the Differences Between Chinese and Western Cultures

2872 Words12 Pages
The Differences between Chinese and Western Cultures ---from the movie “Gua Sha” ABSTRACT: Every culture has its ways of doing things in daily life, such as ways of eating, drinking, dressing, making friends, marrying and so on. Just like the saying of Confucian, “Human beings draw close to one another by their common nature, but habits and customs keep them apart.” Because of this, there were so many contradictions between people from different countries. The movie “Gua Sha” focuses on the differences and conflicts between American and Chinese culture. There are so many cultural gaps shown in this movie. For instance: ways of child education, value of friendship and concept of familial affection and so on. All of these Chinese traditions torture Da Tong, the leading role of this film, as well as his family during their assimilation into American culture. In this essay, I will analyze some aspects of these cultural constructions that left a deep impression on my mind. Key words: Gua Sha; culture; difference 1 Introduction “Gua Sha” is a movie about the difference between Chinese and American culture. The story happens in a Chinese family who lives in American. It mainly related the hero Xu Da Tong, who is a Chinese, had struggled for 8 years, tried hard to assimilate into American culture, and he as a video games designer in St. Louis had a great success and got his boss's approval and friendship. He and his wife, Jian Ning, son, Dennis, led a happy life in America. He also brought his father from china to live here together. One day, Dennis was stomachache; the grandpa used the Chinese traditional therapy to help him to scrapping, named Gua Sha, which leaves bright red marks on the skin. And then, once Dennis had an accident and went to the hospital, the doctor saw that the scar on his back, he doubts if the children was abused at home, so he

More about the Differences Between Chinese and Western Cultures

Open Document