英美概况论文

Eagle and Dragon, Different Spirits

As we all know, there are lots of differences between China and America. From history and regime to language and life style, we almost cannot find more than five common points in such a respect. Why does it happen? Answers to this question may involve many aspects. But in my opinion, the key word is “spirit”, which is also known as “culture”.

Culture is a “big” word which includes so many things. So that it seems that it is difficult to explain the spirits of two countries. However, we can find out two most important words from the “word’s ocean”. The first word is history. China can trace their traditions and customs for thousands of years. And America is still a small baby of a nation that has had very few traditions of its own. Because of those, people always describe China as a conventional country, and refer to America as an innovative country. The second word which I would consider as the more important word is “people”, it’s us. China is a special nation which consists of 56 nationalities, 55 minor-nationalities and a major nationality called “Han”. Nevertheless, most of the 55 minor-nationalities have been influenced by the Han nationality in about 4,000 years. On the contrary, America is a nation of immigrants. English, German, Spanish, and even Chinese went to the big country in the past 200 years. They have different history and background. So that there is almost no specific American culture that can be said is applied across the board. But the country has become such a melting pot of cultures.

In my opinion, these two reasons cause culture different between the two countries. For example, because of the long history and lots of society traditions in China, we can see some limits in our daily life which are different from western countries. Therefore its social structure is formal and hierarchical. You know where you fit in the structure and you abide by the rules there. But when we look at the America, it is not

uncommon to see those of various social levels socializing and knowing each other. There are very few lines that socially are not allowed to be crosses. As far as I can see, the appearance of this phenomenon is on account to the population structure of the America. Due to the diverse immigrants from various places, the country can absorb anything and everything. It has become more comprehensive.

These differences do not make either culture better or worse than the other one. It just shows their differences which has been created through centuries of history and development, and also the people in the two countries. In my eyes, although there are plenty of differences between the dragon and the eagle, both of them will get glorious future.