Differences between Chinese and American cultures.doc

differences between chinese and american culturesi have long since noticed a big difference between chinese culture and american culture. many chinese athletes choose to put the country first when a family memeber falls ill or passes away. even family members would keep bad news from athletes until they have performed their duties. i remember reading about a chinese soldier whose father or mother died but everyone else lied to him and kept him in the dark about the death until he carried out the task. well, in america, it is often another story. i dont very much about people in other fields, but american athletes, for example, nba players, often decline to play for the nation. teams would willingly let players go home if a family member falls ill. everyone thinks it natural. i have never heard anyone complain about a players absence even though the absence led to a defeat in a key game. for chinese athletes, putting the nation before the family and individuals is understandable. a moment ago i watched a chinese olympic player said in a television interview that china is my everything when i wear the national jersey. yeah. you represent the country. it is a great honor to represent the country and you need to do everything possible to honor the honor. nothing else matters. no one has ever said your mother or your father does not matter. but fathers and mothers are heard saying we dont matter. audience may not be in a position to say anything if a chinese athlete chooses to go home and give up an international game, but many in the audience would probably wonder why the player disregards his or her duty to the country. the idea of putting the nation first is deeply rooted in our mind. loyalty to the nation and dedication to the nation is the most important thing. well, it is probably hard to judge whether such a choice is morally good or not. well, we chinese have suffered a lot in the past five thousand years. the value we chinese people attach to the nation is something that came into being in this long history. our survival depends on everyones selfless dedication and loyalty to the nation. we need to stand together and sacrifice for the nation. thats the only way to survive. it may sound cruel. but we have had this value from the only choice we could make in the past. and this value may become very important in the future. it seems that family matters in america more than family matters in china. there may not be big difference in family value. but there is some difference. what i see in chinese athletes choice and american athletes choice in face of family misfortune may not be representative or at least may not be as big a difference as it suggests. but it does point to a difference. and this difference is interesting. 黄圆芬differences between chinese and american culture chinaamericaindividual conceptscollectivism modestindividualism directsocial relationsofficial hierarchicalunofficial equalfriendshipa few but permanentmuch but changefulrelation and rulerely on interpersonal relationshiprely on black and whitetime conceptnostalgic focus on the futurelay stress on nowstatussuccessivedepend on individual effort as the internationalization goes on, more and more cultures are mixed together. despite the fact, the major characters of them still persist. now lets see something different between chinese culture and american culture. individual concepts collectivism is more popular in china while individualism in america. chinese often owe a success to a group. facing praise, they appear very modest and say a lot of formulae. under the similar circumstance, americans are more likely to tend to individualism and will accept the praise directly.social relations chinese social relations are more official. chinese people seem to get used to the relations that they often decide their behavior pattern according to their own position and routine. on the contrary, americans prefer unofficial and equal relations. they like to stay with people of the same generation and dont attach too much importance to social class.friendship in china, many people usually have a few friends though their life, but the friendship between them may last long. friends are willing to help each other even anywhere anytime. in america, people may have many friends and acquaintances while their relations are not deep and they are changeful. relation and rule to chinese people, a well-connected network is very important. when faced with difficulty, they often think that they should ask someone not remote and powerful for help. that is to say, chinese, to a certain extent, often rely on interpersonal friendship to achieve success. americans usually pay more attention to written contracts and agreements, such as all kinds of laws. time concept relatively speaking, chinese are more nostalgic and focus on the future. it seems that the bygone can bring them courage and hope and what they are doing today is just for a better life in the future. oppositely, people in america lay stress on now rather than on past or future. they are more interested on present life, so they often enjoy it by means of parities, which is most common. status as for status, the successive system still has a significant impact on it in china. people often inherit not only property but also identity from their parents and other seniorities，but this phenomenon is changing now. however, to most of the americans, their individual status largely depend on their own achievements, including the achievements on educational attainment： 教育程度；教育取得；学历；受教育比率 and career. from the above aspects, we can find many differences between chinese culture and american culture. we should respect cultural diversity; at the same time, we need to protect our own culture and language because they are a vital part of a nation.the difference cultural characteristics between chinese and american(2007-06-23 18:55:09) 转载标签： culture the difference cultural characteristics between chinese and american i. introduction1.1 definitionculture is a shared, learned, interrelated set of symbols, which unite and identify members of society. (terpstra and david, 1991)1.2 the range of culture(1) values and beliefs (moral and religious beliefs)(2) communication (spoken and written language, body language) (3) norms of behavior (4) customs (5) arts, music, dance, sport1.3 the characteristics of culture(1) learned. process of learning ones culture is called enculturation.