My View on Sino-American CultureWritten by: Siyu HouStudent No.: 20105789Supervised by: Xiaoli HuangCollege of Civil EngineeringChongqing UniversityMay 2012My View on Sino-American CultureAbstract:It is commonly acknowledged that there are some differences between Chinese and American culture. The differences can be found in every details of our daily life. This article discusses the cultural differences between China and the United States in values, education and religion, which can be recognized as the represent for Chinese and American culture respectively. Keywords: China, America, culture, value, education, religion, differenceOutline: 1. Introduction2. V alues3. Education4. Religion5. Conclusion6. References and CitationsIntroductionChina is a large country and with it developing faster, the relationship between China and America get closer and closer. Obviously, There are many cultural differences between the two countries that are obvious, which can be found in many aspects of daily life. Now we will look at some cultural differences between China and America in a profound way in values, education and religion.ValuesChinese Values:In China, Confucian thought has dominated the Chinese way of life for almost 2,000 years. Confucian thoughts was carried forward in Song Dynasty by Zhu Xi, a famous academician. So, the widely accepted traditional values derive largely from the influence of Confucian philosophy and give Chinese peoples their core identityChinese peoples value the following factors: the importance of the family, the hierarchical structure of social life, the development of morality and self-restraint and the emphasis on achievement through hard work. In many ways the family unit is more important than its individual members. Y ounger generations are obliged to abnegate answering back to their parents or other elders. Chinese values emphasize loyalty to the community and the country, modesty and righteousness in social activities. In Chinese tradition, the interest of the community is always more important than that of the individual.There are also lots of well-respected in China,such as:filial piety, thrift, diligent, golden mean, rite, righteousness,etc.American Values:The formation of American values combines frontier spirit with the values of early European settlers.Basic American values include individual freedom, self-reliance, opportunity equality, hard work, material wealth, and competition, which is the cornerstone of American values. On the aspect of freedom, Americans mean the desire and the right of all individuals to control their fate without any other interference. They are highly individualistic in their thoughts and behaviors. With great emphasis on individuals, each person is seen as highly independent. Social relations are based on the autonomy of each person, which means that each person should be treated as an individual first and then as a member of a group. Individuals must learn to rely on themselves, otherwise they may risk losing freedom. Individualism often entails privacy. The notion of individual privacy is seen as desirable and highly valued by Americans. Equality or fairness is highly cherished in USA. On the aspect of equality, Americans mean that each individual should have an equal chance for success. Americans believes that all people are created equal and that all should have an equal opportunity to succeed. Everyone has the right to compete with others equally.EducationStudy for what：American educators make sure that students know that they study mostly for themselves; they encourage students to explore what they want to learn by themselves. Chinese educators like to make different kinds of rules for students to guide them what, when, how, and above all, for whom, to learn.Education aim：The aim of American education is to develop students' creative ability, so American don't pay much attention to the study of "basic knowledge", some adults can not even do easy operation of addition. American think education should develop children creative thought when they are young, but Chinese education prefer "basic ability" instead of the development of students' creative ability and thinking ability. American students' always get low score but their abilities are valued, to the contrast, Chinese students always get high score but low ability, that is why many famous companies don't like to employ Chinese student.Class：Chinese education emphasizes on imposing students conclusive ideas to make sure that have no questions, American education is good at giving students inspiration to encourage students to ask questions actively. In Chinese students are required to put up hands before they say something on class, students may be criticized if they have different ideas with their teacher in Chinese but proud in America. In Chinese classroom, the first thing is discipline, in American classroom, it's human rights.T eachers："Respect your father as you father" is a Chinese idiom. Chinese students worship their teachers blindly, they think that all their teachers said are right. Chinese teachers are serious on speech and manner on class, what they do on class is all about their textbook. American don't believe authority.American teachers like to chat with children, they can become student's good friends.Exam：In America,children examinations are open-book examinations, children are ordered to hand in their papers in a week. American examinations' aim is to find their weakness for development in the future.Chinese examinations are students' enemy, students keep in distance with others, at least two teachers in the examination. The aim of Chinese examinations aim is to eliminate low score students.ReligionChinese religion:Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are the three main religions which together form the basis of Chinese religious beliefs.. In fact, Chinese religion is a fusion of several kinds of belief, which developed over thousands of years by strongly influencing and interrelating with each other, and it is extremely rare to find a pure Confucianist, Buddhist or Taoist as each of the three religions has become inextricably interwoven with the other two.Confucianism is based on the teachings Confucius (551-479 BC) who was a philosopher and political theorist. His teachings were amalgamated by his students and recorded in the Analects. Confucian writings discussed the role of the ruler and the subject and proposed moral values to direct them both. Confucianism has continued to deeply influence the cultural background of Chinese people in their daily lives.Buddhism was introduced to China in the Han dynasty, along the trade routes which are now known as the “Silk Road”. The religion is based on the teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha (born 563 BC), the founder of Buddhism who was born in ancient India. According to a recent survey, China now has the largest number of Buddhist believers in the world, followed by Japan.Taoism, also known as Daoism, is a religion which is indigenous to China , literally “path” or “way”. Taoism originated in the Kingdom of Chu during the Warring States period (480-221 BC). Taoism stresses “non-action” (wuwei), as opposed to the busy round of official and social rituals and practices, in order to allow nature to reign. The Daodejing, a philosophical text attributed to a figure known as Laozi, emphasizes the need to retire from the world and master the Taoism.American religion:The American religious discourse is an immigrant history. The immigrants are from all over the world, so the American religion is complex. The survey shows religious preference in the US: Protestant 51.3% Roman Catholic 23.9% Mormon 1.7%Other Christian 1.6% Jewish 1.7% Buddhist 0.7%Muslim 0.6% Other or unspecified 2.5%Unaffiliated 12.1% None 4%It shows us majority of Americans have their own religions, while only a few Chinese are religious. So religion influences America deeply.From the beginning of American history, religions and religious believers have played a central role in shaping public policy and political debate. For most of the European settlers who came to North America in the 17th century from England, France and Spain——all nations with established churches——a society without an established faith was unimaginable.All religions in the United States are economically and politically free. Although some New England states continued to use tax money to fund local Congregational churches into the 1830s, the United States was the first nation to have no official state-endorsed religion.Modeling the provisions concerning religion within the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the framers of the Constitution rejected any religious test for office, and the First Amendment specifically denied the federal government any power to enact any law respecting either an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise, thus protecting any religious organization, institution, or denomination from government interference. The decision was mainly influenced by European Rationalist and Protestant ideals, but was also a consequence of the pragmatic concerns of minority religious groups and small states that did not want to be under the power or influence of a national religion that did not represent them.Secondly, scarcely is there any discrimination among different religions in America. All religious beliefs are well respected and, as many Americans imply, as long as you believe in whichever God in your religion, you always have a caring and friendly heart. This is because their opinions rest on the fact that good deeds form the basis of each respective religion.Finally, as the word on dollars said:"IN GOD WE TRUST." Religion has already influenced every aspect of American life.ConclusionTo sum up what I have illustrate above, there is a point where both us Chinese and American should reach that although a various differences exist, we could not decide which is better or not superficially. In fact, as an undergraduate, we need to not only conserve the positive parts but also abandon the negative aspects decidedly.References and Citations[1]任勤，瘳雷朝. 中美文化面面观. 重庆大学出版社，2010[2] V ergote, Antoine, Religion, belief and unbelief: a psychological study, Leuven University Press, 1997[3]Wikipedia. Religion in America. /wiki/Main_Page。
