东西方文化比较(英文)
Ⅰ.Culture
Definition
Categorization
Characteristics
1. Definition
Culture, in anthropology, the patterns of behavior and thinking that people living in social groups learn, create, and share. Culture distinguishes one human group from others. It also distinguishes humans from other animals.
A people’s culture includes their beliefs, rules of behavior, language, rituals, art, technology, styles of dress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic systems.
2. Categorization
1) Intellectual Culture and Communicative Culture
In Cihai, culture is divided into intellectual culture and communicative culture. The former include s man’s achievements in society, politics, economy, literature, art, history, philosophy, science etc. The latter refers to social customs, living styles, thinking patterns and rules of behavior.
The following list shows the categorization of culture.
2) High-context and Low-context Culture
In high-context cultures, communication depends greatly on the context and many things are left unsaid, letting the culture explain. In low context cultures, people largely rely on the verbal communication.
3) Material culture, institutional culture and spiritual culture
Material culture refers to the technology and material products of a certain culture. For example, instruments of production, weapons, daily utensils,
architecture.
Institutional culture regulates man’s social behavior, social rules and ethics.
Spiritual culture can also be called ideological culture. It covers the spiritual products such as values, thinking patterns, aesthetics, and religious belief. 3. Characteristics
1) Culture is symbolic.
People have culture primarily because they can communicate with and
understand symbols. Symbols allow people to develop complex thoughts and to exchange those thoughts with others. Language and other forms of
symbolic communication, such as art, enable people to create, explain, and record new ideas and information.
2) Culture is learned.
People are not born with culture; they have to learn it. For instance, people must learn to speak and understand a language and to abide by the rules of a society. In many societies, all people must learn to produce and prepare food
and to construct shelters. In other societies, people must learn a skill to earn money, which they then use to provide for themselves. In all human societies,
children learn culture from adults. Anthropologists call this process enculturation, or cultural transmission.
3) Culture is shared.
People living together in a society share culture. For example, almost all people living in the United States share the English language, dress in
similar styles, eat many of the same foods, and celebrate many of the same holidays.
All the people of a society collectively create and maintain culture. Societies preserve culture for much longer than the life of any one person. They preserve it in the form of knowledge, such as scientific discoveries; objects,
such as works of art; and traditions, such as the observance of holidays.
4) Culture is adaptive.
Culture helps human societies survive in changing natural environments. For
example, the end of the last Ice Age, beginning about 15,000 years ago, posed an enormous challenge to which humans had to adapt. Before this
time, large portions of the northern hemisphere were covered in great sheets of ice that contained much of the earth’s water. In North America, large
game animals that roamed the vast tundra provided people with food and materials for clothing and simple shelters. When the earth warmed, large Ice
Age game animals disappeared, and many land areas were submerged by rising sea levels from melting ice. But people survived. They developed new technologies and learned how to subsist on new plant and animal species. Eventually some people settled into villages of permanent, durable houses and farms.
Cultural adaptation has made humans one of the most successful species on the planet. Through history, major developments in technology, medicine, and nutrition have allowed people to reproduce and survive in ever-increasing numbers. The global population has risen from 8 million during the Ice Age to almost 6 billion today.
However, the successes of culture can also create problems in the long run. Over the last 200 years, people have begun to use large quantities of natural resources and energy and to produce a great amount of material and chemical wastes. The global population now consumes some crucial natural resources—such as petroleum, timber, and mineral ores—faster than nature can produce them. Many scientists believe that in the process of burning fuels and producing wastes, people may be altering the global climate in unpredictable and possibly harmful ways. Thus, the adaptive success of the present-day global culture of production and commerce may be temporary. Culture must benefit people, at least in the short term, in order for it to be passed on to new generations. But it can clearly also harm some people. The number of people living in severe poverty near the end of the 20th century was larger than the entire population of the world in AD 1500.
Ⅲ. Origins of Western Cultures
1. Ancient Greece, civilization that thrived around the Mediterranean Sea from the 3rd millennium to the 1st century BC, known for advances in philosophy, architecture, drama, government, and science. The term “ancient Greece” refers to both where Greeks lived and how they lived long ago. Geographically, it indicates the heartland of Greek communities on the north coast and nearby islands of the Mediterranean Sea. Culturally, it refers to the ways ancient Greeks spoke, worshiped, understood the nature of the physical world, organized their governments, made their livings, entertained themselves, and related to others who were not Greek.
