РефератыИностранный языкChChinese Culture Essay Research Paper Throughout China

Chinese Culture Essay Research Paper Throughout China

Chinese Culture Essay, Research Paper


Throughout China’s


encased history it has developed much differently than


western parts of the world. Chinese culture varies greatly


compared to ours. These great differences between eastern


culture and western culture make China a very interesting


place. Some of the vast differences include literature, social


structure, and government. The greatest difference is


Chinese philosophy and way of thinking. China has


developed a strict system of tradition that has given China


great advantages and disadvantages. This is shown in


Chinese literature. Tradition in China is a set of unwritten


laws. This is why China turned its eyes from the outside


world and looked in. China found everything it needed in


Tradition (4). The strong traditions and customs play


probably the greatest factor in the life of a Chinese person.


This strict philosophy influences marriage, children, family,


and duty in life. Marriage is much different and has different


levels of companionship. One man may have many wives


and or concubines. The status of these wives and concubines


are very important. The lower you are on the husband’s list


the lower you were treated (1). When in a marriage if you


were having children a son would be most desirable for you


to have. You would be thought better of if you produced a


son. This shows the male dominance in Chinese culture.


Once a son was born the expectations for him were great.


He was supposed to learn all great literature and be very


scholarly (2). A girl, also was supposed to be raise to


appreciate art and literature. Most of all though children


were supposed to respect tradition. The traditions gave one


a feeling of not the individual but the whole as a group.


People grew up knowing their part in the world and strive to


do that well. They learn to acknowledge their emperor as the


"Son of Heaven" (4). Everything someone does, is done for


their county, and their duty in life. Chinese literature shows


that when everything is done for tradition and the individual is


not priority, many people get forced into a hard and unfair


lifestyle. This is shown in the movie "Raise the Red Lantern"


when the tradition made the lives of four wives strict and


dependent on the master and whom he chose each night.


Their lives were so strict on tradition that one of the wives


lost her life because that is what tradition said should happen


if she broke a rule (1). In other cases nothing c

ould be


learned or changed because of the restriction of tradition.


Such was in the movie "The Forbidden City." In this movie it


also showed how the customs of the concubines and unics


were very constricting to their lives (3). In the book "Six


Records of a Floating Life" tradition creates the


impracticality of a test for magistrates that is purely literary


but decides the head of a certain area of land (2). In China


tradition and customs has done a lot but has hindered the life


of many of its people. Finally after thousands of years, the


withdrawn China was being seen by the western world.


Soon after, European explorers slowly started seeping in.


China tried to keep foreigners out finally with force but the


old traditional weapons of the Chinese were no match for


the technologically advanced Europeans. So after Europe


defeated Chinese forces and got their foot in the door to


China they slow started to enter. After the Chinese saw the


new foreigners they started "questioning their own


government, philosophy, and social systems" (5). When the


foreigners started to build factories and to start gaining


power the Chinese "recognized that if their country was to


protect itself against foreign domination, it would have to


become a modern nation" (5). This new reason to reform


eventually brought about the Communist Revolution. The


communists did away with many of the old traditions and


started to modernize the country. A new generation brought


new ideas, and technology slowly started to replace tradition


(6). China slowly started opening its eyes to the rest of the


world. China has come a long way in the past 50 years, from


a withdrawn country run by tradition, to a major modern


society. This has given its people a chance to choose their


own destiny and to be open to the rest of the world. China’s


strong heritage and knowledge of the past show that China is


now and will be in the future a great world power. Works


Cited (1) Movie: "Raise the Red Lantern". (2) "Six Records


of a Floating Life" By Shen Fu, Advisory Editor: Betty


Radice. Published 1983 by Penguin Books. (3) Movie: "The


Forbidden City". (4) Lecture On China: Mrs. Larsen


11-27-96. (5) The Human Expression: World Regions and


Cultures. Paul Thomas Welty and Miriam Greenblatt,


Published 1992 by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill. (6) "The Joy


LuckClub", Amy Tan, Published 1989 By The Ballantine


Publishing Group.

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