中西文化

I. Introduction

The story takes place in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Chinese Datong and Ken moved to the U.S. for eight years, realized their American dream finally and had a happy family with a lovely child and an enviable social status. Datong engages in online game design, and has achieved some success. Awards in the annual industry conference, Datong excited to tell you: I love America, my American dream come true! However, the unexpected disaster came to the family suddenly,5 year-old son Dennis, stomach pain, just Grandpa at home but because grandpa did not understand the English instructions, so he used the Chinese folk Guasha Therapy to treat his grandson.

but unfortunately ,Grandpa encounters hid old friends Huo, Huo brought Datong’s father to gamble on the ship at night, however the old Huo in the incidence of sudden death in his way to home, Grandpa did not know the way to go home .so he waited his son to pick him home at the police . Ken just worked and didn’t at home, and anxious Datong left Dennis to stay at home alone. went straight to the police station to pick up his father, when Dennis running to open the door, fell in the darkness, accidentally crashed through the forehead and bleeding, during the treatment in the hospital, the doctor found there are scratches in the child’s back and the doctor thought that those trails were caused by domestic violence and abuse, so the hospital did not allow Datong and his wife to pick up their child was discharged to the orphanage to take care for the time being.

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Later, the welfare sued Xu family to court because of abusing children with all the evidence, In order to protect his father, Datong lied to the court that is he to do Guasha to his son and assumed the responsibility by him at the same time. He and his wife kept the truth from his father. When Datong’s father knew the truth that because of himself brought trouble to his son, he came back home with endured suffering. Datong was ordered to isolate with his son. On Christmas night, in order to see his son; Datong risked his life to climb along the pipes to their windows in the 9th floor, the windows.......the story ended with the happy ending.

Director Zheng Xiaolong, said:“Different countries, different ethnic cultures are not good or bad point. Or no difference between high and low, but a nation’s cultural awareness and cultural tolerance is a very important matter. An American audience says to me:“no culture, no culture heritage of the nation is a disgrace”. “The film from all angles of a person’s integrity, human dignity, with excellent film concerns the criteria, Chaplin has consistently held that “tragedy and comedy are actually inseparable from.” and “Guasha,” in spite of the Hollywood-style happy ending comedy, but the drama has been a day filled with laughter. American culture in the elements of concerning, at this time is very pale, from the apartment security “he will know as early as climb, I let him get the phrase” is interpreted, and china-ling for Quinlan do not understand the Datong scrapping for the recognition of the father replies:“because he is Chinese,” which also underscores the need for china and the united states between the culture differences.

II. The cultural conflict in \"Guasha\"

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2.1 Chinese medicine conflict with U.S law

“Guasha” the tradition Chinese therapy is very common in Chinese but in the United States has caused so much conflict and disaster. Because he could not explain the scratches left in the Danni’s’ back and naturally treated as a common ground evidence of child abuse. Regardless of how to explain, no master in English or Chinese can’t make Americans understand what Guasha is?

I believe that no matter the film \"Guasha\" is about the Chinese family suffered in the United States than the traditional Chinese culture is not understood in the United States and recognized as the embarrassment and helplessness in which situation. The judge asked Datong \"to find an official doctor, with a concise and one can understand the old English judge to explain the Guasha,\" but just as Datong’ lawyer said, \"There is no American medical textbooks wrote about the Guasha and that is unscientific, no one will testify to that.” In court, when the Datong tried to explain\" Guasha \eight mai\" and other terms. Because the U.S. simply can not find the appropriate words in the vocabulary to express, Datong's \"dantian\" and \"seven jing and eight mai\" incomprehensible to the presence of Americans, the judge prevented him to go, and asked them to find the exports to come to explain \"Guasha\" but they could not find such a person with the strenuous effort, so they had to give up the interpretation of \"Guasha.\" Grandpa deplored the film to himself: \"\"Guasha\" in China for thousands of years, but why can not explain clearly in America?\" To Grandpa and most of the Chinese audience seems, Guasha as a treatment in China is so common, it seems Americans should be aware of this therapy as a matter of

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course, if they did not know, it was their fault, it is the most common mistake in the cross-cultural communication and that is that impose their own culture to another culture and use their own behavior as a standard to judge other's behavior.

