英语专业论文_中西消费观的差异.doc

An Analysis of the Differences between Sino-American Consumption Concepts from House PurchasingA Thesis Submitted toSchool of Foreign Languages and CulturesNingxia UniversityIn Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsbyShi XuewenSchool of Foreign Language and CulturesNingxia UniversityMay 12, 2011AcknowledgementsI would like to extend my sincere appreciation to all those who have directed me into the field of English language and provided me with so much guidance, support, and encouragement during my writing of this thesis. My heartfelt gratitude goes to my supervisor, prof.Sun changyan, whose illuminating instruction and valuable suggestion have helped greatly to shape this thesis. Thanks are also due to my parents, it is with their support and encouragement that I could persist in my studies that finally lead to this thesis. And thanks to my friends, who give me constructive advices on some points.AbstractWith the increasing development of society and the living standards, house purchasing has become a hot topic in our daily life. The paper compares two kinds of Sino-American consumption concepts from house purchasing, and gets a further understanding of the reasons for that. The thesis shows that geographic elements, society development, technological factor, political and economical factor as well as education and entertainments factors play a very important role in the formation of Sino-American conception concepts.Key words: house purchasing, consumption concepts, differences, reasons 摘 要 随着社会的快速进步和人民生活水平的不断提高，购房已经成为我们的日常生活中的热门话题。这篇论文从购房角度比较了中美两种不同的消费观念，并且近一步探究了形成两种不同消费观念的原因。论文揭示了地理因素，社会发展，科技因素，政治经济因素和教育娱乐因素在中美消费观念的形成中起到了非常重要的作用。关键词：购房， 消费观念，不同，原因ContentsAcknowledgementsiAbstractii摘 要iii1 Introduction12 literature Review13 Sino-American Consumption Concepts from House Purchasing23.1 Sino-American Consumption Concepts23.2 Differences between Sino-American Consumption Concepts44 Reasons for the Differences44.1Geographic Elements .44.2 Society Development 64.3 Technological Factor84.4Political and Economical Factor104.5 Education and Entertainments155 Conclusion19Bibliography2122An Analysis of the Differences between Sino-American Consumption Concepts from House Purchasing1 IntroductionIn recent years, with the influence of western consumption on China, most Chinese people almost agree with the saying that “high incomes, high consumption level and high quality of life”. Nowadays, Chinese people pay much attention to their living condition. They begin to purchase house. Although there are some similarities, there exist differences between Chinese and American in consumption concepts. What differences are there? Why are the consumption concepts different? This paper will particularly seek the reasons in the formation of Sino-American consumption concepts and make a further analysis.2 literature ReviewMarxs capital points out that the ability of social consumption can not gear to social productivity. With the development of society and booming of the economy, human society gets into the dilemma of consumption happiness and consumption pain. Consumption concepts become a hotspot that many scholars study nowadays. In late eighteenth century, Adam Smith came out with an analysis of market trends of production and consumption. It is as if there is an invisible hand that guides the market to a level that is good for society. His theory has remained the cornerstone of all economics. Adam Smiths celebrated dictum that “consumption is the sole and purpose of production”. Schwartzs American lodging policy introduces the lodging policy about American low-income people and it has a great indicative function to lodging consumption. Duan Lianchengs American and Chinese analyzes Americans life habit and the change of Chinese concepts as well as Sino-American cultural fusion and hit. It reveals the differences between American and Chinese. Whats more, it shows the cultural differences of these two countries. Lu Jiarui published the first book, Consumption Education. He said consumption is human eternal theme and it is not part of peoples behavior but basic content of all human being. This book helps people set up correct consumption concepts. In this paper, I emphasize the reasons of the differences between Sino-American Consumption Concepts.3 Sino-American Consumption Concepts from House Purchasing 3.1 Sino-American Consumption Concepts There is a very famous joke which is prevailed in China and simply presents the difference of consumption culture between China and America: An old lady from China met another old American woman in heaven after they died. The old American woman said she had finally repaid the entire housing loan before she died, and by contrast, the old Chinese lady said she had bought a house with the money that she saved for her whole life after she passed away. We can draw a conclusion that the Chinese habits of consumption are to live within ones means to make both ends meet. Compared to Chinese people, American people are more prone to spend money of tomorrow and fulfill dream of today.In America, young people purchase small house. Mid-age people purchase big one and the old sell big house in order to purchase small house. The reason is that young people have less income and family members, they have much income and family numbers, and when people get older, their children grow up and set up other portals and it is not necessary for them to live in big house. From the size of purchasing house, we can see that Americans are very practical. As for American, they hunt jobs from one state to another for the job is unstable. Therefore, it is very usual for them to purchase house for many times or even dozens of time in their life. However, most of people in our country purchase house only once.We spend lots of time and funds to decorate our house. But it was