| With the expansion of global trade and the advancement of the Belt and Road Initiative,the connection and competition between China’s domestic banks and foreign banks have gradually strengthened.The corporate annual report plays a significant role in the process of disseminating information and attracting investors’ attention.At present,the studies on corporate annual reports mainly focus on the perspectives of linguistics and economics,but few further analyze the cultural factors behind the annual reports from a cultural perspective and discuss the causes of differences.This thesis selects 20 annual reports of Chinese and American banks,including 10 Chinese annual reports of Chinese banks and 10 English annual reports of American banks respectively,as the research objects,and uses the descriptive analysis and case analysis as the research method.The thesis adopts the genre analysis theory to summarize the differences in the discourse and content of Chinese and American banks’ annual reports.Then,the thesis employs the cultural dimensions to probe the cultural reasons for these differences from the perspective of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory.The thesis indicates that annual reports of Chinese and American banks differ greatly in terms of discourse and content.First,in the aspect of discourse,Chinese banks’ annual reports(1)contain more obligatory moves,underlying the standardization in the choice of moves,(2)use more elliptical sentences and compound-parallel sentences,which emphasizes parataxis,focuses on the following,and highlights the theme,(3)tend to use more political words,vague expressions and dynamic words.However,American bank’s annual reports(1)contain fewer obligatory moves,emphasizing the free choice of moves,(2)syntactically retain the subject,underlie hypotaxis and subject,and bring forward the focus of sentence.(3)basically use no political vocabulary but more specific words and static vocabulary.Second,in the aspect of content,Chinese banks’ annual reports(1)set overall and long-term goals,responding to national policies in their strategic objectives,(2)focuses on the power of the management and the authority of the superiors in corporate governance,and(3)cover a larger amount of space to social responsibility,paying more attention to the disclosure of philanthropy,collective interests and humanistic care.While American banks’ annual reports(1)focus on the external environment and short-term interests of the bank in strategic objectives,which is arranged on the main line of business(2)use euphemistic expressions to explain the powers of each part,stressing equality between superiors and subordinates in terms of corporate governance,and(3)is more concerned about the external environment of bank’s development and the interests of customers and shareholders in social responsibility.By applying Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension Theory,the thesis finds that the reasons for differences of Chinese and American annual reports are mainly the differences of cultural dimensions orientation of collectivism and individualism,power distance,masculinity and femininity,long-versus short-term orientation,and uncertainty avoidance.This thesis can provide a new perspective for understanding the annual reports of Chinese and American Banks.Meanwhile,it can also provide some references for the writing and evaluation of annual reports,which will help Chinese banks better participate in international competition and communication. |
