Analysis of Deferent V iews on “Filial P iety” Between China
and American from Movie Guasha
Abstract:“While one’s parents are alive, one should not travel to distant places.”“The gentleman works hard on the basic principles, thereafter comes morality; filial piety is the basic principle of a human being.”These are our Chinese traditional filial piety. But are these standards or rules suitable for every nation? The movie Guasha shows us many about the differences of filial piety between China and American. There are many misunderstanding and coincidence in this movie and those are the cause of the circuitous of the characters’fate. All of these are rooted in the cultural differences between China and American. In this assay, I made the differences of filial piety as the point of entry to analyze the reason why the differences come and their similarity.
Key words: Guasha, the culture in china and America, piety, filial piety, object
The movie Guasha tells a story that a Chinese couple who lived in American for 8 years took the hero’s father in American after they think they had realized their American dream. But a few days later, their son got ill; the old father used Guasha to treat the little boy for he didn’t know how to read English. The bruises were noticed by the child welfare bureau, and all the rough broke out after that. Finally, they had a universal satisfactory ending. The end of the story is to the satisfaction of all, but a variety of cultural conflict is the apparent. What we see is the initial irreconcilable to accept, understand. Many people will think that Chinese and Western have cultural differences, I think so, but I also think that behind these differences, there are many similarities. The following, I will be on the film to talk something about filial piety plot makes concrete analysis, and explore how cultural differences reflected in the filial piety? Why is it? What are the similarities?
But before that, we will first do a general understanding of filial piety.
In the ancient clan and tribal society, meaning of "filial piety" is very wide. It refers to the family of the elder respect, love, support and sacrifice. With the family as the basic unit of society and social development in a long time, "filial piety" changes from the family elder respect to parental care, and become an important ethical rule to do with family relations. Today, "filial piety" to living gets more attention. We often say that the parents contribute to our
upbringing, so we will repay the parents. While in the west, has no concept of "filial piety". The Western belief in God, that God has given human life. So in the western culture, the concept of "filial piety" is corresponding to “piety”.”Filial piety “ is also derived from “piety”. Piety in the ancient Greek dictionary definition is: 1, sacred, permitted by the laws of God, to God; 2, non God prohibited by law, human beings can enjoy. In the two concepts, actually we can see, in the West or in China, for the one who supposed to give us life, raising us people have a kind of "filial piety", just for different objects.
Situation one: acquiesce and even publicly agree the old father smoking in the house
There are two such scenes: 1, at the table, the old father smoking, Denis sat next to Grandpa. Janine saw father smoking, showed her disgust on her face, and then to open the window. Xu Datong saw this scene, said: "Janine, why?" Full of condemnation, for fear that his father felt reject by his families. 2, the house was dark. The old father who was smoking at home saw the couple suddenly returned home looked panic, hiding the cigarette behind. He knew the daughter-in-law doesn't like him smoking in the house. In order to avoid his son and the daughter-in-law’s quarrel, he decided to put out the cigarette. At this time, Janine became clever. In order to make obedient husband don’t feel disgusted, she said: "Dad, go ahead, I don't mind.”In the two acts, both husband and wife knew smoking is harmful to health, but they did not prevent him from it. The reason is the filial piety. Since ancient times, Chinese are taught to obey. We cannot be a disobedient child. Even if the parents are wrong, we are not allowed to contradict them. That case in America, however, children will stop their parents since smoking is harmful to health. this is "filial piety" in the eyes of Americans. What lead the United States look the same thing quite different from Chinese? Personally I think that we should go back to the objects both sides to do "filial piety". As we said earlier, Chinese parents act as life giver and caregivers, while Americans believe God give them life whereas their parents are just pull them out. Therefore, Chinese parents and children are hierarchical, that is the so-called "respect for seniority". And in America, almost people are Christian. Parents and children are in the same class. They tend to be friends, just pointed out the fault and regardless of other things such as against.
