A Study Of Chinese & Western Gold-Jade Cultures From A Cross-cultural Communication Perspective

Beijing Olympics was a long expected great event both for Chinese people and for people from other countries. Among all the intriguing topics relating to it is the designing of its gold medals.This thesis, from a cross-cultural perspective, examines the designing of Beijing Olympic gold medals compared with that of medals at all the other Summer Olympics in the past, with focus on the material of which the medals were made. Both inheriting and innovative aspects are discussed to explore the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western gold-jade cultures, and the underlying causes resulting in them.Since language reflects culture, a comparison is made between the expressions initiating with the word gold and jade in two authoritative dictionaries Ci Yuan and Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged. The phenomenon that expressions initiating with gold abound in both English and Chinese whereas those with jade are rich only in Chinese indicates that gold culture is prosperous both in the West and in China, but jade culture is flourishing only in China. To probe into the underlying reason responsible for this situation, Carley H. Dodd's model of elements of cultural systems and Lian Shuneng's findings about thinking patterns are adopted.Tending to be ethical, integrative and convergent in thinking pattern, ancient Chinese people were enthusiastic in seeking the corresponding relationship between Heaven, Earth and man, and laid emphasis on their inner feelings and self-improvement, trying to develop in themselves the virtues that could help them create harmony between oneself and others, and between human and Nature. Their pursuit of harmony was best met in the features of the unique fine properties of jade, so that they were quick to invest values in jade which gained new vitality and gradually developed into a rich culture.On the other hand, tending to be cognitive, analytical and divergent in thinking pattern, people in the West are quick to air their own voice, thus there seems to them hardly to be any analogical relationship between the features of jade and those of Westerners'personality. Besides, Western people tend to view things as they are and attach no emotional meaning to them.As a conclusion, apart from geological reasons, the difference of thinking patterns are also responsible for the different situations of jade culture in China and in the West.