Cultural Contrast between China and Europe When speaking about culture, we can simply find significantly differences among every countries. Culture enables people to find a group or other individuals who have the same values and beliefs. So different countries have different cultural backgrounds based on their own beliefs, in which people display many styles of clothings and appearances, food and eating habits, architectures and home lives, travel and leisure habits. This paper will study on the cultural contrast between China and Europe based on above points–summarized as “dress, eat, live and travel”.
First of all, culture dictates how people should dress. The Chinese dressing style is decided by the traditional culture and the oriental body feature. Because the curve of yellow race’s body is not so obvious, and Chinese are fastidious about the doctrine of the mean, so our clothing is a straight overall with wide coat and sleeves, which designed plainly. The European style is determined by the western thought of pragmatism, simplify and personalism and the white race’s body feature. Their clothings shape is pretty distinct. Chinese clothing color lays emphasis on ethic and asks for maintaining social order.
So we wear dark color more, for the reason why it seems modest, low-key and not easy to offend others. When we dress showy, it indicates that we are ready for some important occasions. Just like red for wedding ceremony, white and black for funeral. But western-style color pays more attention to emotion and psychological implications. They just dress the color they love, and put on colorful and sexy clothings to show a good mood. Secondly, compared with the Chinese diet which focus on “taste”, European people lay stress on rationally eating.
No matter how food colorful, good smell and tasty are, nutrition is first. Daily intake of calories, vitamins, proteins, etc is very important. Even if the taste is stereotyped, the food must be eaten — because they are nutritious. Chinese cookery madly in the tasting of dishes! We evaluate dishes “delicious” or “not tasty”, but unfortunately, when we take care of noting but taste, we sometimes ignore the most basis — nutritional value. Many of our traditional dishes use too much salt, MSG, soy sauce and peppers. So dishes’ nutrients are damaged, and the so called delicious dishes are harmful to our health.
Moreover, in China, no matter what the purpose of a banquet is, there will be only one form–everyone sitting around, sharing a table of food. The round table, always creates a unity, and polite atmosphere, and the dishes can both be the food and the way of communication. At European banquets, food and wine are also important, but in fact the core of a banquet is the communication between the people sitting nearby. The round table and the fixed seats reflect that Chinese emphasis on reunion and harmony. On the contrary, Europeans eat one’s own food, move freely, that displays their respect towards personality and privacy.
Thirdly, the difference of architectural art between Europe and China differs from material: the traditional European architectures have been long constructed by stone, but traditional oriental architectures base on wood. Different building materials create different architectural styles. The feature of European architectures is open wide, spacious and bright. This is a stark contrast to the Closed and restrained Chinese “walls-style” palaces and buildings. European architectures can almost be seen allover from the front, even the lawn and garden are also open.
But Chinese palace can only be in the air overlooked. In addition, the Chinese gardens especially Suzhou gardens are complicated twist and turn, not like European gardens which are more direct, simple and open. On the other hand, in China people always think the life with a big family is a happy thing, and the idiom “four generations in one house” is a phrase expresses how satisfactory the later life is. At the same time, having a house is the foundation to set up a family for a Chinese man. But Europeans separate from their parents’ house at a very young age and live a two-person-life.
They like change residences based on interests, conditions, and jobs, and renting an apartment is very common. When a woman get married, they don’t care if the man has a house or not. In a world, Chinese like peaceful and stable life, and Westerners love trying new things, and pursue their own goals. The last but not the least, the opinion upon travel changes a lot from China to Europe. In European countries, when people have enough money, they will not hesitate to enjoy a trip or a vacation. Many people believe that the most important part of life is travel .
As for work, it’s just the preparation for vacation. In China, due to the economy and the impact of tradition, people generally believe that travel is not necessary to the daily life but a luxury. For Chinese the destinations of one vacation are always the more the better. Having not enough time to visit carefully is noting, only a photo can be enough. While European tourists pay more attention to the spiritual enjoyment, they will even choose to go to the same small town every year, live in the same hotel, sit on the same chair if they feel good.
They also advocate overseas exploration, adventuring, planing their own itinerary and route instead of taking part in a tour group. But Chinese people concern more about security and comfort, so travel in group becomes the first choice of many people. ?In conclusion, it’s inevitable to have differences between the Chinese culture and European one, as they had been developed in a situation almost cutting off from each other before twentieth century. However, they have something in common as well, since they are components of the human culture. ?? :964