Scene two: taking old father in America to live together
In china, Datong is absolutely a dutiful son because it’s admirable to make parents live with their son and daughters. I guess no one in China would deny that. But in America, such behavior just can't be understood. Why the old father did not to live in his home, but in his son’s? Americans are puzzled, because in American, parents and children do not live together. Even when parents visit children, they have to make an appointment few weeks or even a few months before. This behavior in Chinese eyes seems incredible. They think that the relationship between American parents and children is too distant. In a word, both sides look at each other and feel nothing is right. Why? They have different ideas. Chinese like four generations under one roof, family happiness; while the Americans pay attention to individual personality, advocate individualism and independence of thought. And why the concept is different? We start from the filial piety and piety as well. Earlier we said that both China and the US have "filial piety", while the object is different. Chinese is more willing to live with parents, to do filial piety. The US is not with their parents who pull them into this world, because in their eyes, the role of parents is actually more like China brothers and sisters and it’s God who give their lives and souls. In Chinese, even if one large ancient family which people live together, in fact, can be divided into several small courtyards, deal with family affairs separately except some important issues. These partitional rules are more clear the modern life. Have you ever seen brothers and sisters live together? Perhaps no. Therefore, the Americans and their parents (like brothers and sisters) living in different roof is not surprising.
Scene three: the understanding of “hitting you is for your own good”
When Xu Datong hit Denis, Quinlan appeared shocked and uneasy. Denis did not want to sit by the side of his father at table for his father beat him. Grandpa told him that his father hit him for his own good. People in China and America hold different positions to the same thing. In Chinese, to spare the rod was, traditionally, to spoil the child. The father to beat his son is good for son, son should not hold grudges, and they should obey the discipline, or it’s impiety; Americans think this behavior is abuse. It’s the appearance of not respecting the human rights. First, their laws don't allow this behavior. All are equal before the law. It’s illegal for the fathers to hit sons. It is a violation of human rights and a violation of the law. Second I think it is more important that Americans, from the bottom of their heart, think their parents and
themselves are equal. Deep in their hearts, the one who give them souls and lives isn’t parents, but the God. Though China has the law that everyone is equal, but the parents’ hit on children is called they are educating the children, and no one would charge their parents. Because Chinese parents are as holy American’s God, play as the life and soul giver. So there are grades between parents and children in China. They never think that they themselves and their parents are equal. All of this is according to the different object of "filial piety".
Conclusion
In cross-cultural communication, collision and conflict of culture can be seen everywhere. What the movie "Guasha" shows is only the tip of the iceberg. All differences originate in the differences in history, conception, belief, value. But the "filial piety" differences in Guasha are root in the different philosophical thinking about the sources of human. China as an atheist state (at least most people do), both the body and soul are given by parents. So parents have the sacred place in the hearts of their children and the place is inviolable. So in these situations above, Chinese will have different attitudes and practices with foreigners. And USA, as a Christian country, affected by the Bible story of Adam and Eve, people in this country believe that man is created by God, they believe God gave the soul to the flesh, and God is their Lord who makes them able to survive and multiply. The loftiness of his position is no less than Chinese parents. That is the reason why the relationships in Americans and their parents are not as tight as Chinese do. As for the “filial piety”, China and the US have something in common. Although their concepts are different, the meaning is the same. God is to American what parents are to Chinese. all have the same emotional ties and treatment. That is to say, both have "filial piety", but American "filial piety" is for God, as we know, the “piety”. It is because of the different objects that there are so many cultural conflicts about "filial piety” in Guasha, and then the perplexing "filial piety" cultural conflict in the whole society.
