美国文化的特性与悖论

Characteristics and Paradoxes of American Culture

美国是冷战后唯一超级大国,中美关系是当今世界最重要的双边关系。改革开放以来,伴随中美建交,中国形成了研究美国的热潮。进入21世纪以来,美国的霸权霸道及其对我国和平崛起的无端打压遏制和一系列无理霸道行为,又激起了对美国的愤恨。如何看待美国,如何看待中美关系的变化,成为一个重要而紧迫的议题。2019年,文化部中国艺术研究院美国文化调研组去美国考察,深刻感受到美国人对中国人认知与情感的剧烈变化。这反过来促使我们思考美国人行为变化背后的文化原因。结合考察与相关研究文献,梳理了当代美国文化的一些特点,试图解析美国文化特性对美国人行为的影响。文章认为,美国文化其实是一个万花筒,内在的复杂性远远超出人们的一般印象。作为一个以欧洲移民尤其是盎格鲁撒克逊人移民为主导的美国现代文化,由于人种、民族、宗教、语言等各方面的巨大差异性,美国其实是一个多元文化的国家和世界。但是,不论美国的构成多么复杂,理解美国不得不从美国白人文化特别是在盎格鲁撒克逊人的清教徒文化中寻找源头。这个源头既是美国当代文化的起源,更是其主流和主导。当然,美国文化内部也存在紧张与冲突,加强对美国文化的了解与全面客观的分析与评价,意义重大。

The United States is the only superpower after the Cold War, and the Sino-US relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world today. Since the reform and opening up, with the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, China has formed an upsurge of studying the United States. Since the 21 st century, the hegemony of the United States and its unjust suppression and containment of the peaceful rise of China and a series of irrational bullying behaviors have aroused resentment against the United States. How to view the United States and how to look at the changes in Sino-US relations has become an important and urgent issue. In 2019, the American Cultural Research Team of Institute of Chinese Arts affiliated to Culture Ministry visited the United States to deeply feel the dramatic changes in American cognition and emotion towards Chinese people. This in turn prompted us to think about the cultural causes behind the change in American behavior. Through reading related research literature, the author combed some characteristics of contemporary American culture, trying to analyze the influence of American cultural characteristics on American behavior. The article holds that American culture is actually a kaleidoscope, and the internal complexity is far beyond the general impression. As a modern American culture dominated by European immigrants, especially Anglo-Saxon immigrants, the United States is actually a multicultural country because of the great differences in race, nationality, religion, language and other aspects. However, no matter how complex the composition of the United States is, it is necessary to understand that the United States has to find its source from American white culture, especially in Anglo-Saxon Puritanic culture. As the origin of American contemporary culture, this source is the dominant mainstream. Of course, there are also tensions and conflicts within American culture. It is of great significance to strengthen the understanding and comprehensive and objective analysis and evaluation of American culture.