The cultural accomplishments of Greece deeply influenced thinkers, writers, and artists, especially those in ancient Rome, medieval Arabia, and Renaissance Europe. People worldwide still enjoy ancient Greek plays, study the ideas of ancient Greek philosophers, and incorporate elements of ancient Greek architecture into the designs of new buildings. Modern democratic nations owe their fundamental political principles to ancient
Greece, where democracy originated. Because of the enduring influence of its ideas, ancient Greece is known as the cradle of Western civilization. In fact, Greeks invented the idea of the West as a distinct region; it was where they lived, west of the powerful civilizations of Egypt, Babylonia, and Phoenicia.
2. Ancient Rome
Modern motion pictures and television often portray the ancient Romans as military conquerors as well as ardent pleasure seekers, and there is some truth to those images. Their armies did brutally subjugate the Mediterranean world. The ancient Romans also did enjoy lavish and sometimes even cruel entertainments that included gladiatorial combats, chariot races, and animal hunts in the arena.
The Romans also had enormous cultural influence. Their language, Latin, gave rise to languages spoken by a billion people in the world today. Many other languages—including Polish, Turkish, and Vietnamese—use the Roman alphabet. The Romans developed a legal system that remains the basis of continental European law, and they brought to portraiture a lifelike style that forms the basis of the realistic tradition in Western art. The founders of the American government looked to the Roman Republic as a model. Modern political institutions also reflect Roman origins: senators, bicameral legislatures, judges, and juries are all adapted from the Roman system. In addition, despite recent modernization, the Roman Catholic Church still uses symbols and ritual derived largely from the ancient Romans.
Ⅴ. Conceptions of the Universe
1. Western Conception
According to western conceptions of the universe, the world is established on a hierarchy consisting of three parts: the unperceivable entity on top, human beings in the middle, and nature at bottom. Although both human beings and nature are created by the superorganic entity such as God, human beings are superior to nature because they combine the flesh and soul to constitute the complex of both material and spirit. The division of the world in western conceptions of the universe also embodies in the religious dualism such as this life and afterlife, the heaven and the earth.
2. Chinese Conception
In contrast to the western conceptions, Chinese philosophy believes the integration of the heaven and the human beings. The creator of the world is not a supernatural and independent entity, but one internalized in the world.
The creator of the world does not create everything different from himself whereas he turns himself into everything in the world. The heaven, the
human beings and the nature share equal values. Taiji, the Chinese origin of the world, transforms itself into yin and yang, the eight diagrams, and even
everything in the world.
What is Philosophy?
by Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Well, what do you think philosophy is? Most people can't answer this question. It's too abstract. It's also controversial. Philosophers themselves can't agree on any answer. Sure, the name "philosophy" derives from the Greek for "love of wisdom", but what's that? There has been a long and glorious history of people called philosophers, but they talk about all kinds of topics in all kinds of ways. It is not clear what, if anything, they have in common that makes them all philosophers.
Still, though many philosophers would dispute what I say, I will give you one model of philosophy. For me, philosophy is defined by a goal and a method.
Philosophy's goal is nothing less than a systematic world view. Other fields study particular kinds of things. Philosophy asks how it all fits together. For example, if you want to learn about bodies, take a course in physics or biology. If you want to learn about minds, take a course in psychology. But if you want to learn about how minds are related to bodies, or how physics is related to psychology, then philosophy (of mind) is for you. Similarly, economics, political science, and art and music courses study different values (welfare, justice, and beauty). Then moral philosophers ask how these values are similar or different, when one may be traded off against another, and where any of these values fit into the physical world.
Language and Culture
1. What is culture?
Culture refers to the total pattern of beliefs, customs, institutions, objects,
and t echniques that characterize the life of a human community. “Culture consists of all the shared products of human society.” (Robertson, 1981).
2. What role does language play?
Language is part of a culture and plays a very important role in it. Some social scientists consider it the key stone of culture. Without language, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture; it reflects culture. Language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and culture backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking.
Social scientists maintain that cultures differ from one another, that each culture is unique. As cultures are diverse, so languages are diverse. It is only natural then that with difference in cultures and differences In languages, difficulties often arise in communicating between cultures and across cultures. Understanding is not always easy.
Learning a foreign language well means more than merely mastering the pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms. It means learning also to see the world as native speakers of that language see it, learning the ways in which their language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society, learnin g to understand their “language of the mind”. Learning a language, in fact, is inseparable from learning its culture.
Do words or terms in one language have the same meaning when translated into another language? Can we rely on dictionaries to give us the proper English for a Chinese term, or the proper Chinese for an English word?
For example: tiger-虎；book- 书；philosophy-哲学
But the answers to these questions are not always. Consider the following: Intellectual-知识分子. In China this term generally includes college teachers, college students, and such people as medical doctors, engineers, --all those who have had a college education. In many Chinese rural areas, even middle school students are considered as intellectuals. In the U.S. and Europe, however, intellectuals would include only people to high academic statues such as college professors, but not ordinary college students. So the term covers a much smaller range of people.
