Essay on Chinese and American Culture

Cultural Differences between China and the United States

China and the United States have some deep-rooted cultural and social differences. Below are some examples of what I have observed. The author would like to emphasize here that these views are general, and of course there are still individual exceptions.

1. Individualism

Americans highly value individualism, while Eastern societies (including the Chinese, of course) emphasize family and class hierarchy. This is a very important and influential distinction. There are many examples of Americans advocating personal characteristics, and parents are less likely to intervene in the development of their children.

2. Right to privacy

Americans usually respect other people’s privacy. Even close friends rarely ask other people too "personal" questions, such as age, salary and marital status. You should also talk less about third parties. Uninvited visitors (including parents) are absolutely unwelcome.

3. Informality

Americans are relatively casual in terms of clothing and entertainment. The most important thing is that communication between people is relatively informal, even if the two parties are very different in age or status. There are countless examples of this. For example, it can be seen that many students directly address professors and juniors to the elderly by first name. This kind of informal behavior of "crossing generations" and "crossing status" is regarded as impolite behavior in the eyes of many Asians.

4. Openness and directness

Americans are quite open and direct, especially in professional discussions, and often argue with different opinions (note: it is an argument, not a slap on the table) , a quarrel involving throwing a microphone). On the contrary, Easterners often do not conflict directly, but communicate tactfully through a third party with a higher status.

5. Independence

Americans generally do not like to rely on others, and may not even be willing to accept help from their parents. Parents also encourage their children to leave home early and live independently. develop. Our country's youth develop slowly in this regard. For international students, it is important to note that the supervisor attaches great importance to the ability of graduate students to conduct independent research. For international students who are not good at English, if you are rejected when you borrow notes from Americans, it does not necessarily mean that they hate you. It is most likely that they are comparing themselves to others and think that you should be independent.

6. Competitiveness

The development of American society relies on competition as a driving force. "Work hard, play hard" is the style of most people. They both like to overwhelm their opponents in verbal arguments. This style of "getting the last word in" is certainly a sign of competitiveness. Their competitive and challenging spirit also shows up in sports competitions, even when they so-called "playing for fun" they are quite serious. Americans are generally very fanatical about a team and often use it to vent their emotions. For example, during school team games, campus police often check the spectators entering the venue to prevent them from bringing alcohol into the venue. During football matches, the audience is noisy and often throws things. Some of the entertainment performances are also a bit inexplicable. For example, there is a trick where a female cheerleader is thrown from the bottom of the auditorium, and people from level to level throw her up again, until she is thrown down from the top again; occasionally, there are injuries caused by mistakes. things happen. The author can be considered a fan, but I watch TV at home so as not to suffer the pain at the scene. And be sure to time it accurately, and avoid walking on the road when the game is over, because fans are happy when they win (if you see drivers honking their horns, you know you won without listening to the report), and depressed when they lose. Anger, both results are crazy. Some hot-blooded young men often do strange things. One thing that needs to be emphasized is that unless they are venting, the vast majority of Americans are very well-behaved and do not harass others.

7. Etiquette in public situations

Americans usually respect the peace of others. Needless to say, in the opera house, you can also enjoy it in silence even in the theater. The conversation during the meal in the restaurant was also very low-pitched, which was very different from the noisy fist-fighting and drinking-fighting in China.

Everyone is very orderly when queuing, queue jumping is not accepted, and crowding into the bus is definitely rare. Drivers usually abide by traffic rules, such as not running red lights late at night when no one is around, respecting pedestrians, and letting passers-by cross the road first. International students in the United States from countries that are less likely to obey traffic rules should be especially careful.

8. Friends Mode

The definition of friends in American language is relatively broad and differentiated; for example, friends at work, friends who play ball, friends at school, and friends who drink. friends and so on. In addition, the United States has a vast territory and high population mobility, and friends rarely reveal personal matters to each other, so friendships are relatively "warm water". Friendship among Chinese people is usually like "a single move affects the whole body." They try to avoid meeting each other if they don't agree with each other, and they tend to have high ups and downs. It is quite common for Chinese friends to borrow money from each other, but it is rare for Americans to borrow money from friends.

9. How to use money

Chinese people usually make more conservative budgets, while American budgets are closer to the "limit" and tend to consume more than the budget ( It also has something to do with the heavy use of credit cards in American society). Americans are very willing to buy things, especially houses and cars, and are more "Jewish" when it comes to eating and drinking, especially entertaining guests; while the Chinese are more willing to spend money on entertaining guests.

10. Worldview

Perhaps because the United States has been prosperous for many years and its educational focus is still biased in some aspects, most Americans are "home-centered" and have a very poor understanding of other countries. shallow. Americans' ignorance of world geography is something that saddens the National Geographic Society. There is a joke circulating in the United States: A resident of a certain northeastern state wrote to the state government to inquire about the situation in New Mexico. The reply was actually: We are not familiar with the situation in other countries and have no comment.

The origin of Chinese culture comes from Confucianism of the mean, which determines that Chinese people attach great importance to face and dignity. Anything that harms face and collective dignity is unforgivable. In other words, the Chinese people's code of conduct is more or less the traditional view of a great country that is modest and self-restrained, permeated with the restrained meaning of "don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you." The essential contradiction between Chinese and American cultures and the inherent contradiction between them are the main causes of friction. The complementary economic interests of China and the United States attract the two countries together, causing both sides to compromise on cultural differences. To solve the problems between China and the United States, cultural differences are not a reason for confrontation. On the contrary, Chinese culture has been baptized by five thousand years of history and is extremely resilient and inclusive. Therefore, China-U.S. relations will be better on a series of issues in the future. Friction and discord may arise, but such friction and discord will not affect the long-term development of Sino-US relations. From a historical review, if it cannot be said that there are no reasons for confrontation between China and the United States, it can at least be said to be very few. The reason why Sino-US relations are so hesitant is that as the wave of globalization advances, the two sides' understanding of each other is increasingly lagging behind.