An Analysis Between Sino-American Cultural Differences From The Angle Of Intercultural Communication

Since McLuhan characterized today's world as a "global village", people have noticed the frequent communication between cultures, and realized the importance of intercultural communication. But we know there're differences among different cultures, and we also know it's the differences that hinder us from smooth intercultural communication. People know few of the differences or only have some stereotypes, so intercultural conflicts can't be avoided. China and U.S.A are the representatives of Eastern and Western cultures, getting to know the differences and reasons of the Sino-American culture can accelerate people's communication in a smooth and effective way.As a movie concerning intercultural communication, Guasha the Treatment reflects the differences between Chinese and American culture in several aspects, and it provides directly the real and lively materials for us to analyze. This thesis based on the movie but not only on the movie, that is, the plot of the movie is not the only thing the author discusses, the most important focus is put on finding out as many differences as possible by using a broader angles while observing the sample Guasha. Then the author tries to analyze, sum up the differences and reasons of the Sino-American culture in an overall angle. The thesis consists of 9 parts. Chapter one first explains some basic concepts connected with the research, such as culture,intercultural communication and intercultural conflicts, shows people's stereotype of Chinese and American culture, then analyzes why the movie Guasha the Treatment is selected by the author as the base of this thesis, Finally lists the eight main differences in Chinese and American culture from the plots of the movie. The eight differences are:face concept, educational concept, dietary habits, cultural vacancy, cultural shock, law concept, value orientation and cultural identity.From Chapter Two to Chapter Nine, the author begins to probe into the eight differences respectively, including the manifestations and the reasons.The thesis bases on the eight main differences in Chinese and American culture, analyzes the reasons and tries to make contrast between the two cultures and between the present and the past. The purpose of doing so is to confirm the fact that the differences come from several aspects, including historical, geographical, political, economical, and religious reasons. When comes to a certain difference, the author generally begins with the concept, then describes the phenomena, generalizes its characteristics, and finally analyzes its reasons and influences.The author tries to be different from other similar researches also based on the movie Guasha the Treatment by offering much more angles. With several more angles than others, the author can observe and generalize the problems all-sidedly. With the all-around common sense of Chinese and American cultural differences, we may find out that the cultural differences exist everywhere in our daily life.In order to have successful intercultural communication, people involved in it should be able to adjust their own opinions to certain circumstances. Knowing and respecting the differences between cultures and having various angles can help people a lot in the communication, we can have a proper attitude toward different cultures, i.e. neither accept everything nor refuse everything. Only in this way, can people communicate smoothly and develop harmoniously.