A Comparison between China's Jokes and English Jokes

Cultural differences between China and the West

First, the differences in value standards.

Among many cultural factors, values are one of the core contents, and values are manifested as some beliefs that are consistent with social culture, lasting and stable, and generally accepted by members of society. Differences between Chinese and western values: selfless dedication and self-centeredness, modesty and personal struggle, complacency and adventurous spirit. Individualism and privacy in English are highly respected in English culture, and it is difficult to find corresponding words in Chinese. Although these two words are often translated into individualism and privacy, individualism is a derogatory term in Chinese, which is often associated with selfishness, and privacy often gives people a bad impression.

Second, the cultural differences of vocabulary

The cultural connotation of vocabulary generally refers to its emotional color, style meaning and figurative meaning. For example, students simply attach their mother tongue words literally, thinking that the English equivalent of the Chinese word "where" is "where", which leads to widespread praise from foreigners. Where is it? "Answered jokingly. In English communication conversation, when a friend is newly married, we say, "Congratulations!" " "This is effective for the groom, but not for the bride. Because this word means to those who strive for success, if it is used to congratulate the bride, it is undoubtedly saying: "After many efforts, you finally caught a man, and we congratulate you on this success." So we should say to the bride, "I hope you are happy." "I wish you happiness."

(3) differences in social and cultural customs

Language is the product of cultural environment and the carrier of culture. As a tool to record human history and thoughts, each language has its own unique cultural characteristics. For example, when people in China hear compliments, they often show humility and say "shame" and "where", while westerners always answer "thank you". People in China always like to ask, "Have you eaten?" "Where are you going?" Westerners understand that you want to invite him to dinner. And "Where are you going?" I think I'm asking about his privacy. Westerners say nothing about marriage, salary, age and so on.

When greeting each other, China people can generally ask questions according to the specific situation of each other, such as "Have you eaten?" "Where to?" "Reading?" Or "What book are you reading?" However, British and Americans usually just say "hi" or "hello". This is related to their cultural custom of not asking more personal questions. Western women don't like to be asked about their age, men don't like to be asked about their income, the host can't insist on retaining guests, and westerners like to open gifts from others face to face. These customs and human feelings are very different from those in China.

Once, at the end of a delegation's visit, a farewell banquet was held to thank the host. The thank-you banquet was very warm, and both sides agreed that the visit was a complete success. But when the delegation left, the host told me that you and I are old friends. To tell you the truth, I hate this head. I asked you why you hate him. He said that when the colonel shook hands with me, he looked at the person behind me with clear eyes and even talked to him. This is an insult to my personality! In their country, whoever shakes his hand depends on him. It's a pity that the colonel didn't have a chance and will never have a chance to listen to his master's opinion.

I remember one year, a distinguished guest from Holland visited China and arranged for his wife to visit a kindergarten. It rained in Mao Mao that day. Arriving at the kindergarten gate, she saw a group of children standing straight at the door to meet her. She felt very sad when she saw these feelings. Then visit the kindergarten classroom and go in. Every five or six-year-old child has his hands behind his back and his expression is very serious. She finished her visit quickly. After returning to China, she invited me to her house to watch the slides she took to visit the kindergarten, saying that this was the most uncomfortable thing about this visit. It's raining. Why did you ask the children to open the door? Why do children sit so straight? Children aged five or six should be very naughty. Noisy is normal. It's like kindergarten. I think kindergarten teachers must have done a lot of work in order to be orderly, and think this is a civilized expression of politeness. As far as the European way of thinking is concerned, it is difficult to understand.

In the western way of thinking, "friendship is friendship and business is business". As the ambassador to Luxembourg, I hosted a banquet and invited ten famous entrepreneurs to visit the embassy. They were full and felt very rich, and thanked them again and again when they said goodbye. The very next day, a delegation came from Brussels, and I had to meet them at the railway station. Because I went too early, I went to the bookstore next to the railway station first. I didn't expect the owner of the bookstore to be the guest I hosted yesterday. He mentioned the banquet last night and thanked him again. I said I wanted to buy a copy of today's morning paper, so I bought a copy of Luxemburg Times. He took me to the money collection place and asked me to pay. The driver next to us and the receptionist of our embassy said, wasn't this fat man who came to the embassy for dinner yesterday? Why does a newspaper charge you? Not interesting enough. I said Lao Li, you don't know, they are like this. You wait, it is very likely that he will invite me back in a month. He can invite me with 5000 francs, but 10 francs is not less.

The Origin and Tradition of Chinese and Western Cultures

Both Chinese and western cultures have a long tradition, and both have created brilliance in the long historical process. Generally speaking, western culture contains at least three traditions, one is Greek, the other is Roman and the other is Christian.

China culture also has many different origins and traditions. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, China culture has basically developed along a so-called "from summer to foreign" route. All kinds of heterogeneous cultures are either assimilated or rejected in front of Confucian culture, the main body of China culture, so that Confucian culture always maintains a self-centered purity. In the cultural history of China, "changing the summer into a foreign country" has always been the dominant factor, and of course, there have been cases where the summer has been disturbed by foreign countries.

Second, the performance of cultural differences between China and the West

China culture reproduces the world, pays attention to results and applies what it has learned; Western culture emphasizes speculation, transcendence and learning to know. This difference appeared as early as the "axis era" of world history, and was fully manifested in Confucius and Socrates, two saints of Chinese and Western cultures. The spirit of China's traditional culture is "harmonious realistic spirit", and its basic feature is to realize the self-affirmation of culture and society through the harmonious ethical consciousness with secular ethics as the core; The spirit of western traditional culture is "transcendental romantic spirit", and its basic feature is to realize the self-denial of culture and society through transcendental religious consciousness with the aim of the relationship between God and man on the other side.

Third, the prospect of self-renewal of China culture.

The transcendence spirit of western culture often reminds westerners of the limitations of human beings and the defects of rationality itself, which leads to skepticism in western philosophy. In the final analysis, it is to constantly reflect on yourself and criticize reality. China people's concept of freedom has always lacked a sense of rules and order. To the extreme, it is the freedom of Laozi and Zhuangzi, the unity of heaven and man, and the arbitrary and complete liberation. This kind of freedom is attractive, but it is not feasible in the real society. China is now in the stage of transition to a market economy and democratic politics, so rules and order are very important. Today, these rules and orders are more embodied in external normative laws than in internal expandable morality. Of course, in China's Confucian culture, there are also aspects of transcendence. Confucian transcendence is an internal transcendence, which is completely different from the external transcendence advocated by western Christianity in spiritual dimension and value orientation. The revitalization of Chinese culture needs the deep recasting of cultural spirit as the spiritual foundation of modernization. Quick success and instant benefit can alleviate the temporary cultural anxiety, but it is by no means the road of self-renewal with cultural lag. Only through the long and difficult criticism and recasting of cultural spirit can we fundamentally change the backward state and make China's culture jump to an equal position with the powerful western culture.

Hope to adopt! ! !