A Brief Comparison of the Chinese and American Cultures According to Kluchholn’ss Theories

According to Kluchholn’s and Hofstede’s Theories

Both Kluchholn's value orientations and Hostede's value dimensions give us guidelines of how to view cultural differences. Following is a brief comparison of the American and Chinese cultures according to their theories.

I. Kluchholn's value orientations

Kluchholn's value orientations give us five aspects of how cultures differ from each other.

1.1Human nature orientation

According to the Bible story of Adam and Eve, people are born in sin and thus their nature is sinful, or evil. Parents taking this attitude have a strong sense of disciplining their children, though sometimes they had a too-bad-opinion of them. For example, when the kids are not telling the truth, it's good to educate them or even spank them so the kids know they did something wrong, but it's not always the best thing to do to call them \"liers\" when they lie 5 times in 15 years.

The Chinese attitude toward human nature used to be \"basically good\as the Three Character Classic says, \"Man, by nature, is good; people's inborn characters are similar, but learning makes them different.\" However, in the 1990s, the Three Character Classic was revised, which reflects people's changed attitude:\"Man, by nature, is like jade; people's characters and emotions can both be shaped by learning.\"（人之初，如玉璞，性与情，俱可塑）This revised version soulds like people's inborn character is \"blank\which doesn't really belong to \"Mixture of Good and Evil\" or any other

category of Kluchholn's theory. The Chinese opinion of human nature sounds unique and makes sense to me.

1.2 Man-Nature orientation

It is said that western experience of human life being separate from nature can be found in the Biblical story of creation. As masters of nature, humans are encouraged to control and exploit it in any way they choose. This is not exactly true. Many Christians devote themselves to environment protecting, because to them the earth is a \"garden\" God gives human beings to take care of, not to exploit it in whatever way humans want to. Actually, the Chinese attitude toward nature seems to be retrogressing to me. In ancient China, we already had teachings from different doctrines that men should live in harmony with nature, such as \"the unity of the nature and human\"(“天人合一”). But in the past decades, China had used to much forest for cultivating land, which ended in the waste of land and harm to the environment. Also, the Three Gorges Project made tremendous changes in nature and there are voices opposing this project. This project does benefit us in some ways, but it's also causing risks. The Chinese way altered from \"harmony with nature\" to \"humans control nature\". However, there are also news of China useing proper forest land to grow tree instead of crops in order to improve the environment. In conclusion, China is groping its way between \"harmony with nature\" and \"humans control nature\".

1.3 Time orientation

The American people tend to look to the future and make plans for the future--you hear them mention \"my schedule\" very often when you try to make an

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appointment with them. They feel good when they have accomplished different things and feel they are wasting time when they don't get much done. In conclusion, American people are future-oriented.

Chinese people tend to be past-oriented. They put much attention to the Chinese history and are proud of it. Students learn about history since elementary school, once again in junior high school and a third time in senior high school. However, some Chinese scholars think that now the Chinese view is changing to future-oriented. I think this is true. With more and more communication with foreign countries and a more and more rapid pace of life, efficiency and productivity are being appreciated.

1.4 Activity orientation

Like I mentioned above, the American people \"live\" by their schedule, to have a full schedule indicates that you are accomplishing things. Their activities belong to the \"doing-orientation\" category. The Chinese people share a \"being-oriented\" culture. The family background is more important than what they accomplish. Wives are willing to give up their jobs to take care of the family members (kids, parents and in-laws) while husbands work harder to provide for the family. During the Spring Festival, one of the most important things is to visit relatives, even though you are not close with each other.

1.5 Relational orientation

In the American culture, there are also hierarchies, but people are uncomfortable with them and try to communicate with one another in a way that denies their existence or reduces their impact. For example, people prefer to use first names, this is common among people of different ages. You can call someone older than your father by his

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given name; some sons and daughters are allowed to call their parents by their given names. People tend to be less aware of others' feelings and may talk more than people from group-oriented cultures. In short, they are frank. Self-reliance and independence are important and it is considered weak to be dependent on others. To a Chinese person, some Americans \"push\" their children to be independent since they are babies. New-born babies are trained to go to sleep by themselves; many college students are supposed to pay back their loans for college by themselves when they get a job.

