摘要:本文運(yùn)用跨文化交際的適應(yīng)理論對(duì)電影《推手》中主人公所經(jīng)歷的文化震蕩和跨文化適應(yīng)過(guò)程進(jìn)行了分析和解讀。通過(guò)對(duì)電影中典型場(chǎng)景的分析,指出電影不僅深刻描寫(xiě)了跨文化適應(yīng)過(guò)程中人們要經(jīng)歷的情感痛苦和迷茫,而且客觀呈現(xiàn)了人們?cè)诳缥幕m應(yīng)過(guò)程中從深感疏離到渴望融合的心理過(guò)程,能為即將體驗(yàn)跨文化適應(yīng)過(guò)程的人們提供情感和心理準(zhǔn)備。
關(guān)鍵詞:跨文化交際;文化休克;文化適應(yīng);交際技巧
作者簡(jiǎn)介:劉玉菡(1989-),女,漢族,河南商丘人,為鄭州大學(xué)外語(yǔ)學(xué)院在讀研究生,主攻英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言文學(xué)專(zhuān)業(yè)英美文學(xué)方向。
[中圖分類(lèi)號(hào)]:I235.1[文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)識(shí)碼]:A
[文章編號(hào)]:1002-2139(2012)-11-0239-01
Directed by Ang Lee, the movie Pushing Hands tells a story goes around a family immigrated from China to America. The drama conflict was launched from describing the unharmonious between the Chinese father-in-law and a American daughter-in-law. From the movie, we could see the contradiction between traditional Chinese and modern American conditions and customs, and the confutation and frustration people feel in the adaptation process.
In the movie, the director mainly uses some macro level signs to compare those two cultures, for instance, Chinese Taichi versus American jogging; Chinese penmanship versus American computer typing; Chinese food culture which stresses on the balance of Yin and Yang versus American snack culture which values much on saving time and efforts, to list just a few aspects. There is a big distinguish between China and America due to the different cultural background. In America, adults prefer to live away from their parents, especially after they get married, and the elder citizens want to live alone likewise. However, this kind of lifestyle can not be accepted by Chinese, let alone the aged. To an American, according to the law, immediate relatives include his children, but not his parents, though he himself as the immediate relative of his parents. And this also seems unreasonable and unacceptable to we Chinese.
On the viewpoint of family, Mr. Zhu succeeded the traditional conception of forming a big family. In Chinese culture, the role of father occupies an important place in a family. Patriarchal first is a main principle in Chinese traditional life and philosophy. While as the cross-sectional of American mainstream culture, Marsha holds that everyone gets along with others equally and there is no need to have an authority at all. Taking care of aged parents is often viewed as a tremendous burden in America, which is not honored highly (Xu Lisheng, 2004: 94). Americans don’t feel obliged to raise their parents while most American parents are not willing to be a burden of their children, either (Hu Wenzhong, 2005: 180).
The cultural conflict between Mr. Zhu and his American daughter-in-law was incarnated from two aspects: the macroscopic conflict between American mainstream culture and Chinese traditional culture, and the inner conflict of the cross-national family. As for the reasons, firstly, both of them can not understand the language of each other, so it is impossible for them to communicate adequately. Secondly, both of them have a deep discrimination and misunderstanding on the culture that represented by the other. For example, Marsha considers that Taichi as one kind of ‘violence’, and Mr. Zhu can not understand Marsha’s eating habits. Thirdly, both of them are lack of some conceptions and skills of cross cultural communication, and they don’t know how to get along well with people from an alien culture.
By the reasons of different cultural environment as well as lacking of skills for cross cultural communication, culture shock occurs in the bi-national family and both of them suffered a lot in the cultural adaptation. This paper studied scenes of the movie, and expounded how the movie presents the confusion and agony the new immigrates would suffer, and probes into the psychological procession of trying to get away from the alienation and formulating the eagerness for reception by the new environment in cultural adaptation.
Reference:
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[2]、許力生. 跨文化交際英語(yǔ)教程[M] . 上海:上海外語(yǔ)教育出版社,2004.
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