Semantic differences also exist between selected English and Chinese terms.
Chinese have a saying: 夏炼三伏，冬炼三九urging people to exercise and
keep fit. An interpreter put it as three fu and three jiu to group of foreigners. Naturally, they were puzzled. He could have just said : In summer keep exercising during the hottest days, in winter, do the same thing during the coldest weather.
When describe a very crowded and dirty public places, for example a swimming pool, Chinese would choose 芝麻酱煮饺子（dumplings being cooked in sesame paste）to mean the terrible situation. But to a foreigner who had never tasted sesame paste and have never seen jiaozi being cooked, the humor was lost. To describe a very crowded gathering, Westerners often say It was packed like sardines.Such a comparison might be understood by some Chinese, but the vividness would be lot, for every few Chinese have ever see a newly-opened can of sardines, with neat rows of finer-sized fish packed tightly in a small flat container.
The story is told of shoe store in Rome which had a sign in front of the shop to attract English-speaking customers: shoes for street walking. Come in and have a fit. The sign caught the attention of many English-speaking tourists, who gathered in front of the shop—not to look at the shoes displayed in the windows, but to read the sign and then break out into laughter. The shop owner who could speak some English, didn’t realize that a street walker means a prostitute, while to have a fit doesn’t mean to have a try, but to become suddenly and violently angry or upset. Chinese who know only a little English have been known to introduce a companion as my lover, which causes foreigners to stare in surprise. How could Chinese, who are known to be so circumspect in such matters, be so open about having a lover? Actually, the companion is not a lover, but the person’s spouse, not 情妇or情夫, but爱人（丈夫或妻子） . The term 爱人, literally meaning the person I love, obviously needs a different rendering in English: simply husband, wife, fiancé or fiancée.
The title First Lady for the wife of the U.S. President or of an American state governor likewise may cause misunderstanding when some Chinese read about 第一夫人。There have been cases with such reaction: “ So the President has several wives?” The assumption is that if there is a first lady, there must be second lady, and maybe even a third, fourth, or even more. Polygamy in the White House!
Below are some examples of some common terms with surface similarity but actual semantic differences.
high school≠ 高等学校
This is the American term for secondary school.
service station≠服务站
This is a place where people go to get gasoline or other services for their cars.
rest room≠ 休息室
In American usage, a rest room is a room in a theater, department store or other large building equipped with toilets, and washbasins, etc., for the use of customers, employees, etc.; rest room is a polite term for bathroom or toilet; the English equivalent for the Chinese 休息室might be lounge, or sometime lobby.
busybody≠大忙人
A busybody is one who pries into the affairs of others. The Chinese equivalent to busybody is 爱管闲事的人。
For the Chinese大忙人, people usually use the phrase a very busy person, or just say He is always busy, or He is always busy with something.
Astrology
Ⅰ.Chinese Astrology
Chinese astrology is the divination of the future from the Chinese calendar, which is based on astronomy, and ancient Chinese philosophy.
In particular, it is based on the sexagenary cycle of 60 years that has been documented since the time of the Shang Dynasty at the latest. This basic cycle has been constructed from two cycles: the 10 heavenly stems and the 12 earthly branches, or the 12-year cycle of animals referred to as the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese animal zodiac also operates on a cycle of months and of hours of the day.
The 60-year cycle consists of two separate cycles interacting with each other. The first is the cycle of ten heavenly stems
The Heavenly Stems:
The second is the cycle of the twelve Zodiac animal signs (生肖shēngxiāo) or Earthly Branches . They are in order as follows: the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep (ram or goat), monkey, rooster, dog, and boar .
The Earth Branches:
Cultural Differences Between the East & the West—In Euphemisms and Tabooed Words
Almost all cultures seem to have certain notions or things that people
try to avoid mentioning directly, even when there is such a term in the language. When such a notion or thing has to be referred to, the
practice will be to substitute a different term or phase that sounds
better. Euphemism in Greek means word of good omen.
One of the terms that seem to be almost universally avoided is death.
For whatever reason, the use of a number of inoffensive substitutes is
required for the word die or 死, or whatever the basic word for this
motion may be in a particular language.