(2) shared. by the members of a society. no culture of one.(3) patterned. petructed through a constant process of social interaction. (4) symbolic. culture, language and thought are based on symbols and symbolic meanings. (5) arbitrary. not based on natural laws external to humans, but created by humans according to the whims of the society. example: standards of beauty. (6) internalized. habitual. taken-for-granted. perceived as natural.ii. the difference cultural characteristics between chinese and american2.1 high -context vs. low- contextchinese culture belongs to high-context culture, while american culture belongs to low- context culture. the people from these two different cultures have obvious different communication way. chinese people, who come from high context culture much go unsaid and depend on the relationship between the speaks, each is able to interpret body language and” read between the lines. however, american people, who come from low-context culture speak clearly and directly and come straight to the point and say exactly what the mean. therefore, when chinese people are communicating with american people, chinese people perceive american people too talkative, too obvious and redundant. on the contrary, american people perceive chinese people non-disclosing and mysterious. hence, the people who come from these two different countries should realize the different communication ways between each other in order to communicate effectively.2.2 value: chinese value vs. american valuevalues are a societys ideas about what is good or bad, right or wrong. it determines how individuals will probably respond in any given circumstances. chinese culture is guided by the value of confucianism. confucian ethic is usually depicted as a set of values in which loyalty, hierarchy and obedience to superiors who are paramount, and the individual is subordinate to the group. american culture is guided by western value which based on individualism formed a logic foundation for individual freedoms in society, entailing both economic political freedoms. these freedoms are the basis of the western value systems that underline the market economy. these two values are passed from generation to generation and change slowly, it is hard to say which value is better, but the values are kept in the people from different countries, and influence everything they are doing as well as guide them to do the appropriate things in the daily life.2.3 mode of speakingin the process of communication, american people are more used to expressing their affirmative and confirmed opinion or thoughts. however, chinese people prefer to avoid the resolute and decisive answer. in other words, american speak more directly while chinese speak indirectly. for instance, in the united states, if a man loves a woman, he always say:i love youdirectly to his lover to express his affection for her. but chinese seldom say:i love youto his lover directly. if he loves a woman, he will do a lot of things for her to obtain her heart and express his love for her. another example, if a chinese want to borrow from his friend, he always mention other thing for a long time, and have not mentioned that he plans to borrow money until the end so as to avoid too be offensive and abrupt; while if an american want to borrow money from his friend, he will get to the point directly and he is lack of money recently and would like to borrow some money.2.4 individualism vs. collectivism individualism refers to the tendency of people to immediate look after themselves and their family, so neglect the needs of society. collectivism extent to which individuals perceive themselves dependent, more collectivist and more integrated into groups. people see themselves as integrated into in-groups. generally speaking, american people are more individualistic, while chinese people are more collectivistic. to some extent, the individualistic people tent to show their personalities in public to distinguish them from others, because they believe they are the unique ones in the world, they should behave or dress differently and uniquely. nevertheless, the collectivistic people prone to follow others, and make them belong to a specific group and gain the sense of belonging. for example, in china, if some people say that the food in that restaurant is pretty good; people will follow others footstep and rush to that restaurant without their own judgments. they believe it is important for them to follow, and catch up with others footsteps.2.5 introversion vs. extroversioncompetitively, american people tend to be extroverted; while chinese people prone to be introverted. for example, in a party, american always like to know new friends, and they feel easeful and excited communicating with strangers; but chinese like to look for old friends and have fun with them. if they are unfortunate that they have found old friends in the party, they maybe hide in a corner in silence drinking or doing other things by himself and herself.2.6 principle vs. relationship american stress rules and principles while chinese stress relationship in a corporation. for instance, if a manage make a mistake or break the rule of company in the united states, the boss will