Guasha events make Datong lost custody of her son sent to the parent and the subsequent return tape to flee, the couple separated, friends became enemies, in fact, this is not just \"Guasha\" of the Chinese medicine conflict with U.S. law, it reflects the Chinese traditional culture and foreign culture is difficult to avoid the resulting encounter collision and friction.

2.2 Chinese feelings and U.S. law

Any Chinese audiences who have seen the film moved by the deep love between three generations of his marital situation, great-grandfather and the love between husband and wife a matter of course. Datong without regard to replace his father and said that it was he who do Guasha to his son .Datong \"steal\" his son from welfare to meet son’s grandfather in the airport, and in the Christmas Eve in order to reunite, Datong risked the danger of arrest climbed pipe on the ninth floor are all reflected that Chinese people attach importance to their relatives. Chinese audience was moved to tears, but the common ground of these acts is actually not allowed by U.S. law.

United States’ society that everything needs law, Datong angered to his son, took no evidence to prove that Guasha is a traditional Chinese therapy, no matter how does he express how much he loved his son have could not moved judge the

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heart, the law only requires evidence.

The United States is a country ruled by law and the law occurs in every corner and every dispute should be resolved through legal channels, what they value is fact and evidence. Datong is ultimately convicted to be isolated with his son. Despite the ruling lack of human touch, but from the perspective of acting according to law, the court's decision is correct, but absolutely the majority of Chinese viewers can not accept, emotion still standing recalcitrant Datong side. But when we calm down and think about it, we have to admit that in this cultural battle, we saw how the Americans value human rights, they used legal and social institutions to restrain people's behavior; in particular the protection of minors is worth to be learning and reference. The film Datong educated his son in public and asked Dennis to apologized to the child, but his son refused to do like he said, front of everyone slapped on his son’s face, which in the eyes of ordinary Chinese people parenting children is the only right and proper thing. Among Chinese parents in dealing with children fighting this sort of thing like when they were first educate their children, but in the U.S., the situation is completely different, they are more respectful of the fact that the behavior of common ground so that they feel that the Chinese way of educating the children too rude, even abusive that he has, which makes the majority of Chinese viewers have done an injustice for the common ground. Chinese people love their children is famous, and many families can say is spoiled to their only son. In the Chinese traditional values, children’s life is given by parents, no matter in what way to raise the children other people have no the right to interfere. Chinese parents of children with severe educational concept, and there are a variety of ways to education, including reprimand,

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corporal punishment or even scolding. Chinese parents believe that hitting children is good for children, the purposes what they do is to love children, want their children to become useful in the future amount to anything.

Americans, of course, love their children, the child welfare is out of care and protection of Dennis would not let suspicion of abuse by their parents that close to children. In the U.S. The parents are just the guardian of the children, can not because they are the parents they can have too much blame, or even hit children and let the children alone. They believe both men and women, regardless of age, each member is equal, each member entitled to full democracy and freedom. Especially for young children, they use a series of laws to protect the equal rights of minors; the film of Chinese medicine hospital where doctors found the child's blood stains behind his back immediately announce the court to the court to notify the child's father is enough to illustrate this point. These laws that United States used to the Chinese people seems a bit much, even unreasonable. For example, in order to protect the safety of minor children, the United States, \"Transportation Law\" also stipulates that children weighing less than 40 pounds must be tied together with a child seat in the back seat with seat belt on; break the rules, fine $ 400. This is because that the child is too small and if no child under the seat bottom is likely to slide down from the safety seat. But Chinese people generally believe that the baby has been very safe in his arms, the parents love their children no doubt, and they will protect the child, and no need to make some cold law to constrain our behavior.

