National Character And National Image

National image reflects the overall impression and evaluation of a country from the international society, makes impact on the reputation and status of a country in the international society, devotes an important component to the soft power of a country, and influences the effectiveness of showing hard power of a country. Therefore, the national image becomes a very hot topic to be discussed, and the research about it was once deeply popular. Many scholars at home and abroad have respectively made important contributions to the research of the national image in terms of the spread, relationship, psychology and etc, and their research achievements are fairly abundant. However, most of these studies merely focus on the relationship between the image of a country and the cognition outside as an entry point, and less on the relationship between the external image and the internal factors of a country. It is a totally new program that studying the national image from the internal factors of a country.During the inspection of the image of the country, we found that the image of the country was largely able to reflect the actual situation of the country. National image is not formed overnight, but bit by bit. The national image gathers the cognitions and evaluation of international society to the country's external scattered performance that issubject to the unique inherent characteristics------national character. National characterrefers to the intrinsic truth that decides a country to take the unique approaches and attitudes to foreign affairs in the international society. It is the national inherent nature which fundamentally reflects a country's political culture and national characteristics; it not only stably affects the country's internal political and social life, but also decides the country's attitude and behavior in the international exchange. The formation of the national character is affected by the country's history, cultural habits, and ways of thinking and so on, and the carriers of that are the people who can take part in the management of the country and the current institutions and mechanisms which keep the country running.It is different from the old patterns of studying the national image that analyzing the interaction between the national image and the character of the country with the perspective of the domestic factors; the study for the national character and exploring the domestic causes for the external national image are not only in favor of stripping the important clues out of the complicated external factors of the national image, but also going to provide a kind of reference to the study for national image.National image is gradually figured in the process of the international exchanges which show the way and principle of different countries in the international exchanges. The way and principle are based on the understanding of the interpersonal relations. The private morality guides the interpersonal exchange with the principle of blood relations and the degree of familiarity, and the individualism with the principle of the personal independence. Up to the national level, this kind of concept of interpersonal exchange inevitably has a major impact on the international exchange. With the view of this point, it could be said that both of the private morality and the individualism are main forms of the national character. The character of China is mainly expressed in private morality, the core of which is familism that upholds the supremacy of the family and easily overlooks the demands of benefits outside the family. Up to the national level, the state focuses on its internal development and easily pays no attentions to the external world, which probably results in the national image of "not or not enough to bear international responsibility". The American character is mainly expressed as modern individualism, which emphasizes self-management and objects restrictions. Up to the national level, the behavior and performance of the state are characterized by independence and anti-restrictions and so on, which easily results in the national image of "unilateralism". Respectively studying the relations between the character and the image of China and between the character and the image of America, a kind of interaction between the national character and image has been found, namely the national character decides the external national behavior which is transferred to the national image with the understanding of international society, and the national image has impact to the country on the cognition and attitude which have clearly influential on the national behavior and the formation of the future national character. Thus, the national character decides the national image, and the national image can counter-affect the national character.The part of preface describes the significance, research results, and the problems and deficiencies of study for the interaction between the national character and image.Chapter I clarifies and defines the core concept of the article including character, national character, image and national image, and raises the relevant theoretical proposition based on the discussion of the relationship between the character and image.Chapter II, taking China as an example, raises the private morality as the main form of the character of China, explores the reasons for the formation of China's private morality, analyzes the relations between the private morality and the national behavior and the national image, and therefore demonstrate the internal relation between the character and image of China.Chapter III, taking America as an example, raises the individualism as the main form of American character, explores the reasons for the formation of the American individualism, analyzes the relations between the individualism and national behavior and the corresponding relations between national behavior and national image, and therefore demonstrate the internal relations between the character and image of America.The fourth chapter focuses on comparing the main performance of the character of China and America, comparing and analyzing the links and distinctions between private morality and individualism and finding reasons for the difference.The fifth chapter which belongs to the conclusion, with the relevant examples of China and America, elaborates relations between the character and the behavior of the country and between the behavior and image of the country, and demonstrate that the national character decides the national image, and the national image counter-affect the national character.