Abstract

In the coming of new area, due to the inspiration of the reform and opening-up, Chinese women’s images have broken the historical barriers. They find a space in the national economy, politics, culture, and social lives. With more and more Chinese women participating in social main stream culture more deeply, their appearance and words are gradually penetrating into every corner of social lives. However, under distinct backgrounds of culture, history, politics, economy and society, there is discrepancy existing in shaping women’s images.
This paper falls into four parts. Chapter one introduces the definition, contents, and influence of the reform and opening-up. Chapter two makes a contrast between the totally different images between Chinese and American women before 1978. Chapter three analyses the convergence of the two images after 1978. Chapter four discusses the causes of such a convergence.
Hopefully this thesis may be of some assistance to Chinese readers in understanding not only the discrepancy, which is being narrowed down, between Chinese and American women’s images. Hopefully, it will help promoting the intercultural communications between Chinese and Americans.
 
Key words: the reform and opening-up; comparison; images; Chinese and American women

摘  要

随着新时期的到来，伴随着改革开放的激励，中国女性形象在新时期冲破了历史藩篱，女性在国家政治、经济、文化、社会生活中有了一席之地。随着女性对社会主流文化的参与的不断深入，她们的形象和话语逐渐渗透到了社会生活的各个方面，然而在不同的文化、历史、政治、经济以及社会背景中，中美两国在女性形象塑造上也存在着差异。
全文共分为四章。第一章对改革开放的含义、内容及影响进行了阐述。第二章对1978年前中美女性迥异的形象进行了对比。第三章对1978年后中美女性形象趋同这一现象进行了分析。第四章探讨了趋同现象产生的原因。
通过本文的分析与研究，作者希望能够帮助读者认识到中美女性形象存在的差异，准确地掌握中美女性形象差异不断缩小的现状，从而有力地推动中美跨文化交际。
 
关键词：改革开放；对比；形象；中美女性