U.S. law covers the breadth is not the Chinese people can imagine, people in

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the political, economic, education, marriage and other aspects of protection of the law, legal concepts are rooted in each person's value system and the people will feel the law all times. Left the children alone at home is against the law, husband and wife fighting at home is against the law, but to the Chinese people, they think that those should be regarded as their own private affairs, do not need outsiders to intervene, even nothing to do with the law. American legal system is very different from the traditional Chinese culture, reflecting different values, and it is very hard to tell who is right and who is wrong. But the \"Guasha\" did make us think, our love to children is science? Whether we should be raised the maltreatment to the children to a level of basic human rights and disrespect for this level to know or not?

2.3 Face of Chinese people

At the hearing, the owner of Datong to play as witnesses to say the fact that Du Tung hit his son so that this made Datong very disappointed and angry, and even cut off with the boss's friends and work relationships. In a subsequent conversation, Datong has revealed the reasons for hitting his son. Qunlan (the boss): \"I only believe the facts! You should not hit Dennis!\" Datong: \"Why am I fighting my own son? Not because of respect for you, to give you face!\" Qunlan: \"What a mess China's logic, how can you beat your child is to give me face!” Datong:\" Listens to reason! The boss is \"a mess\" logic of the majority of Chinese people is quite understandable, Datong hit his son is only wanted to play the father to his son by showing the majesty and the binding to give each other face.

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But for Americans, this \"decent\" performance for the shameful words and deeds of alienation, why not? This had to talk about the Chinese concept of face. in Lin Yu Tang’s article of the \"face and the rule of law,\" said, \"Chinese people's faces, not only can wash, can scratch, can throw away, can tour, can fight, can stay, and sometimes seems to struggle face in life, the first meaning, even bankrupt to do this, and it is valued. \"Whether a person is rich or poor, superior or inferior, the face, people are wanted. Described by Lu Xun, A Q, although neither property nor status, but if someone hurt his face, he would try to retain and maintain. When he was hurtled by someone he always said, \"even if I was played by my son”. Although he had to endure physical pain, they won on the face. A Q of this \"spiritual victory\" is essentially a self defense act when some one loses face but want to protect their self face.

To the Chinese people, under the same circumstances that they are derogatory to raise others, respect others is giving face to others. However the Americans think they are stupid act derogatory, and no association with respecting for others concept for the Chinese people's face, so they can not understand the concept of the Chinese people’s face. In Chinese culture, it is focus on seniority, hierarchy, this is deep-rooted traditional Confucian performance; and in American culture, people pay more attention to the independence of individual liberation advocates, inter-generational equity, emphasizing the interaction between mutual respect and mutual understanding.

\"Face\" is the concrete manifestation between Chinese and American culture, one of the conflicts, China has a old saying that \"People have to face and the tree

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have to the skin,\" and \"to face\so on. China is a fairly stable society; Chinese people rarely have the opportunity to leave the place where he lived. They live with the same friends, neighbors, relatives together all their life. When a person's life is connected with others, keeping harmonious relationship with others is becoming particularly important. In order to maintain harmony, avoid conflict and maintain families, groups and organizations, the people are very concerned about their own and others face. Chinese, especially speaking face have another major reason is that people living in an invisible web of relationships, and relationships between people that is fundamentally unequal, people seem to agree that this unequal relationship. In this cross-cross network of social relations, people fulfill the respective rights and obligations of every member of society. In the process of interaction with others to meet their own identity, not only to protect their own face, while respecting other people's face, As Tian Yu chuan said, \"in this complex large social networks, everyone set up their own small network. People in the network, the network in people, net to net connection, and net mesh dependency, net phase competition, the net mesh with students....... \"(Tian Yu chuan: 214) Chinese people do for their face even at the expense of personal dignity and even the cost of conscience, the film Datong in order to face the boss fighting his son is the best example.

The Chinese people have a set of knowledge, the Chinese people \"face view\" action for the emphasis on individual freedom and personal desire to meet, emphasizing the individual as the center of the social value of the Westerners, it is difficult to understand. Westerners also talk about face, but they are not so complicated like Chinese, they are business-like, in principle, they very few take

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into account the issue of human, face, and even some \"tough talk\\"frosty\". Therefore, if translate the Chinese like \"face big\face\" directly into English, maybe the British and American people will probably never be able to understand.

