英语国际商务管理毕业论文.doc

comparison of power distance between chinese culture and american culture a case study of the wedding banquetliang baoyan school of english for international businessenglish (international business of management)abstract: this paper compares the differences of power distance between china and america through studying the case of the wedding banquet. moreover, it describes the phenomena of power distance in reality in terms of paternalism, workplace relations and relations between teachers and students in both countries. in addiction, the different reasons why power distance came into being respectively in china and america are illustrated in the later part of this paper. and finally it provides several solutions to the communication barriers incurred by such difference.key words: power distance, differences, paternalism, workplace relations, relations between teachers and students通过喜宴中对比中美权力差距梁宝妍 国际商务英语学院 英语（国际商务管理）摘 要：本论文通过研究喜宴这部电影，对比了中国与美国不同的权力距离。接着，本论文描述了中美两国现实生活中的权力距离现象，这些权力距离现象在父母与孩子的关系，职场关系以及师生关系上都大有不同。再者，本论文分别论述了造成中国与美国权力距离差异的多种原因。最后本论文为由于这些原因而引起的交流障碍提供了解决方案。关键词：权力距离；差异；父权主义；职场关系；师生关系contentsabstract:1摘要：11. introduction32. literature review33. methodology44. theoretical framework54.1 general introduction to hofstedes research54.2 description of the power distance theory55. main body65.1 the main content of the wedding banquet65.2 detailed description of the power distance in this film65.2.1 detailed information showing high power distance65.2.2 detailed information showing low power distance85.2.3 conclusion:95.3. phenomena analysis and solutions to the differences95.3.1 phenomena of high power distance in china105.3.2 phenomena of low power distance in america145.3.3 summary165.4 reasons of different power distance in the two cultures175.4.1 agricultural civilization and business civilization175.4.2 official civilization and citizen civilization175.4.3 confucian ethics and protestant ethics185.5 discussion of relevant solutions to the different power distance in both countries195.5.1 personal viewpoints on power distance195.5.2 solutions206. conclusion21reference221. introductionin order to investigate how work-related values differ across cultures, the famous dutch interculturalist geert hofstede did a research. power distance is one of the four cultural dimensions on which cultures differ. twenty years later, the world is changing dramatically. with the rapid development of globalization, all nations around the world have to communicate and cooperate with foreign countries, which requires them to know each other well. however, different countries have different customs and different cultural values. therefore, they have to pay much attention to the differences. this paper compares the differences of power distance between china and america in terms of paternalism and workplace relations through the wedding banquet and shows the status-quo of chinese and american power distance by presenting the research result. in addiction, this paper provides the solutions to these communication barriers incurred by such difference. 2. literature reviewafter geert hofstedes research on power distance, many scholars tried to apply his theory to research into different cultural problems. these researches fell into different directions, including the comparison between power distance of china and america. in 2008, yu jie and zhang liping did a research to analyze the reasons why power distance came into being in china and america. their thesis was very detailed, however, it just justify one main reason, neglecting others. they found out that confucian ethics and protestant ethics were the key factors influencing the formation of different power distance in china and america. then, wang xianyun continued this topic in 2010 to further discover various reasons. the analysis of this research was from 4 dimensions, much more complete than yu and zhangs. both of these two dissertations analyzed the reasons why different power distance came into being in china and america, but these researches are theoretical rather than delivering some examples to us to have a better understanding of power distance. so later in 2010, fang jing did a research on the cultural differences between the east and the west in terms of power distance. inside this dissertation, hofstedes theory was applied to analyze the cause of power distance and it also presents some influences that power distance have on daily life, including the aspects of relations between parents and children, of relations between managers and employees and of relations between teachers and students. compared with the study showed before, this one is much more convincing to show us that power differences does exist between china and america with the help of the description of those influences. but the general description of influences left by different power distances between two countries is not vivid enough to give the readers a better understanding of power distance. after studying the relevant documents, i think the materials issued by them should be combined together to give a complete idea to the readers. so in this paper, i will try to prove hofstedes theory by studying the case of the wedding banquet and analyze the phenomena of different power distance between china and america to see whether there are some changes. on the basis of the researches showed above, exploration of the reasons will be covered in the later part. moreover, vivid examples showing different power distance in our daily life will also be presented. while the most important part is the problems of cross-cultural communication barriers caused by different power distance and the relevant solutions. 