Cultural Distinctions of Chinese and American Families—Analysis of the Movies Pushing Hands & Everybody’s Fine (7)

Conclusion

From the comparisons and analysis of the two movies we have made so far, one conclusion may drawn that on the one hand, it is the difference hide deep in structures of Chinese and American cultures that lead to those differences in each family culture; on the other hand, according to all the research on culture, family culture is neither superior nor inferior to one another. Chinese and American family culture should deserve the same respect from people. Certainly, Chinese and American family culture do not exist in isolation. Cultures are dynamic systems that do not exist in a vacuum, and surely they are subject to change. And many components in a culture, such as customs, traditions, and behavior can spread from one generation to another. Indeed, more and more cross-cultural contacts have brought new elements and thus many changes into the development of each culture, which is not just shown in family.

The introduction analyzed closely around the main topic based on cultural aspect as a start of the thesis.

In chapter two, I illustrate family member relationship with plot description depicted in the movies in detail.

Chapter three has a systematically analysis about family cultural distinctions including family structure and value; relationship between family members and education difference which is divided into tree parts: education purpose and aim; education content and education mode.

The last chapter focuses on societal aspects that affect family culture formation and develop. In this part, I mainly discussed the cause of such distinctions which are historical backgrounds, economic patterns, social conditions and traditional cultures. The rest part is recommendations of possible problems in transnational marriage between China and America, for in the movie Pushing Hands, the story set forth such a circumstance and in addition, transnational marriage is more and more popular in recent years, so I put some efforts on such a related research.

In conclusion, with the trend of globalization, we should increase our cross-cultural awareness. After understanding the difference fully, I had a great enhance of cross-cultural awareness and get more clearly concept on how to developing my relationships with people from different cultures.