Chinese for “death” in positive
or neutral way
?走了，
?百年之后，
?去世，
?逝世，
?上西天
?圆寂，
?撒手人寰
?故去，
?病故，
?寿终，
?亡故，
?夭折
?咽气，
?香消玉殒
?牺牲，
?作古，
?谢世，
?升天，
?驾鹤西去，
?献身，
?上天堂
?归西，
?赴黄泉
?了结尘缘
?与世长辞，
?心脏停止跳动，
?去见马克思，等等Chinese for “death” in negative way ?丧命
?毙命
?一命呜呼
?呜呼哀哉
?蹬腿
?翘辫子
?进棺材
?下地狱
?去了鬼门关
?自杀
?寻短见
English for “death”
?He’s gone.
?depart,
?depart from the world forever, ?decease,
?pass away,
?breathe one’s last,
?go the way of all flesh,
?asleep for ever,
?go to rest/in peace
?pay one’s debt to nature,
?go to a better world,
?be in (go to) heaven,
?be with God, etc
“Death” in negative meaning
?Be done for ever （完蛋）
?Be slain （化为乌有）
?Kick the bucket （翘辫子、蹬腿）
?Meet one’s Maker （见上帝）
?pop off （暴死）
?“To be hanged death(被绞死) : doing a dance in mid-air (在半空中跳舞) ?电刑处决: to get a permanent wave(电烫波浪发型)；
?commit suicide: to die by one’s own hand
?to drain the cup of life (饮尽生命之酒)，
?lover’s leap(情人之跳) :失恋而自杀；
?mercy stroke:慈悲的一击:安乐死
?old Newton took him: (牛顿万有引力把他带走了):坠机身亡. Physical shortcomings is one of the categories for euphemisms.
?plain (for ugly),
?heavy set, on the heavy side (for fat—usually when referring to men), ?slender (for skinny),
?physically handicapped ( for crippled),
?senior citizens ( for elderly people),
?advanced in age,
?elderly ( for old).
Euphemisms for certain functions of the body
?go to the toilet
?to the men’s (ladies’) room,
?rest room,
?washroom,
?lavatory
Abuse Words
?Bloody
?Y ou blinking fool!
?Damned
?Oh, darned. d--d
?Hell
?Oh, heck! I’ve lost another pencil!
?Son of a bitch
?Son of a --
God
?Gosh!
?Oh my gosh!
?Goodness!
?Goodness, have you been fired?
?If one has been having trouble with one’s diet, or has an upset stomach, the doctor might ask How are your bowel movement? We need a stool specimen.
Euphemism for the third world countries:
?underdeveloped countries
?developing countries
?emerging countries
?LDCs=
?Less Developed Countries
Euphemism for special professions
?原称
?bus boy
?dishwasher
?cobbler
?garbage man
?housemaid
?poor people
?poor students
?prostitute
?undertaker
?委婉语
?table service man
?utensil maintenance man
?shoe builder
?sanitation engineer
?housekeeper
?low-income group
?below average students
?street walker/girl/call girl
?funeral director
原称
?保姆
?清洁工、扫大街的
?警卫
?花匠
?失业
?妓女
?小偷、扒手
委婉语
?家政服务员
?环卫工作者
?保安
?园艺工程师
?下岗、待业
?青楼/风月/ 风尘女子
?三只手
Cultural Differences Between East and West –in Everyday Conversation “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”
-- English Proverb
1. Greetings and Farewells
吃了吗?
=Have you eaten?
Or Have you had your lunch?
你去哪儿？
Where are you going? Or Where have you
been?
It’s none of your business.
?Good morning, Good afternoon and Good evening but not Good noon.
?Good night =greeting or farewell？
?Meet for the first time,
I am pleased to meet you.
?And when part, It’s nice meeting you or It’s nice to have met you or something similar.
Difference in saying good-bye
Westerners:
A smile and a gesture of farewell would be enough.
Chinese:
visitor:请留步。
hosts :慢走，走好，慢点骑
2. Ways of Address
English-speaking people :
using the first name—Tom, Michael, Linda, Jane, etc.— rather
than calling the person Mr. Summers, Mrs. Howard or Miss Jones.
Chinese:
disrespect, blaming, spanking?
Addressing by a person’s title, or occupation
黄局长（Bureau 黄），
陈经理（Manager 陈），
马校长（President马）。
?In English, only a few occupations or titles would be used:
Doctor_____ is common for those who have qualified in medical
profession,;
Judge_____ for those authorized to try cases in law courts;
Governor_______ and
Mayor____ my be used for those who hold such offices;
Professor_______.
?师傅，警察叔叔。
?master =a master-servant relationship or?
?警察叔叔=Uncle policeman ? endearment and trust in Chinese.
?In Chinese 同志(Comrade) and the now fashionable 师傅.
-- getting the attention of a stranger,
-- a person whose name we may not
know.
English customs:
Excuse me,
Pardon me,
I say here.
