Three Chinese Virtues I Value
Under the influence of globalization, China is putting herself into the world culture.
Modern China, a fruit of five thousand years of civilization and history, is causing an
incredible phenomenon — China craze in the world, as an ancient country with
mysterious cultures.
However, many foreign friends feel very confused when they are learning Chinese, for
they find that a Chinese word usually has several different meanings, which makes them
get involved in embarrassing situations. The lack of knowledge of Chinese culture
usually explains. I, a native Chinese majoring in English, know how important the
culture background is for a foreign language learner. I will never forget my teacher’s
remarkable statement, “You can never learn a foreign language well without learning its
culture.” As far as the Chinese culture is concerned, we can get access to it through
studying three virtues of Chinese people — modesty, filial piety, and collectivism.
First of all, modesty is considered one of the most important virtues of Chinese people.
However, it is always misunderstood by people from other countries. There is a vivid
story which can illustrate that point exactly. Once a group of Chinese visited the house
of an American, and as they were shown around the house, they commented, “You have
a very nice house. It’s so beautiful.” The hostess smiled with obvious pleasure and
replied in a classic American fashion “Thank you”, which caused surprise among some
of the Chinese guests. Later, while talking at the dinner table, the host remarked to the
Chinese interpreter, a young lady who had just graduated from a Chinese university not
long before, “Your English is excellent, really quite fluent.” Hearing this, she demurred
immediately, “No, no. My English is quite poor” — an answer that the host had not
expected and found a bit puzzling. Was the American hostess’ reply immodest, as it
seemed to some of the Chinese? Was the young Chinese interpreter’s remark insincere,
as it sounded to the American? In both cases the answer is no. To English-speaking
people, praise is to be accepted, generally with a remark like “Thank you.” It is assumed
that the compliment is sincere. Therefore, there should be no show of false humility, no
pretended modesty. To Chinese, however, the customary reply to a compliment would
be a claim that one doesn’t deserve the praise, that what one has done is hardly enough,
or that success is more a matter of luck or something. Acceptance of a compliment
would imply conceit or lack of manners. So, in the two cases above, the reason for such
misunderstanding was the difference in customs and habits. Each was interpreting what
the other said according to his or her own culture.
In the second place, Chinese people have a strong sense of filial piety to their parents,
which reflects Chinese traditional culture: Children should show filial obedience to
parents. In the river of China’s long history, there were a number of good models. A
six-year old child named Xiang Huang was one of them. This story happened on a cold
winter evening. It was time for bed, but Xiang went to his father’s bed instead of his,
which confused his father. “I want to make your bed warmer by my body before you
sleep on it”, the little boy answered. That story is known by almost everybody in China.
From the story we can see that Chinese people have attached great importance to filial
piety since ancient time. Today the obligation of supporting one’s parents has been
made law. The Constitution says: each citizen must take the obligation of supporting his
parents. Furthermore, in the traditional Chinese people’s eyes, filial piety is also an
important ethic standard which is used to measure a person’s morality. A person who is
well-educated does not deserve other people’s respect if he does not show filial piety and
respect to his parents; a person who is so rich that he can own the whole world can not
get respect from others if he does not show filial piety and respect to his parents. In a
word, Chinese people regard the filial piety as important as their lives.
In the third place, collectivism is characterized as one of Chinese people’s personalities,
which is different from that of the Western people. For example, in Chinese movies, you
can see that the criminals are usually caught by a group of police, not by a hero, so the
honor does not belong to an individual but the collective. It implies that in Chinese
people’ mind, a person’s achievement can not be made without his fellows’ assistance.
There is no heroism in China. For instance, the Chinese women volleyball team won the
honor of champions for years successively, which makes the name of the women’s
volleyball team remembered by every Chinese. But we can not say that the honor only
belongs to the coach or any individual, but the whole team. However, the Westerners
hold a different attitude, for they put emphasis on individualism or heroism. Taking
NBA for example, there must be one player who is the soul of the whole team. The
team’s success and failure depend much on him, the mass media focus on him, and the
crazy fans run after him. He is a hero in all people’s eyes. In their mind, the realization
of personal value is more important than any other things. With the development of
globalization, China is trying to connect with the outside world and is seeking diverse
cultures to enrich its own. Therefore, nowadays people from different cultures can
understand each other better.
As one of the four civilized ancient countries, China is still a myth for many foreigners.
But I believe that with the wheels of the history going on, Chinese culture will be known
by more and more foreigners. China, the Eastern Lion, has awakened after a long
sleeping. Today, she is appealing the world’s eyes with her plentiful and mysterious
culture. Chinese culture is a diamond, which is one of the most glittering one in the
world culture treasury-house; Chinese culture is a history book, which has recorded the
development of an ancient country with 5000 years of civilization; Chinese culture is a
kind of power, which will give us strength whenever we meet difficulties.
本站记者 那宏飞