3. methodology in order to get abundant resources to demonstrate the different power distances in china and america, i have done a survey sending questionnaires through the internet to some chinese people and americans. after collecting related data and large numbers of daily life examples about the power distance in these two countries, analysis about the available data was carried out. in addition, some materials about the power distance in both countries were also quoted from books or the internet. 4. theoretical framework4.1 general introduction to hofstedes researchgeert hofstede is a famous dutch interculturalist. in early 1980s, in order to investigate how work-related values differ across cultures, he did a research which involved 116,000 respondents to answer the questions through interviews and questionnaires. and the participants in the study were all managers from ibm. the research subjects came from over 40 countries and regions. with such a huge data base, after several researches, hofstede finally came up with four cultural dimensions on which cultures differ: individualism v.s. collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity v.s. femininity.4.2 description of the power distance theorypower distance is one of the four dimensions on which cultures differ. this cultural dimension describes how individuals within a society view power and, consequently, their role in decision making (charles mitchell, 2001, 16). it indicates the extent to which a society accepts the fact that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally among individuals （hofstede, 1991）. hofstede thought that power distance is concerned about the equal problem among individuals. in all levels in society, such as family, school, and company, power distance does exist. and its together with graded system. because of many factors, there are power distance differences between two countries and the difference is reflected by power distance index. in high power distance society with large power distance index, people tend to accept the graded system and always show their respect for the people on a higher position who enjoy more privilege and seem to be a god-like figure. people in such a society, like chinese, stress the individual position differences and they are willing to accept such kind of unbalanced power delegation; while people in low power distance society, like americans, strike for equality. individualism takes up a great part of their social values. they work together to minimize power and status differences. people who live in low power-distance cultures are freer to display emotions to individuals with different social status, because status differences are small (richard l. wiseman& pan, 2009, 308). 5. main body5.1 the main content of the wedding banquetthe wedding banquet is one of the trilogy of lian directed in 1993. the wedding banquet is a film about family ethics, which shows the cultural differences between the east and the west by presenting the different values between the father and the son and reflecting the conflicts of the values on life (zhang, 2009). this story happened between a chinese man called gao weitong who lived in new york and an american called simon. both of them were gays and they lived together as couples, but weitong dared not to tell his parents the truth because his parents are traditional chinese, and they wouldnt accept the love between gays. especially for his father, the father in the film is mighty. as soon as he appears on the stage, the audience can feel the stress (meng, 2009). his parents continued to persuade him to get married. weitong respected his parents so much that he had no choice but pretended to marry a chinese woman named gu weiwei. after the wedding banquet, weitong and weiwei had relationship with each other and later weiwei was pregnant. simon quarreled with weitong and asked him to tell the truth to his parents. unluckily, weitongs father suffered a stroke at that time and was sent to hospital. weitong told everything to his mother but kept it a secret to his father. although none of them told the truth to weitongs father, finally he had a talk with simon accepting everything and told simon that he had known the truth while they were quarreling. in the end, the story finished with a happy ending that weiwei decided to give birth to their child and simon was willing to be another father of this up-coming baby.5.2 detailed description of the power distance in this film 5.2.1 detailed information showing high power distance 1) weitongs mother sent a record to him, which said that since weitongs father retired from the army, he has become very strange. in the past, his father was a division commander in the army in charge of over ten thousand soldiers. but nowadays, he stays at home only with his mother and a housekeeper who used to be his subordinate in the army, so he is very sensitive. his father has been used to the special privilege, power and prestige because of the position in the army, thats why he wants to keep being that kind of figure.2) weitong promised to have a travel with simon, however, he canceled this plan because he had to go back to his company having meetings with the superiors. not only weitong, but other employees with lower status give up something precious so as to strive for fame and gain that will be admired by others in society with high power distance. their behaviors in workplace are the results of the high power distances effects.3)weitongs parents asked him to join the most high-class club for choosing a spouse, so they sent him the application form. weitong felt scared but he couldnt tell his parents the truth. he has been used to obeying parents order, which is the deep effect of the paternalism in china.4)maomei, who went to america to date with weitong introduced by the club for choosing a spouse, told weitong that she also has a boyfriend. under the forces of her parents, she has no choice but accept her parents requirements and date with him. this also shows the big power of the paternalism at that time. 5)weitongs mother would send him lots of underwear made of nylon. he didnt like those clothes, but he still cherished those things very much and treated them as babies. moreover, before weitongs parents went to america, he changed the decorations on the wall in his house into most of his fathers calligraphy. whats more, weitong would do brisk walking with his father every morning even though he didnt really want to. all above can present the fact that under the influence of paternalism, children have got used to being respectful for their parents and to following their parents. 