Cross –cultural communication Thesis statement: This paper is mainly talking about the culture differences between several countries. Outline: Chapter 1: Language and culture in communication Chapter2: Culture shock Chapter3: What’s in a name? Chapter4: Social interaction Chapter 5: Roles and relations Chapter6: Non-verbal communication Chapter 7: In other words. Chapter 8: From a primitive Tribe to a Global Village Conclusion Chapter 1: Language and culture in communication There is no denying the fact that out daily lives depend largely on communication, without it we can’t know each other. So, we should come to realize that communication is of great importance. What is communication? In total, communication can be divided into two parts; they are verbal communication and non-verbal communication. However, different people hold different opinions about communication. In general, if there is communication, there must have 4 cases: there are at least two or more people, some contact between communicators, a language shared by communicators, an exchange of information has taken place. I just take the fist one for example. Suppose there is one person, there can’t be communication. Otherwise, he may talk to himself. Communication not just exist in human-beings There are five kinds of communications they are human communication, animal communication, human-animal communication, human machine communication, machine communication. So, Animals and machines can also communicate with each other. For human beings, how can we communicate with each other? Experts say that there are various kinds of communication. Nowadays, there are different kinds of tools for us to communicate .For people we can use telephone and computer to communicate with each other. By them, finally we can receive message. What is social situation? When there are two or more people gather to do a job or an activity, then it creates a social situation. That is to say, an individual working alone can not constitute a social s A social situation may have two definitions. One is given by the community, and the other by the participants. Finally, we should notice that being polite plays a crucial role in
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询问对方的年龄，婚姻状况，儿女，职业，甚至收入，在中国人的眼里这是一种礼貌，但在西方人眼里则认为这些问题侵犯了他们的隐私。 2.时间观方面的冲突 西方人的时间观和金钱观是联系在一起的，时间就是金钱的观念根深蒂固，所以它们非常珍惜时间，在生活中往往对时间都做了精心的安排和计划，并养成了按时赴约的好习惯。在西方，要拜访某人，必须事先通知或约定，并说明拜访的目的、时间和地点，经商定后方可进行。而中国人则属于多向时间习惯的国家，在时间的使用上具有很大的随意性，一般不会像西方人那样严格的按照计划进行，西方人对此往往感到不适应。 3.客套语方面的冲突 中国人注重谦虚，在与人交际时，讲求“卑己尊人”，把这看作一种美德，这是一种富有中国文化特色的礼貌现象。在别人赞扬我们时，我们往往会自贬一番，以表谦虚有礼。西方国家却没有这样的文化习惯，当他们受到赞扬时，总会很高兴地说一声“Thank you”表示接受。由于中西文化差异，我们认为西方人过于自信，毫不谦虚；而当西方人听到中国人这样否定别人对自己的赞扬或者听到他们自己否定自己的成就，甚至把自己贬得一文不值时，会感到非常惊讶，认为中国人不诚实。 4.餐饮习俗方面的冲突 中华民族素有热情好客的优良传统。在交际场合和酒席上，热情的
1 Translation 纵观历史，我们可以清楚地看到，人们由于彼此所处地域、意识形态、容貌服饰和行为举止上存在的差异，而长久无法互相理解、无法和睦相处。在这种情况下，跨文化交际作为一个特定的研究领域得以形成和发展。值得注意的是，人类文明在发展过程中所遭受的许多挫折，既是个人的，又是全球性的；人类历史进程总是充满了个人间的直接冲突和民族间的误解——从骂骂咧咧到孤立主义直至到武装冲突，大大小小争端不绝。 很显然，文化间以及亚文化间的交往比以前多了，这迫切要求我们共同努力，去理解有着不同信仰和文化背景的人们，并与之和睦相处。通过加深认识和理解，我们能够与生活方式、价值观念不同的人们和平共处；这不但有益于我们周遭环境的安定，也是维护世界和平的决定性因素。 2 Translation 文化有时候被称为我们的心智程序，我们“头脑的软件”。但是，我们可以进一步引申这个用电脑所做的类比，把文化看作是支持运行的操作环境。文化就像电脑使用的DOS或者Unix或者“视窗”（Windows）等操作系统一样，使我们能在各种各样的实际应用中处理信息。用“视窗”这个比喻来描述文化似乎也很有吸引力。文化就是我们心灵的视窗，透过它我们审视生活的方方面面。一个社会中不同个体的视窗是不大一样的，但都有着一些重要的共同特征。 文化就好像是鱼畅游于其中的水一般，人们想当然地把文化看成是客观存在的事实，因而很少去研究它。文化存在于我们所呼吸的空气之中，文化对于我们了解我们自身之为何物是必不可少的，就正如生命离不开空气一样。文化是特定群体的共有财产，而不单是个体的特征。社会按照文化设定的程序运作，这种程序来自于相似的生活体验以及对这种生活体验之含义的相似阐释。 如果文化是一种心智程序，那么它也是现实的心灵地图。从我们很小的时候开始，文化就告诉我们应该看重什么、偏好什么、规避什么和做些什么，文化还告诉我们事物应该是什么样。文化为我们提供超越个体经验可能的理想典范，帮助我们决定应该优先考虑的人或事。文化为我们建立起行为准则，并视遵守这些准则的行为为正当、合法。 3 Translation 43
