文化背景知识

1.Definition of the 1960s

The 1960s term refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends in the west, particularly United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia and West Germany. Social and political upheaval was not limited to these countries, but included such nations as Japan, Mexico, Yugoslavia and others. The 1960s have become synonymous with all the new, exciting, radical, and subversive (破坏性的) events and trends of the period, which continued to develop in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and beyond.

2.Counterculture of the 1960s n. 反主流文化；反传统文化

In the second half of the decade, young people began to rebel against the conservative norms of the time, as well as disassociate themselves from mainstream liberalism, in particular the high levels of materialism which was so common during the era. This created a “counterculture” that sparked a social revolution throughout much of the western world. It began in the United States as a reaction against the conservatism and social conformity of the 1950s, and the US government’s extensive military intervention in Vietnam.

The youth involved in the popular social aspects of the movement became known as hippies. These groups created a movement toward liberation in society, including the sexual revolution, questioning authority and government, and demanding more freedoms and rights for women, homosexuals, and minorities.

The movement was also marked by drug use and psychedelic (引起幻觉的) music. 3. Anti-war movement

The conflict in Vietnam would eventually lead to a commitment of over half a million American troops, resulted in over 55,000 American deaths and produced a large-scale antiwar movement in the United States. As late as the end of 1965 few Americans protested the American involvement in Vietnam but as the war dragged on and the body count in Vietnam continued to increase so did civil unrest. Students became a powerful and disruptive force and university campuses sparked a national debate over the war, as the movement’s ideals spread beyond college campuses, doubts about the war also began to appear within the administration itself. One kind of protest was called a “sit-in.”

4.The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement, a key element of the larger Counterculture movement, involved the fight for equal rights guaranteed under the US Constitution to all American citizens, rights which many southern states illegally denied the descendents of slaves of African origin following emancipation. Stimulated by this movement, but growing beyond it, were large numbers of student-age youth beginning with the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in 1964. The FSM actually came out of a struggle for the right to collect money on campus for civil rights workers in Mississippi. The university took the position that since some of the civil rights workers were getting arrested, they were engaged in