| The study examined the responses of two groups of Chinese college students and one group of American college students to three American short stories. One group of Chinese students, as well as the American group, read and responded to the stories in English. The other Chinese group responded in Chinese to translations of the same three stories. Responses were compared on the Response Preference Measure and Essay Analysis from the Purves Categories System. The Essay Analysis was also examined for the effects of translation and for gender differences. Cross-cultural aspects of the essays were examined according to the features derived from the Kluckhohn Model.;Results indicated no statistically significant differences among the groups on the Response Preference Measure and essay analysis. There were no significant differences on gender comparisons and none between the two groups of Chinese students that might reflect the effect of reading translated material.;The qualitative comparisons between the Chinese and American groups in their responses when the cross-cultural aspects in the three stories were considered revealed differences in the value orientations between the American and Chinese cultures, such as time sense, relation between human and nature, and social relations. This suggests that differences in cultural values may well affect responses to literature. |