摘要：谚语是一个民族吸取自己优秀文化的成果，其言简意赅、内涵丰富并在民间广泛使用。本文通过对英汉谚语文化差异的分析，力求加深对英汉谚语的理解，提高对英汉谚语的运用和翻译能力。 关键词：谚语文化差异翻译 1. 引言 谚语（proverb or saying）是人民群众在生产生活中提炼出来的智慧结晶，是一个民族的语言和文化的重要组成部分。《辞海》（2000年版，491页）是这样定义的：谚语是?流传于民间的简练通俗而富于意义的语句?。《朗文当代高级辞典》给谚语下的定义是：?a short well-known supposedly wise saying in simple language?。谚语和一个民族的历史背景、生活习惯、地理环境、民族心理、意识形态等是密切相连的。 2. 英汉谚语的文化差异基于不同的文化背景而形成的谚语有着较大的差别，以下将从审美角度、自然环境、宗教信仰、思想观念等几个方面对英汉谚语的差异进行分析。 2.1 审美差异在诸多英汉谚语差异中，最为典型的要属对待动物的态度了，其中，龙的例子最为人所熟知，在中国，龙代表帝王，象征吉利的动物，有不可思议的力量。因此有谚语?龙眼识珠，凤眼识宅?、?龙投大海，虎奔高山?。而英美却认为?dragon?是邪恶的象征，如sow dragon’s teeth等等。在汉语中习惯用老虎来形容勇敢、凶猛、威严，在西方，狮子常被尊为百兽之王。因此，我们在翻译含?lion?（狮子）的习语和谚语时不妨用?虎?取而代之则更符合中国人的认同感。如：come in like a lion and go out like a lam b 虎头蛇尾；like a key in a lion' s hide狐假虎威等。 2.2 自然差异中英两国所处的地域不同，自然环境、山川物产、气候差异与历史发展轨迹千差万别。英国乃岛国，英民族生活在四面临海的岛上，擅长航海，所以英语里有很多与?航海?有关的谚语:A smooth sea never makes a skillful mariner 平静的大海练不出好水手，To keep one’s head above water奋力图存；而汉民族生活在以农业经济为主的广袤大陆上，谚语很多和农业生产有关. 民以食为天；瑞雪兆丰年；四体不勤，五谷不分等。 2.3 宗教信仰差异宗教信仰是人们精神活动的一个方面，是民族文化的重要组成部分。基督教是英美国家的主要宗教信仰，而中国人受佛教和道家思想影响较大，由此产生了许多独具宗教特色的谚语，如佛教?不看僧面看佛面?、?放下屠刀，立地成佛?、?善有善报，恶有恶报?。再如道教?八仙过海各显神通?、?道高一尺，魔高一丈?、?福兮祸之所伏，祸兮福之所倚?、等等。而英国的典故主要来自《圣经》、古希腊神话等西方经典著作，如God helps those who help themselves.天助自助者。Whom God would ruin he first sends mad.上帝欲毁灭之，必先使其疯狂。 2.4 思想观念差异英民族强调众生平等，Human blood is all of a color. 人类血的颜色是一样的。 A cat may look at a king人人平等；而汉民族却有较强的等级观念，家族讲家法，讲辈分；社会讲宗法，将尊卑。谚语中有?父母在，不远游?、?千里烧香，不如在家敬爹娘?。西方道德中，比较注重子女自己独立的人格，这一点体现在如?Children are not to be blamed for the faults of their parents.?的谚语中。还有?All stratagems are fair in love?、?Love is without reason?等就体现了男女平等 ,自由恋爱。英民族有着开拓进取、永争第一的勇气，?Keep up with the Jones. ?赶上富邻居，争比阔绰。而深受儒家?中庸?之道影响的汉民族则怕出头，?枪打出头鸟、出头的椽子先烂?等。 3. 翻译策略 正如刘宓庆说的：?文化翻译的任务不是翻译文化，而是翻译容载或含蕴着文化信息的意义。意义始终是我们关注的中心：它既是我们的出发点，又是我们的落脚点。?[1](p83)本着抛砖引玉的想法，笔者试从以下几方面谈谈英汉谚语的翻译策略。
Differences between Chinese and Western cultural communication By Yu Li Na Under the supervision of Yang Dong Min A THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of BACHELOR OF ART Intercultural communication 错误！未找到引用源。 Shaanxi Normal University June,2013
Differences between Chinese and Western cultural communication Abstract： What is culture？ Simple to say, culture is one of those you don't know why but also willing to accept, rules and knowledge from the start, in practice most people can experience the benefits, or that can bring benefits, so that these rules and knowledge has become the most people choose, this constitutes the main content of culture. But if this rule or understanding has been completely objective practice proves impossible do not insist, renewal ability is also culture has. So the culture is the difficult to give the rules and knowledge about (belonging to the values and Philosophy), and has some subjectivity, continuity, group, beneficial four characteristics. Key words： culture；subjectivity；continuity, group, beneficial four characteristics. 1 Introduction For example, the Spring Festival, everyone should think over the Spring Festival, but get used to it, it is difficult to say. We must have the spring festival what necessity, but can tell some benefits, so naturally continue down. But is this kind of natural inertia, has a powerful social force, unless the social upheaval, or completely oppressed the erosion of alien culture. The process for China's traditional culture is not more than once, but they were conquered by the Chinese culture has its own rationality and strong cohesion. Here the two Chinese cultural characteristics, reason and cohesion. To give credit to the acts of such a phenomenon exists in every society groups in society, exist in a variety of language and culture, the different levels and in different degrees, reflecting the people's social activity, it can not only shorten the distance between communication, and can contact feelings, to consolidate and strengthen the communication between United, played the role of social lubricant. Pomerantz American linguists point out that language is a kind of support to give credit to the sexual behavior (supportive action), is also a sexual evaluation (assessment action), that is to say, there is praise, not only praised the language of nature, there is also the nature of the evaluation. Let us explore the Chinese and English culture in the praise of the
