关于英美爱情观差异的英文论文 英美差异论文

课 程 论 文

课 程 名 称Survey of Britain and America 题 目Difference of Love View Between China

姓 名 班 级 学 号 任 课 教 师 王 婉 华 所 在 学 院 外语学院

2012年 6 月

1. Background of the Study

Love is the most beautiful sentiment of our human beings; it is also

a very important composition of our lives. Nobody in the world does not want to find a true love and to have a romantic and unforgettable love with somebody. Love can make people laugh, can make people cry, it is

an amazing thing. Therefore, whatever in eastern and western, love is always the eternal theme in literary works.

While the vision of love varies from country to country. The purpose of this article is to study the difference of love view between China and Western and today I will illustrate it from three parts. Firstly, most Chinese people are not given entire right to purse love, they have to follow their parents ‘advice. In contrast, people in western are free to purse love, love is just a matter of themselves, people around them even their parents will never interfere it. Secondly, the love of Chinese is always relevant to morality, in the eyes of our Chinese people, love always means responsibility, and lovers are not likely to peak up with each other as a result of a small thing. But thing changes in westerners, usually they establish such kind of relationship with somebody on the base of feelings, if the feeling gone ,then it is time for them to put an end to their relationship, so there is high time for a westerner to have 100 times of love experiences. At last, Chinese people always take reality into consideration. No car, no house, and then no live. After all, material is the foundation of life, if you want to get a lover, first you have to ensure your life. On the contrary, westerners don ’t attach much importance to materials; they will chose to be together on condition that they can have fun together. But how does this huge difference happen? That is what I want to discuss next.

2. Literature Review

First, as I just said above, Chinese have less right to purse love. The reason perhaps lies in the filial piety for their parents. The view that the good filial has been impressed in people"s hearts thousands of years, so parents definitely have their say in a family.[1] Therefore，parents usually choose the mate for their children. In the ancient China, the monarch attach much importance to filial, to a large extent, the court choose the officials who have a good fame of filial.

[2] But in western, people think that individuals are the most important, nobody can have the right to stop them to pursue happiness.

Second, the love of Chinese is always relevant to morality, The Confucian culture has greatly influenced all of our Chinese, it emphasize on love, to tell people to learn to respect and care for others.[3] Thus, lovers in China will think that they both have the responsibility to love each other if they already choose to be together. But it is not the same in western, being deeply influenced by the Bible, people have a very clear concept of fighting for their own happiness, to love is to live a happier life, not for responsibility.

At length, we may find that Chinese people are always cautious about love. Many people hold the view that true love can only happen once, so when they fix their love relationship with somebody , they

usually take the reality into consideration, to make sure that they can stick to the last. I think, this may be relevant to the geographic position of our country. To live in a relative closed country, our country doesn’t have too much contact with other countries, so that Chinese people are lack of the curiosity to the new things, and they always try to live a peaceful life. [4] Do not want to change or afraid of change, so Chinese people are cautious about choosing a lover. If he or she is not the right choice, their peaceful live may be interrupted, their life may face great change latter. While, most western countries are located in those open geographic location, so westerners are inclined to have more adventurism. [5] Therefore it makes sense that westerners are more willing to try new things than us. If life just goes plain, they considered it very boring.

3. Culture shock

Though cultural differences have caused so much difference, the reform and open policy of China has pought in much new blood. In the mean time, with the development of our society and technology, more and more foreigners come to China and in turn many Chinese people go to other countries, thus China has been experiencing great culture shock. It not difficult for us to find that our Chinese traditional culture has been greatly influenced by western cultures. Nowadays Chinese people like to buy things made in foreign countries, like those foreign festivals but ignore our traditional festivals. Of course, our view of love has changed

more or less. On the contemporary times, people have more rights to

pursue love for parents are not so rigid any more; they are likely to accept the one their child loves unless he or she is really bad. And it is also because children today are not so obedient to their parents, they have got their own minds, they will not listen to every word of their parents. If what they said is wrong, they dare to go against them. That is the liberty spirit of western has engraved in our minds. In the mean time, people are become more open than before, for example, in campus, it is easy for us to see lovers to act very intimate and even kiss each other regardless of the passerbys. What is more, we can always hear that somebody establish such a relationship even when they are in senior or middle schools. While there is a serious problem raised, that is the view of material stuffs. Nowadays lot of girls are money-oriented, they consider money is the basis of happy life, so they are willing to peak up with their

boyfriends who has spent many years with her , and try to find a richer man. This phenomenon is common to see in our surroundings. Whereas, what surprise me most is that among those girls mostly have received education. That is strange. What does our country educate them for? Of course for construction of our country, for better life of ourselves. But it seems that this kind of education turns out to be a failure. The majority of people who receive higher education are willing to go to the developed countries. And lots of girls they study for their future life, perhaps to find

a good husband. But does money or big house equal to happiness? Of course not. I think that those girls must have misunderstood the meaning of happiness. On the contrary, American girls seem to be wiser when they choose their mates. Although Americans are thought to be very realistic, they have a clear concept of happiness. While some Chinese girls seem to be lost themselves in the period of culture shock.

4. Conclusion

The western culture especially that of America definitely have a great influence on us, whereas we may value them too much but ignore our own cultures. It is true that there are many dregs in our traditional cultures, but more deserve to be retained. Everyday, from a child to a college student, I have heard too many things about the comparison between China and America, and every time it was something bad about China but something good about America. Thus all these leave us the impression that America is the heaven.

To ameliorate or change the situation, I think education is important. If the schools offer more courses about our Chinese traditional culture, we are sure to comprehend the beauty o f it.

It is a great challenge to retain our own culture and in the mean time to absorb the good aspects of western culture. Now it is our responsibility to realize it. I believe that one day we can take the advantage of western cultures and display our priceless Chinese culture to the whole word.

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