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After the two movies launched, many scholars have carried on studies of the two movies from different aspects. Some of them compared the two movies from the aspect of cultural values and drew some conclusions about the differences between China and America in cultural values. Their conclusions of the studies enlighten further studies. Although they had given comparison between the two films and had drawn many valuable conclusions, their researches had just explained where and why the two films differ in cultural values. They rarely provide some enlightenment about how to make foreigners understand Chinese cultural values. The paper focuses on the differences of cultural values reflected from the two films and offers some enlightenment to inherit and spread Chinese culture.
The paper can be pided into five parts. Chapter one is introduction, including the background of the study, the former research on the study, the limitation of former studies and the structure of the paper. Chapter two is literature review which introduces some relevant study on cultural values and some information about the two movies, the Chinese film Mulan and the Disney cartoon Mulan. Chapter three focuses on comparing the two movies from the viewpoint of cultural values. Chapter four gives some enlightenment to inherit and carry forward Chinese culture, based on the comparison of the two different versions in cultural values respective. Finally, the last chapter is a conclusion, consisting of the summary of the paper and its strengths and limitations.
2. Literature Review
The chapter focuses on some relevant conceptions of cultural values. And then, it gives a brief introduction about the two movies, the Chinese film Mulan and the Disney cartoon Mulan.
2.1 Cultural Values
Values are the principles, beliefs and standards that the subjects adopt to appraise the meaning of the objects for oneself and society. Different cultural groups may have different values, but there are some values throughout a culture, which are called cultural values, “the governing ideas and guiding principles for thought and action” (Strikandath, 1991:166). Cultural values are values owned by a certain group of people living in a common cultural background. Differences between two culture groups are led by their perse values. Therefore, it is essential for people from two culture groups to realize their different cultural values if they want to have successful intercultural communications.源Y自Z优尔W.论~文'网·www.youerw.com
Study of cultural values is a part of cross-cultural communication. For several decades, the topic has raised heated discussions and researches all over the world. Geert Hofstede puts forward cultural dimensions theories through theoretical reasoning and statistical analyzing, which are inpidualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity/femininity. Power represents status, rights, wealth and respect. Power distance is defined by Hofstede as “the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations with a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally” (Hofstede, 2005:46).Power distance which sets its root in the social inequality can be found everywhere in the society. Actually, power distance is necessary for a society because such “inequality of power in organizations is essential for temporarily overcoming the law of entropy, which states that disorder will increase” (Hofstede, 1984:97). In 1999, Maryanne Kearny Datesman et al put forward traditional American values and beliefs are inpidual freedom, self-reliance, and equality of opportunity, competition, material wealth, and hard work. They pointed out “by freedom, Americans mean the desire and the ability of all inpiduals to control their own destiny without outside interference from the government, a ruling noble class, the church, or any other organized authority” (Datesman, Crandall and Kearny, 1999:23). They also said self-reliance meant Americans should independent from their parent both financially and emotionally. In their book, they corrected one of misunderstandings to equality in American culture. In American culture, equality doesn’t mean everyone is or should be equal. However, it means each one should have equal chance to succeed. Because of it, the awareness of competition is inspired into Americans’ minds from a very young age. The book explained another understanding that Americans are materialistic. Actually, Americans view their material possessions as the natural reward for their hard work. In 2001, American professor Linell Davis published the book Doing Culture: Cross-cultural Communication in Action to compare cultural values and she compared Chinese values and Western values in the book. She pointed out “if China has what some experts call a shame culture, then the West is dominated by guilt cultures” (Davis, 2001:194). According to her, “in shame cultures, the good is an ideal everyone hopes to realize but may not be possible to achieve in every situation. What is important is that you meet your obligation to be a model of virtue for a particular group of people to whom you have such a responsibility” (Davis, 2001:194). However, “in guilt cultures, the person is expected to know the difference between right and wrong and to feel guilty if he or she does or even thinks something wrong, whether or not anyone knows about it ”(Davis, 2001:194). Although some American scholars have studied cultural values, a few of them focus on analyzing the differences between China and America.