6)when weitongs father arrived in his home, he saw the calligraphy on the wall. actually, he didnt remember the calligraphy was his own, but after knowing the truth, he praised himself for writing good words without any mistakes. any scene was that weitongs parents disagreed that they just had a civil marriage without holding a wedding feast. they have accepted thirty thousand dollars from friends and relatives as wedding gift. if they didnt treat others to a wedding feast, they couldnt keep their faces. these two settings show the reflection of face-negotiation theory, which is related to power distance. according to the theory, members in high power distance culture prefer to pay lots of attention to their own faces, especially those with higher status. they will also take different actions on the basis of the communicating targets status (yan, 2009, 70). more theoretically, power distance is a cultural factor influencing face dynamics. in hierarchical cultures, people usually claim and are accorded more face than those with low status. therefore, social actors gain more respect and dignity as they move upward in the local social hierarchy ( yuan & michael h.b., 2011)7)simon invited weitongs whole family to have dinner in china palace whose boss laochen was also the subordinate of weitongs father. now, he still showed complete respect for weitongs father. he insisted on treating them and added another two dishes because of his respect for weitongs father, his former superior. when laochen greeted with weitongs family, he was cautious about the order of greeting. he greeted his former superior first, then weis mother, weitong, weiwei and simon one by one. in more specific terms, laochen even took a bow to weitongs father to show his respect and loyalty. due to the power distance, laochen called weitong young mater although he was much older than weitong. another setting in the china palace reflected high power distance. weitongs parents invited laochen to sit down together with them, but laochen refused, saying that since both of weitongs parents were sitting there, he dared not to do that. living in a society filled with high power distance, people with lower status tend to form a habit of accepting the inequality gradually and show their esteem for their superiors all the time.5.2.2 detailed information showing low power distance 1) simon went out of his house to throw the rubbish. one of his friends, also a gay, rode a bike towards him and kissed him for greeting. the people around were looking at them, while his friends didnt care at all. its true that people in a culture with low power distance focus more on themselves. they think everyone in society is equal and they should share equal rights the same as other people, so they can do whatever they like in spite of others disfavor. 2) simon has told his father that he was a gay, and his father understood him quite well. in a culture with low power distance, parents tend to treat their children as friends, listen to their own opinions and respect their own decisions. 3) when weitongs parents went to america, simon gave presents go them in order to express his warmest welcome. however, he gave a hemadynamometer to weitongs father and said that hypertension was not good for hearts and he could know whether he was in bad health anytime with the gift. moreover, he gave a bottle of facial cream to weitongs mother and said that he hoped his mother would not become old forever. as soon as they heard the words of “bad health” and “old”, their faces got pale at once. simon didnt know people in china cared so much about their faces. people in low power distance country will manifest their feeling directly and wont hide their shortages because they believe conforming to nature is the best way to livel5.2.3 conclusion: after comparing so much detailed information in the wedding banquet, a conclusion came into being: china is with high power distance; while america is with relatively low power distance. power distance covers a large scale, including paternalism, workplace relations, relationship between teachers and student at school and so on, while this movie has showed paternalism obviously in different settings. because of the different power distance between china and america, some misunderstandings took place between them during the intercultural communications. this is the conclusion attained from the movie and it conforms to the result presented by geert hofstede, but with the development of the whole world, whether its still in accordance with the reality still needs to be further proved. 5.3. phenomena analysis and solutions to the differences (these materials are attained through survey in chinese and collected through internet)in order to prove the fact that china is with high power distance while america is with relatively low power distance, a research was conducted by collecting questionnaires and doing interviews through network internet. the questionnaires were sent to some chinese, with the aim of getting the information of power distance from their perspectives. at the same time, some information about the current situation of the american power distance was collected from the internet search. the followings are data collated from the questionnaire