2. Similarities and differences between individual interests and collective interests and national interests. China people pay more attention to collective interests, including family interests and national interests, advocate controlling their own desires and oppose extreme individualism and heroism. They often associate individual interests with collective interests and national interests, and are full of patriotism and dedication. Westerners pay more attention to individual interests, pursue human rights and advocate freedom. They think that if individual interests cannot be guaranteed, let alone collective interests, it is this kind of ideological understanding that finally promotes the development of western democratic politics.
3. Similarities and differences of democratic ideas China people pay attention to spiritual freedom, and regard freedom and democracy as rewards for monarchs and dignitaries. Therefore, our people always yearn for the sky and hope that good faculties will appear to benefit the people. In western democratic politics, politics comes from the people, and all political power is just a kind of public power granted by the people to the government.
4. Similarities and differences of scientific views. China people believe in the experience and authority of their ancestors, and believe that the ancients even believe that they are superstitious about authority and lack the spirit of innovation and exploration. Westerners attach importance to practice and theory, are adventurous and advocate rational thinking. Popularizing and popularizing scientific achievements through formal university education greatly promoted the development of science and finally established a complete scientific system;
5. The moral values of China and the West are very different. The west emphasizes individual standard, while China advocates group standard. The different moral concepts between China and the West make the ethical system and moral norms of China and the West have different characteristics: the West values contract, while China values human feelings; The West attaches importance to reason, while China attaches importance to human feelings; Western ethics is more important than competition, and China emphasizes the golden mean and harmony. Western ethics emphasizes individual moral education on the basis of evil human nature, while China Confucianism emphasizes individual moral cultivation on the basis of good human nature.
6. Similarities and differences of the concept of legal system. China people advocate the restraint of propriety, righteousness and morality, improve their self-cultivation through the teaching and learning of sages, and pay attention to self-denial and dedication, which leads to personality defects and loss of independent personality; Westerners, on the other hand, believe that people's primitive desires should not be suppressed. For the norms of society and individuals, they advocate using "legal system" to restrain them, such as organizations and political institutions with separation of powers, while morality is in a subordinate position.
7. Similarities and differences in people's behavior China people are introverted, introspective and like "three rescues a day" in order to keep up with Wang Zhidao, attach great importance to self-cultivation and admire the golden mean, which leads to conservatism and lack of innovation and pioneering spirit. Westerners are more keen on public welfare undertakings and take serving the society as their own responsibility.
Second, the reasons for cultural differences between China and the West
From the geographical and cultural point of view, the world can be divided into two regions: the East and the West. There are many reasons for their cultural differences. This paper mainly summarizes it into three aspects: 1, which is influenced by the economic system. China's traditional economy is a typical self-sufficient natural economy. People are quieter and more conservative. Because they can live on a piece of land all their lives, their culture is introverted. Moreover, the ancient civilization of China, which originated in the great river basin, belongs to agricultural civilization. The "agricultural civilization character" makes the orientals pay attention to ethics, seek common ground while reserving differences, seek stability, and take "harmony is the most precious and forbearance is the highest" as their life criterion. Western ancient Greek civilization, which originated from the Aegean coast, belongs to marine civilization. Moreover, European farming was far less important than China farming in ancient society, so Europeans like to explore abroad and their culture is more extroverted. Moreover, after the industrial revolution, western countries entered the era of industrial economy very early. The "industrial civilization character" makes westerners have a strong spirit of struggle and legal awareness of safeguarding their own interests, and takes independence, freedom and equality as the principles. 2. Affected by geographical environment. The closed geographical environment of the mainland limits China people's thinking to the mainland. They are good at summing up the experience and lessons of their predecessors, and like to learn from history, but their spatial awareness is weak. This introverted thinking leads China people to pursue stability and tranquility, lacking curiosity about new things and interest in the unknown. Most western countries are in an open marine geographical environment with developed industry, commerce and navigation. Since ancient Greece, there has been a tradition of paying attention to studying natural objects and exploring natural mysteries. At the same time, the mountain wind, tsunami and the turbulence of the marine environment also constitute the personality of western nations that pay attention to space expansion and military conquest.
Third, the differences between different cultures are caused by the cultural and historical background and aesthetic psychology of their respective nationalities. They are established in social development and historical precipitation, and they are a permanent cultural phenomenon. It is necessary to understand the cultural background knowledge and social customs of different regions and nationalities. With the rapid development of information technology, the world people live in is getting smaller and smaller, and there are more and more exchanges between people with different cultural backgrounds. It is of great significance for modern people to understand different cultural differences and improve their cultural adaptability. Learning to understand the differences between Chinese and western cultures is conducive to our essential leap from perceptual to rational, eliminating the influence of negative transfer of oriental thinking, and then making our cross-cultural communication more effective and smooth.
