On the Differences between Chinese and Western Culture

張長江

【Abstract】With the increasing cross-culture communication， more and more linguists come to realize that the cultural gap is a large obstacle in cultural transition and social intercourse.This paper discusses the differences between Chinese and Western culture from King Yu combating the flood to Noah's Ark to help Chinese communicate with westerners and develop Cross-Cultural Communication smoothly.

【Key words】Chinese and western culture； combating the flood of King Yu； Noah's Ark

As we all know，China has a long history with brilliant culture and the west also has ancient civilization.The ancient civilization of human beings begins with the fighting against the flood.Not only Chinese King Yu combating the flood but also Western legend story of Noah's Ark both explained that in the primitive era people began to fight against the flood.The two stories contain the differences between Chinese and Western culture，show the colorful culture of the world and accumulate their own civilizations.

I.The two stories show the different view of the world between Chinese and Western culture

Noah led people out of the disaster to with he help of ship and God.King Yu looked the flood as a natural phenomenon and took responsibility for lading the people out of the flood in a easy way.Noah not only left seeds to mankind but also provided precedent to human beings to confess their sins.What King Yu left the human thinking is the thought of harmony with nature and the struggle for human beings.The two stories fundamentally embodied the difference of outlook to the world.In China，we considered the origin and development of the universe as a healthy dynamic endless natural process.Man is an organic part of the universe and people must adapt to the flow of the universe.It was the view of the universe that made King Yu cast a great era of controlling water and created a kind of ancient oriental civilization.While in the west，they tried to find a constant absolute being to the universe and the absolute existence provided the basic nature for all things.It was God who saved Noah，and thus created the Western civilization.

II.The two stories show the differences in the core characteristic of culture

As we all know，in the west God destroyed life of human being when man made the sin.To achieve new leaps and mutation，they often broke the original balance which was an obvious character in western culture.It showed the agitation and random on philosophy，the chivalry on literature，making public sports spirit and masculinity on the art.So God didn't have to do the overall thinking，but could make human reproduce again wtihout doing other things.The pilosophers could continue to cast his theory only around one point to form their own theory，trend to emerge，and recreate the typical characteristic of western culture.On tne contary old Chinese tried to find ways to control the disaster of blood and used all kinds of original knowledge and skills to control the water conservancy sucessfuly at that time.This condensed that integrated was the thinking characteristics in typical oriental culture and accumulated that steady and quite was the core Oriental culture.Thus a whole concept of Chinese philosophy is antiquity.Feminine beauty becomes the advocating of Chinese aesthetics.

III.The two stories show the differences of Chinese and western ethics

The surface differences in the two stories show that the western evacuated people，but what Chinese did was to channel water when facing the blood.Depply the western culture pays attention to natural rights，emphasize individual standard，make public of subjectivity.Oriental culture emphasizes the Confucian，the collective standard and ethical responsibility.Although we can't see the struggle trace of Noah for human，we can see the carefully plan of buliding the ark.We can feel that he seized the opportunity to build the body of the ship.We realize the thinking that he made use of external conditions to cope with the crisis.From the democratic thoughts of ancient Greek culture to the development of the Renaissance， the pursuit of independent personality，personality liberation，emphasize individualism is the western ethics in the long history.The spirit of water conservancy of Da Yu hands from generation to generation and formes a Chinese excellent traditional national culture that are gentleman，comity，heavy social responsibility.

There are lots of reasons to form the differences between the two cultures and the differences are also wonderful.They offer us the beauty of the landscape of Chinese and western culture.They let us to find the source of the culture differences between east and west.They inspire us to think character and essence of Chinese and western culture.We can learn each other，take the good and abandon the bad to generate a colorful picture of human civilization.

With the increasing cross-culture communication，we must know the different and unique social cultures.So when we communicate with westerners，we communicate not just the language but the culture.Therefore studying the the differences between Chinese and Western culture is very important to develop Cross-Cultural Communication smoothly.