II. Hofstede's value dimensions

Hofstede's value dimensions inspired us to look at cultural difference from a different perspective.

2.1 Individualism-Collectivism

The US is more of a individualism society. People emphasize on what \"I\" think and are encouraged to have their own opinions; they do things \"my way\" and seldom interfere in other people's business. It is good to be competitive, while business competitors may have a drink together after work to keep their relationships for future cooperation. Everyone has the right to his private property, thoughts and opinions, like a house or just some notes taken in class. Being independent is good, and giving suggestions without being asked sounds offensive.

The Chinese share a more collectivistic society. Family or other groups one belongs to are considered more important than the individual person, on the other hand, the individual person depends on his/her family or the groups. Parents support their children financially all the time, even after the children can earn enough money to be on their own; when young people choose a place to work for a long-term, they often

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consider whether this place is too far away from their parents and if they can go visit their parents from time to time.

There's another good point Hofstede added here, the \"in-group\" and \"out-group\". Chinese people lay much emphasis on this. Family members and close friends are supposed to \"fight for\" each other \"against\" out-groups.

2.2 Power distance

The Chinese emphasize more on the power distance than the Americans do. This aspect is similar to the \"relational orientation\" of Kluchhohn's theory. Generally speaking, the Chinese people emphasize on the power distance while the Americans try to ignore it. If a Chinese teacher calls a student's parents, the parents probably will give their child a lecture according to what the teacher said without asking the child what happened or how he/she feels.

2.3 Masculinity-Femininity

In this aspect, it's hard to say which category the American or the Chinese way belongs to. The Americans value achievement, the acquisition of money, and for the mass middle-class, many wives stay at home to take care of the house and the children while the husbands work to provide for the family. But it differs a lot from individual to individual.

In China, family is emphasized over one's own ambition, but the situation is changing as more and more women go out to work (especially in the urban areas). The husbands are also given a two-week full-pay break right after they have a new baby, which shows a human caring side of the society.

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2.4 Uncertainty Avoidance

To me the America is a High Uncertainty Avoidance society. You can see how people try to avoid uncertainty and ambiguity just from the way they speak or do things. Take cooking as an example, when people cook according to a recipe, they know exactly how many cups of flour or how many spoons of oil they are supposed to use; while the Chinese recipe always says \"a little of\" or \"some\much he/she wants to use of each ingredience. But that doesn't mean China has a Low Uncertainty Avoidance culture, as defined by Kluchhohn. According to his definition, a Low Uncertainty Avoidance culture has less concern about ambiguity and uncertainty, which is true for China, but I don't think China has more tolerance for a variety of opinions than the America does. The Chinese people are less rule-oriented (but more relationship-oriented), but they are not ready to always accept changes or take risks. Chinese people value a stable life.

To conclude, both theories seem to be reasonable in some ways but limited in other aspects when we do comparison of two specific countries according to them. The American culture is petty diverse itself, let alone mention the long history, vast territory and ethnic diverse subcultures of China. This is only a brief comparison of the two cultures, which gives me, a Han Chinese, specific reminders of how to treat cross-cultural communication with White Americans.

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Bibliography:

Cao, Xueqin, Go, E. A Dream of Red Mansions. Yang, Xianyi, translated.

Beijing :foreign languages press. 1994.

Hui, Yu. A New Century Chinese-English Dictionary. Beijing: Foreign Language

Teaching and Research Press.2004.

Grundy, Peter. During Pragmatics. London: Edward, co-published, 2000.

胡文仲，毕继万：《跨文化非语言交际》，北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1999年。 顾曰国：《礼貌，语用与文化》，北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1992年。

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西北大学外国语学院

跨文化交际课程

A Brief Comparison of the Chinese and American Cultures

According to Kluchholn’s and Hofstede’s Theories

翻译硕士 张洪瑞 201131333

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