Attachment: 1 Cultural differences between China and the West and their causes
In the final analysis, the key of China's cultural thought lies in Confucius' "modesty, courtesy, faithfulness, sensitivity and wisdom". Western culture, on the other hand, lies in the word "struggle" and puts itself first in dealing with personnel.
The formation of cultural differences between China and the West has roughly gone through two important periods:
First, in 22 1 year BC, the powerful state of Qin finally unified the land of China through the "Shang Yang Reform", and the feudal autocracy of China for more than two thousand years began. This reunification not only laid the foundation for the formation of China's unified culture, but also marked the beginning of the Chinese nation. At this time, the western countries (mainly European countries here) were still just slave city-States. Since then, the self-sufficient feudal natural economy has occupied a dominant position in China. With the development of farming economy, both ordinary people and nobles hope to have a relatively peaceful production environment to maintain the development of farming economy. Therefore, Confucianism, which advocates "non-aggression and Shang Xian", has become the ruling ideology of China. Therefore, there is more "harmony" and less "contention" in China's culture. In western countries, with the development of manor economy, nomadic economy has developed rapidly, and the expansion of nomadic economy has become more and more prominent. Under this mode of production, "struggle" is bound to become the key in its culture. At this point, Chinese and Western cultures began to "go their separate ways".
Second, the cultural differences between China and the West continued to expand in the 16 and 17 centuries. At this time, western countries, especially western European countries, experienced an unprecedented political and ideological change.
1. In terms of ideology, the ideological liberation movement of "Renaissance" had a decisive influence on later western culture. On the one hand, the spread of "humanism" liberates people's thoughts from theology, on the other hand, it also causes excessive expansion of self-desire and deepens the "struggle" of western culture. 2. Politically, the early bourgeois revolution made the capitalist system begin to take shape. The invasion of capitalism and the primitive accumulation of bloody capital also make the "struggle" in its culture increasingly prominent.
In China, the long-term feudal autocracy has been increasingly improved and strengthened, and the ruling class is content with the status quo and still dreams of "China". Disdain and don't want to know the world, let alone "fight". Moreover, due to the closure of feudal ideology and natural economy, people are also content with the status quo and will not and dare not "want to change".
3. The differences between Chinese and Western cultures are mainly reflected in religious beliefs. In China, both foreign Buddhism and local Taoism pay attention to resignation and afterlife. Western teachings emphasize the afterlife and pay attention to suffering, while both Christianity and Islam pay attention to resisting foreign oppression and pagans. For example, many stories in the Bible describe Jewish resistance and war.
The formation of this religious difference is also closely related to its social background: Buddhism and Taoism were introduced and produced in the Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, China had formed a feudal autocratic system, and the rulers urgently needed a kind of religion that could calm people's hearts and be conducive to stability to restrain people's thoughts and safeguard their own rule.
In western countries, most of them are loose city-States, and the rulers of all countries hope to obtain land and population through war. Therefore, the establishment of a unified country has become their urgent hope. In order to develop their own religion and crack down on paganism, religious believers "collude" with the ruling class and make appropriate revisions to their own teachings according to the rulers' aggressive desires, thus becoming their ruling tools and developing their own teachings. For example, the "religious reform" in Europe.
4. The differences between Chinese and Western cultures are also reflected in the interpretation of "love". In China culture, the emphasis on "love" is "great love", which is a great love for all sentient beings. In western society, people pay more attention to themselves and their feelings. Therefore, the "love" in western culture is mainly a "little love" for oneself, family or an individual.
5. The root of cultural differences The root of cultural differences between China and the West is the difference in social background and times. Any culture has its own brand of the times, that is, characteristics of the times. As we all know, the formation and development of China culture is in the period of the formation and development of feudal society, so China culture is bound to be influenced by feudal thought. In feudal society, in order to safeguard their own interests and better rule the people, rulers often instilled ideas such as "measuring all beings" and "causal cycle" into the people through various channels. Therefore, in order not to die in the afterlife, people do good deeds in this life, so they have "great love" for all sentient beings. Throughout the history of western culture, today's capitalist culture began to form during the Renaissance in16th century. In this cultural movement, people preach "humanitarianism", affirm human value, respect human rights and attach importance to human strength. In this context, culture must have the characteristics of "humanism". So the "little love" in western society is formed.