III. From cultural conflict to cultural integration

3.1 The objective existence of cultural differences

With the increasing development of science and technology, the world grows smaller, and the exchanges between people of different nations become closer and closer. Different ethnic groups and different countries with different languages and cultures, so people's views, behavior and performance of significant differences must exist, language is not the main obstacle among cross-cultural , but the ideas and social culture. To completely adapt to a new culture is extremely difficult, the use of language can change hair color can change, eating habits can change, but some things, especially deep-rooted national spirit and cultural traditions can not be changed. The difficulty of integration of cultural differences play in the film to the extreme, but I want to stress that this gap between cultural differences are not can not be exceeded. Cultural differences is an objective reality, the difference in itself is not a bad thing, cultural conflicts mainly caused due to lack of understanding. We do not have right or wrong for different cultural patterns, which one is better and for no good thinking, because any kind of cultural model has the rationality of its existence, the existence of every culture have made the world a more beautiful, and exchanges between different cultures

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and inevitably there will be conflict.

3.2 Respect the culture differences

Like children are treated in the movie's attitude and child education the way, we can not unilaterally Renew Ganglia care which side of children, which only reflect the different cultures of people from different cultural perspectives to care for educating the children. \"Guasha\" Let us recognize that the United States is how to maintain the safety of children, their country is to enact laws to protect children's rights; the Chinese people with their health care experiences to help the children to reduce children's pain, but also to care for children, care about their children's growth, not only because of this therapy recognized by the United States legally, because of the heterogeneity of misunderstanding and cultural divide to make the Chinese family has suffered great harm. Cross-cultural communication will inevitably produce such kind of conflict, but to achieve the purpose of communication in different cultural process, the communication parties to respect each other's cultural practices, especially for those who are not the same with their own cultural practices a tolerant place to be attitude, to eliminate ethnic prejudices and break down cultural stereotypes, adhere to the principle of cultural equality, mutual respect, to overcome ethnocentrism.

IV. Conclusion

Among the film can be seen, different cultures need the spirit of understanding and open minds, avoiding exchange, abandon the self and mutual

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antagonism is not the way to resolve cultural conflicts. Because of cultural differences that cause a cultural conflict, with these cultural conflicts will herald the end of the integration process of the conflict is cultural integration; as the film Americans finally understands the principle of Guasha, as if we work hard, always find the integration of Chinese and Western points.

Active participation in the Western cultural exchanges, build mutual trust, sense of superiority to avoid self-culture, try to understand each other's culture, efforts to eliminate the barrier of different cultures. With both sides of communication continue to know each other's culture because of the confusion caused by cultural differences will be gradually reduced, communication quality will be further improved.

References

[1] HuWenzhong & CorneliusL. Grove, Encountering the Chinese—A Guide for Americans [M], Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press, Inc.

[2] Stward, Edward C. & Miltonj.Bennett. American Cultural Patterns [M]. Intercultural Press, Inc.1991.

[3] Levelt, W. J. M .Speaking from intention to articulation [M].Canbridge, M. A: Bradford.19

[4] 贾玉新 .跨文化交际学 [M].上海:上海外语教育版社，1997

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[5] 许力生 .跨文化交际英语教程 [M].上海:上海外语教育版社，2004

[6] 林语堂 .林语堂散文集 [M].:世界文摘出版社，19

[7] 田玉川 .面子 ! 面子 ! [M].北京:中国华侨出版社，2001

[8] 陈俊森 .外国文化与跨文化交际 [M].湖北:华中理工大学出版社2000

[9] 张文显 .法律文化释义 [M].法学研究.1992

[10] 李 群 .刮痧刮出的文化冲突 [J].外语论坛.2002 （2）

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing process of this thesis.

My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Professor Zhang Jinliang, my supervisor, for his constant encouragement and guidance. He has walked me through all the stages of the writing of this thesis. Without his consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form.

Secondly, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the professors and teachers of the English Department: Ms. Liyi, Zhu Geng and Zou Shuli, who have instructed and helped me a lot in the past three years.

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Last but not least, my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. I also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates especially Huang Xinqiao who gave me her help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult courses of the thesis.

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