punish him or her no matter how close their relationship, because they believe that relationship is one thing, rule is another thing, they should make decision according to the rules. however, chinese people attach importance to relationship very much, in some cases; relationship can beat down rules and principles. so if that sort of thing happen in china, the boss is likely to forgive him or her and say i give your face this time but dont make the same mistake next time. forfacemeans a lot to chinese people.2.7 high power distance vs. low power distancethe power distance between boss and employee is different. in the united states, employee has more freedom to negotiate with boss than the employee in a chinese corporation. for example, in china, if an employee is taking vocation, and his boss give him a call and demand him back to do business, he will be back right away in most circumstances. because the boss has the absolute power to control him, if he dont come back he might be fired. but if that sort of thing happens in an american employee, he will negotiate with his boss, because vocation is very important for american, and he do not hope anyone to destroy it, boss is no exception. conclusion chinese and american people live in the different cultural environment, and lead to a great amount of cultural differences between the two countries. in order to communicate each other well, the people from these two countries should strengthen communication to acknowledge each other well and avoid the misunderstandings in between due to the cultural disparities. the more the cross-cultural communication carries on, the more misunderstandings would be avoided and reduced. in doing so, the world would be more harmony and peaceful. in short, it is essential and vital to communicate among countries for creating a more wonderful world country. differences between chinese culture and north american culture (1) food stylebefore i came to north america, i had been living in china for twenty years. i was born in xining, qinghai province, and also grew up in there. my family members were from different parts of china. my moms hometown is at the huabei plain which is the north side of the yellow river. however, my father grew up in nanjing, the famous city which locates beside the yangzi river. most of people in southern china are used to have rice as their daily main food resource, but northern china mostly has wheat. but no matter which part of china, meat is not the major food for us. chinese people always believe that rice, wheat, vegetable, fruit are the best for our health. in contrast, meat would give more troubles to our health, for example, heart attack, high blood pressure, and etc. after i came to america, i found that people mostly have meat as their food resource. the most important is that they mostly have beef, chicken, shrimp, turkey, instead of pork and lamb. in restaurants, you can easily find hamburger, steak, ribs with a little rice and a piece of bread. i believe that the food style gives american people much more energy than we have. they are much stronger than us. that is the fact! i have heard of an interesting story about yao ming, who is one of the famous nba player right now. during his first season in nba, millions of people are attracted by his height and his cute smile. however, he is not strong enough to play nba game yet! he ever told the reporter that he likes to have soup that his mom makes for him. soup could not help him, only steak, cheese, butter could make him stronger and gives him more energy. in order to increase his competition, he has to be used to american food style! even though i have lived in america for ten years now, i still love my chinese food. they are not only the food, but culture. i would never give it up. meanwhile, i have become to be more used to american food as well.“custom is the great guide of human life”, wrote scottish philosopher david hume. knowing the customs of a country is, in effect, a guide to understanding the soul of that country and its people. as a foreign language leaner, we should know the culture in our target languages country. only in this way, we can really learn the language well.people express their culture through traditions in food, clothing, recreation, and ceremonies; through the education system and institutions of learning, including museums and libraries; and through the arts, encompassing the visual, literary, and performing arts. as a result, we will talk about the differences from some aspects.first, i will mention the addressing. in china, we will put the family names before our given names, and then in order to express our politeness, we would like to add “sir” or “lady” or their title after the name. on contrast, in america, people would like to put their family names after their given names and first names and they will put mr., mrs., miss, ms, dr. or prof. before their names. it is foremost and first for us to know these differences so that we wont make misunderstandings.it is great honor to meet an american friend , but dont be frightened by their warm embrace. this is their common way to express their warmth and friendliness. in china, people dont make embraces to express those feelings. quite often we will shake our hands. we should learn the proper way to express our friendliness in different countries.and then we will talk about time conceptions. in america, their living beat is quite fast, so they consider time is quite precious. so, when they accept an invitation, they would try their best not to be late, but they also dont go early to the inviters, as this is considered to be impolite, and it seems to disturb the inviters preparation. in china, we should also not be late for the inviters. however, in order to show our thanks and politeness, we would go to the inviters house to help them prepare the m