Similarities Being Neglected-a Comparison Between Yuanming Yuan And Versailles From The Perspective Of Cross-cultural Communication

Being the representations of Chinese and Western gardens,Yuanming Yuan differs from Versailles in terms of styles,designs,aesthetics and techniques.And all these differences have been analyzed from almost every aspect by researchers.This thesis,too,will first account for these distinctions from different human-nature relationships.However,the purpose of this thesis is to draw people's attention to the similarities of the two famous royal gardens,which have been long neglected.Yuanming Yuan and Versailles,despite of such distinctions,had similar functions and social status at that time.Through further interpretations,it can be found that though theyseem to be different,the imperial power,imperial authority,emperors' needs,and social formations are similar.Since both France and China were aristocratic empires,struggling from primitive societies into modern commercial societies,it can be conjectured that they must share similar uniform and political relations,social distinction as well as economic organization.This thesis will scrutinize and analyze these similarities using Max Weber's Ideal Type Theory.Moreover,there existed a great amount of similarities on the rulers of the two countries at that time,for they all held a strong belief in divine right of Kings,and they were trying to demonstrate their almighty power through building up unrivalled gardens of their time.From Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs,we know that being at the top of need pyramid,rulers of China and France actually shared more in common with each other than with the majority of their own populations.