Analysis of Deferent V iews on “Filial P iety” Between China and American from Movie Guasha Abstract:“While one’s parents are alive, one should not travel to distant places.”“The gentleman works hard on the basic principles, thereafter comes morality; filial piety is the basic principle of a human being.”These are our Chinese traditional filial piety. But are these standards or rules suitable for every nation? The movie Guasha shows us many about the differences of filial piety between China and American. There are many misunderstanding and coincidence in this movie and those are the cause of the circuitous of the characters’fate. All of these are rooted in the cultural differences between China and American. In this assay, I made the differences of filial piety as the point of entry to analyze the reason why the differences come and their similarity. Key words: Guasha, the culture in china and America, piety, filial piety, object The movie Guasha tells a story that a Chinese couple who lived in American for 8 years took the hero’s father in American after they think they had realized their American dream. But a few days later, their son got ill; the old father used Guasha to treat the little boy for he didn’t know how to read English. The bruises were noticed by the child welfare bureau, and all the rough broke out after that. Finally, they had a universal satisfactory ending. The end of the story is to the satisfaction of all, but a variety of cultural conflict is the apparent. What we see is the initial irreconcilable to accept, understand. Many people will think that Chinese and Western have cultural differences, I think so, but I also think that behind these differences, there are many similarities. The following, I will be on the film to talk something about filial piety plot makes concrete analysis, and explore how cultural differences reflected in the filial piety? Why is it? What are the similarities? But before that, we will first do a general understanding of filial piety. In the ancient clan and tribal society, meaning of "filial piety" is very wide. It refers to the family of the elder respect, love, support and sacrifice. With the family as the basic unit of society and social development in a long time, "filial piety" changes from the family elder respect to parental care, and become an important ethical rule to do with family relations. Today, "filial piety" to living gets more attention. We often say that the parents contribute to our
西南大学本科生课程论文 论文题目：An Understanding of “Language-and-Culture, Two Sides of the Same Coin in the Perspective of Intercultural Communication” 课程名称：跨文化交际 任课教师：杨杰 专业：英语（师范） 班级：200级11班 学号：222009310011324 姓名：王小青 2011 年12 月23 日 西南大学外国语学院制
An Understanding of “Language-and-Culture, Two Sides of the Same Coin in the Perspective of Intercultural C ommunication” WANG Xiaoqing Abstract:As we all know, we express our thoughts by means of language. However, while we using language, we convey culture at the same time. As for color, it’s a part of language, so it including culture, too. There are differences in the use of colors and color words between Chinese and English cultures. The different cultures bring different attitudes toward the same color because of different culture background, they reveal wide connotation of cultures. We should pay attention to observing not only their basic meanings, but also the deep and broad symbolic meanings. The symbolic meanings of color words often have different features in different language cultures. And some of them even have become taboos and adornments since the meanings of the color words are extended and transferred. Meanwhile, the cultural exchanges and the color views have similar phenomenon and coincidence in the languages. Key W ords: Color words; cultural differences; symbolic meanings; comparison I. Introduction Color is an important part of our life. Color words help us to understand the world around, like our sense of taste and smell. The basic color words in English such as red, yellow, white, black, not only express the colors of objective things, but also the obstruct things. The color words have specified semantic meanings in different cultures. Without understanding of them, we will probably run into obstacles or make a fun of ourselves in communication. Therefore learning and grasping the symbolic meanings of color words are important. Good understanding of the symbolic meanings of color words can help us communicate effectively among people from different countries. This paper tries to illustrate the different symbolic meanings of color words in Chinese and English cultures by comparison and analysis of them. II. Color and Culture Color words, in whatever languages, are used for describing different things. The statistics show that there are more than 7 million kinds of colors can be recognized in the nature. However, the color names are very limited in the languages because there are only dozens of colors
