Cultural Differences Between Chinese Family And American Family From The Perspective Of Geert Hofstede's Theory

The thesis is to discuss the cultural differences between Chinese family and American family and analyze the underlying reasons attributing to the cultural differences between Chinese family and American family.So as to realize the objective,methods of textual analysis and comparative analysis are adopted.The thesis,taking Ang Lee's The Family Trilogy as the example,analyzes the cultural differences between Chinese family and American family from aspects of parents-children relationship,face concept,privacy concept,harmony concept,gender role as well as attitudes towards uncertainty avoidance.Also,the thesis discusses the underlying reasons attributing to the cultural differences in application of Geert Hofstede's culture dimensions theory.The results reveal that: Chinese value children's “filial piety” to their parents,whereas Americans attach much importance to the independent relationship between parents and children;in Chinese family,the parents-children relationship is unequal,whereas in American family,the parents-children relationship is equal.Chinese people think highly of the maintenance of other-face and group-face,whereas American people take the maintenance of self-face seriously.Chinese people's privacy is often invaded by other family members,whereas American people's privacy cannot be invaded by other family members.Chinese people pay attention to the harmony among persons and the harmony in nature.In Chinese family,males mainly take charge of external affairs and females mainly deal with the internal affairs,whereas in American family,family affairs,internal or external,are jointly undertaken by males and females.In China,the distinction of personality characteristics is strong,whereas in America,the distinction is weak.Chinese people keep conservative attitudes towards other cultures and homosexuality,whereas American people keep open attitudes towards other cultures and homosexuality.The underlying reasons of the cultural differences between Chinese family and American family can be explained in application of Geert Hofstede's culture dimensions theory.Besides,affected by various factors,some Chinese family cultures have been changing and the thesis will illustrate the changes in detail.In the end,the thesis will bring forward some feasible suggestions in order to enable Chinese and Americans to carry out harmonious intercultural communication.