从文化层面分析中美消费观念的差异

从文化层面分析中美消费观念的差异

摘要

中美社会历史背景、价值观念、道德观念、以及家庭教育背景的差异，引起了两国人们消费观念的不同。论文从文化的角度，主要论述了中美两国人们在存钱、旅游、以及追求新潮时尚等方面消费观念的差异。论文重点研究了文化与消费观念的关系，以及文化对消费观念的影响，使人们进一步认识到不同文化背景蕴含不同的消费观念，并能正确、理性地看待本国文化与本国人们的消费观念，打破对其他国家人们不同消费观念持有的偏见，理解、尊重并借鉴不同文化背景下人们的消费观念。

关键词：中美文化；文化差异；消费观念差异

On the Differences of Chinese and American Consumption Conceptions from the Perspective of Culture

ABSTRACT

Owing to the geography differences, society development differences, cultural value differences, ethic differences, family education differences, Chinese and American nations’ consumption conceptions differ from each other in three aspects: difference in depositing conception, difference in traveling consuming, and difference in catching fashion. This study mainly elaborates on the relationship between culture and consumption, emphasizing the cultures’ influence on consumption conception from the perspective of culture. The aim of this thesis includes three aspects: firstly, making people view their own culture and consumption conception correctly and rationally; secondly, breaking people’s prejudice towards other nation’s consumption conception; finally, making people understand, and respect people’s consumption conception under different cultures.

Key words:Chinese-American culture; culture difference; consumption conception difference

CONTENTS

1 Introduction (1)

2 Chinese and American Culture Differences (3)

2.1 Geography differences (3)

2.2 Society development differences (4)

2.3 Cultural value differences... . (4)

2.4 Ethics differences (5)

2.5 Family education d ifferences (6)

3 Chinese and American Consumption Conception Differences (7)

3.1 Difference in depositing conception (7)

3.2 Difference in traveling consuming (8)

3.3 Difference in catching fashion (8)

4 Influences of Different Cultures on Consumption Conceptions (10)

4.1 Influence of geography on consumption conception (10)

4.2 Influence of society development on consumption conception (11)

4.2 Influence of value on consumption conception (11)

4.3 Influence of traditional family education on consumption conception (13)

Conclusion (15)

References (16)

Introduction

“Culture is the total accumulation of beliefs, values, behaviors, institutions and communication patterns that are shared, learned and passed down through the generations in identifiable group of people.”(Che Lijun, 2008:3) It is a well-known fact that people across nations and countries have different cultures, which influence human life in various aspects. Besides, consumption conception is one of the deepest aspects being influenced. Owing to the different cultures of China and America, their society and history differences, cultural value differences, ethics differences, and family education differences, the consumption concept of Chinese and American is also different in three aspects: depositing conception aspect, traveling consuming aspect, catching fashion aspect.

Until now, many Chinese and foreign scholars, such as Zhu Chen (1996), Chen Qinde(2005) , Miao Qing(2005) , Hao Peiyan(2007) , Yang Guangqiong (2008) have ever done researches on Chinese- American culture differences and Chinese-American consumption conception differences . But each of them approaches it in his own way without keeping abreast of what others are doing on the study of culture and consumption concept. The former studies, which haven't combined culture differences with consumption conception differences, may cause some misunderstanding which can't make people achieve a better understanding of the relationship between culture and consumption conceptions. Based on the researches of the previous experts and scholars, this paper is to make a systematic study on the differences of Chinese-American consumption conceptions from cultural respect. This paper has five parts:

The first part is an introduction. It shows readers the relationship between culture and consumption conception. The second part mainly analyses Chinese-American culture differences from geography, society development, value, ethics and family education aspects. The third part will talk about Chinese-American consumption conception differences from three aspects. The fourth part concerns with different culture's influences on consumption conception. The final part serves as a conclusion. It draws a conclusion