a country pays more attention to the role of contracts. Westerners pay more attention to collective life than orientals, but their family values are relatively weak. They form a deterrent to individuals, unite society through religion, and guarantee their independent status and freedom rights, so they are called "individual-oriented" society.

People's Network-Similarities and Differences between Chinese and Western Science and Culture

A Comparative Analysis of Chinese and Western Cultures in People's Daily Online-Ang Lee's Movies