incredible for American. The house they bought has already decorated no matter it is a new house or second-hand house. They think the purpose of purchasing house is to enjoy immediately. From concepts of purchasing house, American treat house as a place for their daily need. So they usually rent house in their life. While most of Chinese treat house as a symbol of career success, the more luxurious the house is, the better it is. So they usually try their best to purchase house rather than to rent. 3.2 Differences between Sino-American Consumption ConceptsChinese are much more frugal and conservative on consumption. Chinese ancient influential schools are almost claims thrifty. For example, Confucius advocated that thrifty is much better than waste. From traditional Chinese culture, we can see Chinese people have the concepts of thrifty on consumption. American dare to premature consumption. In America, consumptive loan is a universal phenomenon. They make loan from the bank to buy houses, cars and other things. In their opinion, they can fulfill their dreams as long as they try their best. Therefore, they make loans from the bank to improve their living standard without any hesitation. As for optimistic American, if they have extra money, they will not choose to deposit, but choose to spend. 4 Reasons for the Differences 4.1Geographic Elements It has vast territory in America. Most territory physiognomy is low and flat, it lies in the temperate zone where there is enough rain. It supplies good resource condition for the development of American agriculture and has no limit to development. It also has abundant water resources, which supply reliable security for the development of American industry and resident usage. The mineral and energetic sources are also very rich, such as iron, copper, lead, zinc, mine, petroleum and natural gas etc. These sources are taking great grade in the world. Variety and rich resources also supply great foundation to the American industry and supply great production for consumption. For China, remote location, and the relatively closed environment are the significant characters of Chinese. Geographic environmental conditions in China are just like this. In the West and the North, there are plateau, mountains and desert, while in the East Central South, there is sea. These are natural barriers. Closed environment inevitably bring closure psychological and cultural anthropology. On the other hand, the psychological and the marine cultural developments do not play the important roles, which also related to the Huang - Huai basin. Huang - Huai basin natural conditions are good for farming, so the people began to get active on and formed a deep attachment to the land. Chinese people are lack of sufficient interest to the sea. Operations at sea are not only difficult but also dangerous, far less security than agriculture. We assume that, in the low standard of living condition, the need of security should be quite strong. Since people have land for farming, why do we seek danger? The farming life also helps farmers to like simple lifestyle and calm rhythm of life, and the sea-based trade or looting life will be disturbed and fast rhythm. Chinas natural conditions: climate, topography, and other aspects are not good for agricultural production conditions, but in general far more favorable than negative factors. On the survival of Chinas own conditions, agriculture is the best choice. Chinese people have a deep sense of the food is the most important thing of peoples life” and relying on the nature”, which derived from the experience of agricultural life. Chinese food culture is a full life-around diet, which is a factor of fundamental aspect of peoples life. This factor is constrained and arranged by the “nature”. Therefore, the farmers had to take into account the instable climate and mutations factors. The surplus grain will be stored up for the rainy day, and the Chinese community has always been a form of self-sufficiency. Therefore, Chinese people from the very young has been instilled such a concept to keep up. 4.2 Society Development We all know that America is an immigration country, where people have adventure spirit. Then we would have to turn to the historical development of the United States. Its origins can be traced back to the 1776. In 1776, the US gained independence from the British rule. After 200 years development, the United States has developed far beyond its previous in the aspects of economic, political and military power. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the United States has become the sole superpower in the world. In the American War of Independence in 1776, American declared independence from the British .In 1789 they formulated the U.S. Constitution; and then the United States has become a Federal Republic, which is the first modern democracy in the world. At the same time, the United States has many overseas territories. Subsequently the two major events in U.S. history were the Civil War (1861 1865) and the Great Depression (1930s).At the neoteric capitalist economy construction, commodity economy, which is full of vigor, excludes the natural economy prematurely. It breaks the self-sufficient pattern. Exploiting the world market and increasingly extending are all impaction on the nation guard and limitation. So we say that America is an emerging industrial country, without traditional agricultural period (while China is a large agricultural country), which definitely has not the minds of the person with the food for days, and therefore they do not have the concept of depositing money. Naturally, they dare to actively advance. They have the kind of courage. China developed for about thousands years. Its self-sufficient producing style forces most Chinese to spend all their life on farming. Once someone lost his ability of self-development, even lost his land, his family cannot survive. During the history of China, the agriculture is leading role. However, the development of agriculture is slow, which make people live within ones means or make both ends meet. Chinas social development was a history of invasion. Peoples life is in aquatic of suffering from 1840 to 1949. The formed society prevented peoples consumption level. After that time, Social development made a certain progress. But it was not obvious. Anyway, the difficult development of our society decides Chinese conservative consumption concepts. Up to now, our social system is improved continuously, but the consumption concepts are entrenched. That is to say, what we should do is to take moderate and reasonable consumption. Most people save their money into the bank as a fixed assets. 