摘要

全球一体化促使跨文化交流越加频繁。《刮痧》这部电影表现了中美文化差异，可以作为研究文化冲突的例子。刮痧是中国传统疗法，在电影里却成为虐待孩子的证据。本文以这部电影为依据，分析了电影所反映的中美文化差异以及原因。中美两国在地理环境、宗教信仰、历史等方面都有所差异，因此中国人和美国人有着不同的生活习惯和价值观。本文也提供一些建议以避免文化冲突。我们应当尊重每一种文化，实现和谐友好的国际交流和合作。

关键词：刮痧，跨文化交际，文化冲突，文化融合  

Abstract

Because of global integration, intercultural communication becomes common and frequent. The movie Guasha shows the cultural differences between China and America and can be a good example to study cultural conflicts. As one of the Chinese traditional therapies, Guasha has been regarded as the evidence of child abuse in this movie. The thesis is a study on cultural differences based on the movie. The first part gives a brief introduction of the movie and the therapy Guasha. Then, it analyzes some aspects of cultural differences reflected in the movie as well as causes.  Since China and America have many differences in living environment, religion and history, people in the two countries have different lifestyles, values and habits. The thesis also offers some suggestions on how to avoid cultural miscommunication and conflicts. In order to have a harmonious international communication, we should learn to tolerate and respect each culture.

Key words: Guasha, intercultural communication, cultural conflicts, cultural fusion     

1. Introduction 
Culture is a complex concept. It contains the characteristics of a particular group of people, including language, social habits, custom, music and so on. In modern society, because of the fast technological development and economic integration, communications and cooperation among countries become common and frequent. Intercultural communication is communication between people from different cultural backgrounds and occurs “whenever a person from one culture sends a message to be processed by a person from a different culture”. (Samovar & Porter 2011: 8) The study on the differences between western and eastern cultures is very essential to promote the mutual improvement and cooperation. It is beneficial not only to the communication among countries, but also to avoid misunderstanding and conflicts. The Chinese-made movie Guasha is a story of Chinese immigrant family in the United States, which shows the cultural differences between China and America in many aspects. This movie impresses me a lot when I finish it. There have been many papers on the cultural differences reflected in this movie by Chinese scholars in CNKI.