The Necessity of Intercultural Communication People can not live without Communication. Communication is everywhere. Even when they are alone, people are bombarded with communication. Human communication—that is, the ability to use language, the ability to exchange ideas with people around us in different cultures. Communication with others is the essence of what it means to be human. Communication which is very important to our humans is the vehicle by which people initiate, maintain, and terminate their relationships with others. Like communication, culture is prevalence and has a profound effect on humans. Culture is also invisible yet pervasive. As we go about our daily lives, we do not have a great sence of our culture’s influence. Culture exist everywhere around us between different nations even different countries. Culture has a direct influence on the physical, relational and perceptual environment. Yet most of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are profoundly affected by different cultures. In addition to the rapid growth of modern society, People have more and more exchanges, the importance of intercultural communication is becoming more important. Intercultural communication occurs whenever a minimum of two persons from different cultures or countries come together and exchange verbal and nonverbal symbols. It can occurs everywhere. For example, When we do business with people from different cultures or different countries, we need to communicate with them, we need exchange different views about the business on the matter of information . A main theme throughout this text is that intercultural communication is indispensable. Successfully communicatting with someone from a different culture or different countries which is very difficult to our human requires a degree of communication competence. Most models of communication competence include a affective, and behavioral component, which is indispensable in cross-cultural communication. With the rapid growth of the modern society, the benefits of the Intercultural communication are even greater. Communicating and establishing relationships with people from different cultures can lead to a whole host of benefits, including healthier communities; increased international, national, and local commerce; reduced conflict; and personal growth through increased tolerance. Through open and honest intercultural communication, people can work together to achieve goals that benefit everyone, regardless of group or culture, including the global community in the home, business, or neighborhood. Healthy communities support all community members and strive to understand, appreciate, and acknowledge each member. Our ability to interact with persons from different cultures brought us many benefits, through cross-cultural exchange, we can learn about the other countries'way of life, also we can understand their industry structure, thus we can do commercial exchanges and academic communication with them, the academic has No boundaries, only through the exchange, we can get more academic knowledge, our communication will be easier and there will be less conflict between people of different cultures. As mentioned earlier in this text, when we come together with a person from a different culture, we may feel uncertain, apprehensive and anxious. Such feelings are stressful. Hence, sometimes intercultural communication can be stressful. The good news is that we can learn and adapt to such stress and. During intercultural communication we have to keep in our mind that the communication strategies we use with persons with whom we are familiar may not be effective with persons from other cultures. Thus, we have to learn to adapt and adjust our communication style. We have to recognize that we will make mistakes, learn from them, adapt, and move on. A good beginning point