Gua Sha-The Treatment and American Covert Culture

Abstract：Covert culture is the important breakthrough point in doing cross-culture communication researches， coming through the culture barriers in communication， and achieving successful cross-culture communications. Movie， as the only comprehensive art form can faithfully reflect the reality itself， and can also serve as the breakthrough point in exploring and disclosing the covert culture. This essay will take the movie Gua Sha-The Treatment for example to explore and disclose American covert culture through several cultural clues such as American democratic attitude toward children， American rational thinking pattern and strong legal sense， and American family value， etc.

摘要：隱蔽文化作為是進行跨文化交際研究、跨越跨文化交際障礙、成功實現跨文化交際的重要切入點。電影作為反映現實本身的唯一綜合藝術語言可成為揭秘隱蔽文化的突破口。本文將以電影《刮痧》為例，通過對美國人的教育觀、法制觀、家庭價值觀等豐富的文化線索深入發掘，從而揭秘美國隱蔽文化。

關鍵詞：隱蔽文化；電影；跨文化交際；美國文化

作者簡介：何艷麗，女，鄭州大學外語學院2011級碩士研究生，研究方向：英語語言文學英美文學方向。

[中圖分類號]：I235.1[文獻標識碼]：A

[文章編號]：1002-2139(2012)-11-0240-01

Covert Culture

According to Edward T. Hall， there are two layers of culture， overt culture and covert culture. Covert culture is invisible and can rarely be acknowledged even by the specially trained observers， which lying in the deepest part of the culture. Yet we can eventually find out them through perceptible things， explored and disclosed layer by layer.

To Disclose Covert Culture through Movies

Movie is a comprehensive fine art， an audio-visual language or a comprehensive media of image and sound. With these characteristics， movie can be able to represent the reality much more faithfully. This essay will chose the movie Gua Sha—The Treatment as the breakthrough point to uncover the mysterious veil of some aspects of American covert culture.

Gua Sha-The Treatment and American Covert Culture

Gua Sha-The Treatment (Gua Sha for short) tells about a story happened in America: Chinese immigrants Datong Xu’s father came to America for a visit from the mainland china and gave a traditional Chinese medicine therapy called Gua Sha to his grandson Denis to give him a treatment because of Denis’ pain in the stomach. Unexpectedly， the treatment traces remained on Denis’s back becomes the proof of child abuse in America and brings about a series of troubles to Datong Xu and his family.

Culture clue one: American attitude toward children

Datong Xu was accused by the doctor and the nurse of child abuse and was deprived of his guardianship. That is because parents in America are only the legal guardians and people whoever fails to give their children good care will be deprived of the guardianship of their children. Then， the children’s welfare house will take the guardianship of the children according to the American written laws.

Culture Clue Two: Rational Thinking Pattern and Strong Legal Sense

American citizen’s awareness about the legal system and understanding of obligations have been stretching into everywhere in people’s life. That is why Datong Xu’s American friend Kunlan at first wanted to decline Datong’s request and suggested Datong to find a professional family law lawyer when Daong Xu asked his friend as well as his boss Kunlan to be his counsel in the hearing.

Culture Clue Three: American Family Value

In Gua Sha， Datong Xu’s American friend-Kunlan could not understand why Datong lied to the judge that it was he who did Gua Sha to Denis. To Americans ， people are born equal and should take their own responsible， even between family members.

Conclusion

Movie can serve as perceptual， vivid， authentic and panoramic materials for the research. The process of exploring and disclosing the covert cultures through movie is at the same time the process to come across the cultural barriers and to cultivate cultural communication competence. Therefore， a series of programs will emerge associating with cross-culture communication. And all these need our best endeavor to explore and disclose.

Reference：

[1]、Edward T. Hall. 《無聲的語言》[M]. 上海：上海人民出版社，1991

[2]、彭辰寧. 從電影《刮痧》看中西方文化的碰撞[J].河海大學學報

[3]、張伯存.《刮痧》的文化研究[J].當代電影，2001(01)

[4]、黃鳴.從電影《刮痧》看中西文化沖突與融合[J].綿陽師范學院學報，2005，24（04）