Hey, or Hey,you
Replies to Thank you.
Not at all,.
Don’t mention it.
Y ou are welcome.
?What is the reply to“Thank you for a job well done?”
?Is it “It’s my duty”
?I am glad to be of help or It’s my pleasure.
?请=please；
?Considered the following:
?你先请=Y ou go first？
?辛苦了=
?Y ou’ve had a hard time
?Y ou’ve gone through a lot of hardship.
?Y ou must have had a tiring trip.
?Y ou must be tired from such a long trip
?Did you have a good trip?
?Do they carry the accurate Chinese meaning?
?When a person sneezes, people nearby often make a remark.
Some Chinese might say “Someone is missing you,
?Someone is gossiping on you, or Someone is scolding you.” ?An American or Englishman would probably say
“God bless you!”
Cultural Differences Betweenthe East & the West—
In Metaphor
?Metaphor is common yet unique in each culture.
?They make images vivid;
?They bring much to life.
?She is like a rose---fresh, delicate, beautiful.
?One look at his face and we realized that a thunderstorm was about to break.
?He is merely parroting what many others have said.
Metaphors are closely related to plants, animals and phenomena of nature.
Same Association
?吹牛
?talk horse
?As strong as a horse
?Work like a willing horse
?牛不喝水强按头
?Y ou can pull a horse to a river, but you can not make him drink. ?ox-eye
?bull-headed
?牛脾气
?人善被人欺，马善被人骑。
?All lay loads on a willing horse.
Differences
?like a bull in a china shop
? a cock-and-bull story
?calf love, half love; old love, cold love.
?年轻人的爱三心二意，老年人的爱深藏心底。
?hit the bull’s eye
?正中要害，大获成功
Some metaphors come from horse racing. E.g.
? a dark horse
?bet on the wrong horse
?Derby
?Trojan horse
?千里马
?是骡子是马拉出来遛遛
?骐骥一跃不能十步，驽马日行终至千里。
?害群之马
?悬崖勒马
?The uniqueness of metaphors in English.
Y ou chicken! He cried looking at Tom with contempt.
?He doesn’t have the idea of his own. He just parrots what other people
say.
?They were as busy as bee, preparing for the festival.
?Deer—meek and gentle
?Lambs—loveable
?Wolves —bloodthirsty and cruel
?As wise as an owl（象猫头鹰一样聪明）=associate with wisdom ?夜猫子进宅（an owl visiting a home)=a sign of bad luck
?As blind as a bat=有眼无珠
?He is a bit batty=（他有点反常）
?Have bats in the belfry（发痴；异想天开）。
?Bat= ugly，sinister，blood-sucking
?For Chinese
?Bat=good fortune，well-being，happiness
?“蝠”与“福”同音。蝙蝠和鹿画在一起，因为“福鹿”读起来同“福禄”一样=good fortune, happiness, wealth and position
Man's best friend =dog
In Chinese’ eyes, dog=
狗东西、狗娘养的狗改不了吃屎?±等.
In westerner’s eyes, dog=
忠实、可靠、勇敢、聪明等 .
Top dog
Every dog has his day.
However there are also the following English expressions.
Y ou dog！（你这狗东西！）
That dog！（那个狗东西！）
Son of bitch！（狗娘养的！）
Metaphors in set phrases, provebs
between the east and west 1. Set Phrases (成语）
1) 喻体和喻指（字面和寓意）相同
或相似的：
1) 喻体和喻指（字面和寓意）相同或相似
?冷若冰霜
?安如磐石
?轻如鸿毛
?随波逐流
?乱七八糟
?鱼目混珠
?命悬一线
?火上浇油
?浑水摸鱼
2) 喻体不同、喻指相同或相似?健壮如牛
?狼吞虎咽
?一贫如洗
?易如反掌
?鸦雀无声
2. Proverbs (谚语）
1）喻体和喻指相同或相似?血浓于水
?隔墙有耳
?滴水石穿
?趁热打铁
?事实胜于雄辩
?远水难救近火
?有其父必有其子
?情人眼里出西施
?眼不见，心不烦
?人非圣贤，孰能无过
?种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆谋事在人，成事在天2) 喻体不同、喻指相同或相似
?独木不成林
?人不可貌相
?远水不解近渴
?真金不怕火炼
?有钱能使鬼推磨?福无双至,祸不单行?人以群分，物以类聚
3. Maxims （格言）?熟能生巧
?三思而行
?欲速则不达
?有志者事竟成
?知识就是力量
?勤俭节约，吃穿不愁?时不我待
?天上不会掉馅饼?沉默是金
?诚实才是上策