4.3 Technological FactorBetween the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th century, the north which represented the capitalist industrial economic system won the American civil war and offered an unprecedented condition to American economic liftoff and laid a solid foundation for USA to become the superpower of the world. With the development of economy, the mind of American people also changed a lot: the puritan ethics which had dominated their ideological realms for many centuries were inclined to be banished. By contrast, to have a big spending spree without any constraint and to flaunt their own wealth has become the new main trend of people. Meanwhile, the US government also encouraged people to purchase or buy goods and to decorate their luxurious houses or to drive their private cars to travel. This is a period of time marked by the transition during which American society gradually changed from productivity society to consumer society. The values of life of mainstream society have changed and the hardworking and thrifty was replaced by the conspicuous consumption. The formation of consumption culture partially attributes to the development of technology of manufacture. The Assembly line which was firstly referred to by Ford Moto Company deserved to be shown because it exerted a significant effect on wage-earner and they were more likely to buy private cars. To earn wage, and to buy a house, then to buy a car became the consumption of life mode of every single worker. The purpose of work is to serve consumption and the new consumption conception gradually was shaped among the wage-earner. There are also lots of other examples which were similar to this such as digital camera, though the quality and resolution ratio of photos it takes werent as competitive as the traditional one; it also gained a large share of markets due to its low price and stimulated many people to pay for it.However, at that time, China was invaded by a number of foreign powers. The technologies are almost not developed before 1949. China was in poverty and backwardness and People had a hard time. After the founded of China, the technology developed insignificant. Transportation they take was bike or walk. They had no the ability to wear gorgeous clothes. The technology products are limited, it is proud of them to wear a watch. They had no ability to enjoy the civilization of technology. After Chinese reform and opening-up, the technology has made a good progress, the electricity products came in into peoples life. E-dictionary and computer was used by rich family and students but it just took a little percent. Now, with the fast development of our countries technology, people begin to consume on scientific research achievements. Although Chinese technology is developed, it has a long history. And productivity society has no the ability to consume conspicuously. 4.4 Political and Economical FactorApart from the substantial development of technology which contributes to decreasing the cost of production and further providing more opportunity for common people to buy luxurious stuff, the political factors cant be ignored and understated. The American politics is democratic politics and the most fundamental trait of democratic politics is the “left-winger” and “right-winger”, and no matter which wing is in office, the purpose of it is to make up to common people. People all need a government which can offer them security and generalized safety, namely social security and welfare and simultaneously bestow right on it. And the right bestowed and responsibility it has to shoulder should be proportional. If the government elected by people wanted to levy more taxes, it would provide more welfare to people correspondingly. If the government were prone to provide low welfare to people, it should allow more freedom to people relevantly. It is obvious that the welfare system can make the poor have a place to live, but it cant make them become the home owner. Some high-welfare states such as Sweden, the only thing they can do is to provide houses to the poor but not the property right of house. And American people attempt to offer the preferential housing mortgage and loans to poor people in order to help them to fulfill the dream of being proprietor. And the American developmental tendency of housing loans is to decrease the proportion of down payment and to prolong the time of installment so as to lower the threshold and supply the chance to poor people to apply for loans. Meanwhile, the US government also imposes a series of protective measures for the poor people who have the potential to delay the time of installment and it rules that if the people whose credit level isnt very high suspended the repayment due to which banks withdraw the foreclosure from the lender, they would be still allowed to live in the house and never be driven away.After 2001, the US Feds low- interest policy and the constantly skyrocketing housing price substantially stimulated American people to have a stronger cons