The Influence on its Family Relationship by Sino-American Cultural Differences through Pushing Hands

Abstract

Since the end of World War Ⅱ, the United States has become the economic giant, and its values and ways of life have permeated the globe. China is the largest developing country of more than 1.3 billion people at present. Due to the process of globalization, the communication goes deeper between people from the two nations.  Sino-American relations have come to be the hot topic in international affairs in the 21st century. Nowadays, a lot Chinese have formed a transnational family with Americans. But in the process of cultural exchange, family conflict is showing up continuously. How to settle it has become an emergency for us to get a mutual understanding with people in America. Additionally, the United States is a country with multiculturalism but led by the “white culture”. For renewing the cultural cognition of Chinese people, how to absorb the essence of American culture and to reserve the excellence of traditional Chinese culture is a matter being greatly concerned about all the time by a lot Chinese American writers.

This thesis employs Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture and Confucianism as theoretical foundation to conclude the Sino-American cultural differences from different acts of leading roles in Pushing Hands. The cultural differences focus on different lifestyles such as diet culture, daily exercises, and emergency medical methods and on different family values. Because of the different culture, family relationship is damaged. So, the next step turns out to be the analysis of the influence on Sino-American family relationship by the cultural conflicts.

Finally, it comes to three suggestions for building a harmonious Sino-American family relationship in hope of providing some reference for Chinese people who are planning to live in America.

Key words: dimensions of culture, Confucianism, Sino-American cultural differences, Sino-American family relationship, harmonization