Differences between Chine Cultures
and Western Cultures
As the technology of communication and transportation developed rapidly, more and more contact with the West is unavoidable. Finding out the differences may help us come to a better understanding of Western and Chine culture.hailey
Here are ten typical and generalized differences between Chine cultures and Western cultures.
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Firstly, Western culture emphasizes lf-reliance and Chine culture trends towards helping each other. Westerns believe that people should rely on themlves. They also expect others to do the same. On the contrary, Chine are taught to help others from their unwrittenchildhoods (Though there are some moral troublesproperty是什么意思 in the society recently). The esntial difference is that Westerners view help as voluntary and Chine may take it for responsibility. Thus Westerners may only help people in emergency ca and in which they really need help.
Secondly, Western culture and Chine culture have different opinion on rights of individuals. Westerners generally feel that the rights of individuals should not sacrifice for the collective and they should have the right to decide for themlves whether sacrifice. On the contrary, Chine might despi the rights of individuals, especially in the ancient time. In the ancient China, people have no right of individual. Their rights are controlled by the “group leaders”, such as officials and emperors. Sometimes, they even did not know how “leaders” did about their rights.
Thirdly, there is difference in rank and power between Western culture and Chine culture. You may find that Westerners generally less respect the elder than Chine. Becau Westerners insist that people are equal. However, respecting elder and high-rank persons is the tradition in China. Therefore, Western societies may try to limit the power of government officials. In China, officials and the elders are much respected; at least we are expected to respect them.
Fourthly, in Westerners minds, there is a clear distinction between public and private. In o
ther words, Westerners have little “human feeling” which Chine have a lot. In China, the high-ranking persons will prefer the persons who have better relationship with. The private feeling will affect the public affair. Nevertheless, public affair have little business with private friendship or relationship in the West. It means that “you are the best friend of the managercentral park” help little about “the manager is going to fire you for some reasons of company”.
Fifthly, Chine and Westerners have different communication styles. Westerners ldom beat around the bush as they express their ideas very directly. This kind of communication style is called “low context” becau people are easy to get what is the whole idea of the speaker. On the contrary, Chine tend to communicate in an indirect and subtle way. This kind communication style is called “high context” becau people need to gain information from many aspect, such as body language, where the speaker is talking and so on.
Sixthly, Western culture is “loo”panic culture and Chine culture is “tight” culture.大连英语培训机构 “Loo”? “
Tight”? What do they mean? The loo and the tight describe the conformity. Westerners may tend to tolerate what people do in improper way. This accounts for the high crime rate in the West in a respect. In contrast, there are more restriction on people in China. There is a clear connsus as for what is and is not acceptable act.
Seventhly, the family ties which Chine attach importance to are loor in Western countries. For example, in China people are expected to take care of their old parents. In most families, people keep a good contact with their old parents and in some families, people and their old parents live together. However you may be disabled to find an English word means “the love between family members”. In the West, the elders do not live together with their sons and daughters. They are mostly lf-reliant in almost all respects.
Eighthly, there is difference between Western culture and Chine culture about the distinctions of in/out-group. Chine treat outsides and members of their in-group differently and the difference is greater than Westerners. If you are in the in-group of Wes
terners, you may find the group members are not very “ride过去式warm-hearted”. In contrast, the members in the Chine in-group will stick together much more. This is also a difference caud by “human feeling”.genre>翻译项目
Ninthly, Westerners and Chine deal with conflict in different way. As we all know that since the ancient times, China's prevailing philosophy has been one that preaches "peace is most precious", "harmony without uniformity". So, Chine will express their idea in a acceptable way. We may speak indirectly and even lie for the peace. On the contrary, Westerners still express indirectly in spite of whether their way is acceptable. Becau they believe disagreement, competition and even conflict are good things.