Culture is actually the same psychological quality formed by the long-term integration of people in a certain area. Therefore, since culture is formed, there is no difference between good and bad.
2. Cultural differences stem from national (or racial) character.
Westerners:
1, generally independent, extroverted, tenacious and enterprising.
2. Culture advocates individual will, and regards everything in the world, including nature and others (whether close or not) as the objects that individuals face and need to conquer. They sincerely hope to be respected and liked by others and think it is a kind of "conquest".
3. Giving prominence to individuals, paying little attention to interests and friendship, and respecting truth rather than authority are all caused by this nation.
East:
1, gregarious, introverted, gentle and stable.
2. Culture advocates overall stability, and regards everything in the world, including nature and others (groups), as the objects that individuals should integrate into, so-called "harmony between man and nature". Instead of letting others respect or like them, they are more concerned about whether they are accepted (including whether the superficial "respect" is sincere), which is the embodiment of "integration". The deep-seated reason is that people are all state-owned, they show respect for authority, attach importance to the friendship of mutual help (only praise "a friendship between gentlemen is as light as water" when expressing their feelings), and are easy to obey the collective centralization or represent the collective.
3. Cultural Differences between China and the West For Chinese and Western cultures, in specific cases, we will inevitably find many differences. For example, when others praise, China people are modest and Westerners thank them; Westerners always have to figure out how many kilograms, hours and minutes they cook and do things, while China people use words like a little, a moment. At the dinner table, China people advise guests to eat and drink more, while Westerners respect the personal rights and interests of guests and don't rush or force them. In cooking, China people pay attention to the formal beauty of dishes such as color and fragrance, while westerners pay more attention to the nutrition of food; People in China eat together at the same table, while westerners give everyone a share of food. In art, westerners seek truth, while China people seek God. Wait a minute. China people's practice contains rationality, while westerners' rationality guides practice. The so-called rationality is the choice that people make after thinking about things with normal thinking. It can be said that rationality is the application of logic in concrete things. The summary of logic lies in our transcendental thinking ability and experience. Practice is behavior and doing things in a broad sense. Generally speaking, rational guiding practice requires westerners to attach importance to facts, take logic as the criterion, take concepts as the unit and take individuals as the basis; Practice contains rationality, which requires China people to attach importance to goodness in everything, take reality as the standard, and take perceptual knowledge as the beauty. China people are obedient, while westerners value freedom and equality.
The primitive society in the west is no different from that in China. The population is small, the level of productivity is low, the means of production are public, based on blood relationship, and social control is maintained by tradition and parents. But later, with the improvement of productivity, there was a surplus of products, polarization between the rich and the poor and private ownership, the relationship between * * * and distribution, and * * * and labor was destroyed and replaced by class society, so the society in China and the West was different. Class society was ruled by slavery society. Slavery countries all over the world have different forms of rule. The eastern slave countries practiced monarchy, and all state power belonged to hereditary monarch in form. Athens, Greece in the west practiced "direct democracy", and public officials were mainly elected and drawn by lots in the "People's Congress" attended by slave owners and freemen. Ancient Rome and Sparta practiced aristocratic system, and the Senate (ancient Rome) and Presbyterian church (Sparta) composed of nobles held important power. Or some other system. Thinking about the reasons for the differences in this system, we can clearly see the role of geographical environment in it.
There are many ancient civilizations in Europe along the Mediterranean coast, which are characterized by numerous islands and coastline, and the labor products on each island are easily restricted by the region, so people prefer the primitive economy and trade between islands or peninsulas, and the calm water surface of the Mediterranean is just conducive to navigation. However, due to the large number of islands and peninsulas, each ethnic group and tribe occupies its own side, separated by a water, occupying the island as the king, and drawing a clear line is not conducive to being occupied by a certain ethnic group, so all localities conduct equal trade. The equality of trade depends on the equality of people's status and ideas. In order to maintain the normal order of this social life, "the national law generally applicable in Athens was thus produced" (Selected Works of Marx and Engels). Therefore, such a way of life is conducive to the implementation of democracy. Even without democracy, democratic ideas are easily accepted. The Greek city-state system is the open source of European history, and it is also the representative and true portrayal of this way of life. In addition, "the practice of establishing the universal law as an unshakable standard in city-state life has made the Greeks develop a habit of thinking that abstract principles are more essential than perceptual life" (Zhao Lin Deng Xiaomang's History of Western Philosophy). It can be seen that geographical environment affects lifestyle, and lifestyle affects thinking habits. Of course, thinking habits have further influenced culture.