Cultural Dislocation and Humanity Lost:A Post-Colonial Analysis of Alice Walker’s“Everyday Use”

Alice Walker is a famous African-American female author whose short story“Everyday Use”takes the conflict between a mother and her two daughters over the final ownership of“a quilt”as the main line and creates three black women characters with bright personality.This paper will focus on the living conditions and spiritual world of black women,and reflects the anxiety of black women on ethnic cultural heritage within the white world and reveals the suppression of the strong culture to the weak culture,and the self-preservation of the weak culture from the perspective of post-colonialism.

Peace Theories & Quest for Peace: A Cross-cultural Perspective

Out of the plethora of peace theories,two stand out in particular:(a)the Kantian democratic theory of peace,which argues that peace depends on a league of democracies,and(b)the liberal economic theory of peace,that a free,open world market conduces to peace.In this essay,concrete examples are cited that would raise doubt on the validity of these theories.It then proceeds to examine whether culture would make a difference on the incidence of war.In this light,the Westphalian system of states is compared with the historical Chinese“tribute system”qua an inherent system of international relations.One distinct difference is found in the much lower incidence of wars in the latter system,as David Kang’s study identified that in 5 centuries(1368-1841)the Chinese tribute system had only two interstate wars within its circle of members,not counting the wars initiated by external,ex-regional Western powers.And,the religious wars that plagued the West were never found in the Chinese tribute system.In search of an answer to this almost incredible record of low incidence of war,this essay finds that the Confucian culture,with its emphasis on harmony and harmonization of opposites,in contradistinction to the teachings on conflict in Abrahamic cultures,seems to hold the key to an answer.If so,culture,rather than institutions(such as democracies,open world market,etc.)deserves to be seriously considered as a relevant factor contributing to peace.Most importantly,culture as such can be taught and disseminated,including through the classroom.

Between the City and Images:An Analysis of Mainstream Media’s Paths of Constructing the Cultural Memory of a City:Taking Chengdu Radio and Television’s“Hi Chengdu”as an Example

Mainstream media play a crucial role in constructing the cultural memory of a city.This study used 319 short videos released by“Hi Chengdu,”a new media product of Chengdu Radio and Television,as samples.Based on the grounded theory,a research framework encompassing“content,technology,and discourse”was established to explore the paths through which mainstream media construct the cultural memory.Regarding content,this paper emphasized temporal and spatial contexts and urban spaces,delving deep into the themes of the cultural memory and vehicles for it.In terms of technology,this paper discussed the practice of leveraging audio/visual-mode discourse to stitch together the impressions of a city and evoke emotional resonance to create a“flow”of memory.As for discourse,this paper looked at the performance of a communication ritual to frame concepts and shape urban identity.It is essential to break free from conventional thinking and leverage local culture as the primary driving force to further boost a city’s productivity,in order to excel in cultural communication.

An Analysis on Cultural Values of Companies from China and the United States——Based on Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Theory

Nowadays, commercial competition is becoming fiercer and fiercer, and with the globalization proceeding, when a company tries to expand, promote and develop, it needs to adapt itself to the open business society while not losing its own culture. Since English has been widely used in the world, an effective and suitable English website is essential for a company to use as a kind of advertisement and publicity, where its cultural values are presented.With companies' websites as subjects and Hofstede's cultural dimension theory as the theoretical basis, this study, through text content and data analysis of company profiles,strategies and cultures, tries to find out the tendency of Chinese and American companies on the five cultural value dimensions,which is power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity and long-term orientation. Accordingly, constructive suggestions are put forward to help appease and avoid misunderstandings, and promote business communication and collaboration.

An Analysis of China's Four Traditional Festivals from the Perspective of the Theory of Cultural Functions

This paper analyzes the cultural elements of China's four traditional festivals from the perspective of the Theory of Cultural Functions, which presents in detail the forming of traditional festivals, varied festival traditions and good expectations held by people toward lives. This paper is also designed with the aim to further exert the functions of traditional Chinese festivals, which as a result, will contribute to the preservation of national characters and the inheritance of national spirits.

Pragmatics Study of Politeness and Cultural Difference

This paper aims at study the politeness in the pragmatic framework and reviews the main studies of politeness by western and Chinese scholars.Meanwhile,the writer tries to reveal the cultural difference existing in politeness by comparative study of western and Chinese language.

The Application of Cultural Schema Theory in College English Teaching

Schema theory is a very important theory in L2 acquisition and plays a very crucial role in English teaching.Today,many college students feel confused in college English learning.One of the main reasons is that they lack cultural background knowledge.This article gives a brief introduction of cultural schema theory and it mainly studies how to apply cultural schema theory into college English teaching to improve college students' English skills and levels.

A Post-colonial Approach to The Last of the Mohicans

The Last of the Mohicans is one of the five frontier novels written by famous American novelist James Fenimore Cooper in the early 19thcentury.Although it has been criticized for its narrative flaws,its length and formal prose style,it was one of the most popular in its time and is of a high literary value nowadays.With the coming of the white European colonialists,the Indians underwent various changes.Some Indians submitted themselves to the white while some Indians rebelled against the invaders and sought their revenge.With a post-colonial approach,the changes of the Indians will be better understood,and people nowadays will also have a better understanding of the Indian history and culture in early American history.

Culturally-loaded Chinese Discourse of Gu-qin and Its Inspiration to Translation——Based on a Maxim from a Chinese Classics The Roots of Wisdom

Inspired by one of the maxims in a Chinese classics entitled The Roots of Wisdom,the present paper borrows the typical culturally-loaded Chinese discourses of Gu-qin — "stringed lute" and "non-stringed lute"—to add to the literary translation terminology and to enrich some Chinese literary translation theories.On the basis of analyzing some related theories in linguistics,pragmatics,aesthetics and communication which show different perspectives relevant with the study of translation,the present paper offers a new angle to illustrate how the Chinese discourses of Gu-qin,rich in cultural implications,can best describe translation and bring new vigor and vitality into the diversity and further expansion of the field of translation research.

Study of Cultural Negative Transfer in Cross-cultural Communication

Different nations in the world have their own cultures, and these cultures are characterized by both universality and particularity. The former provides a foundation and guarantee for intercultural communication, while the latter often leads to negative cultural transfer in communication if the speakers are unconscious of cultural differences. This paper makes a general analysis of the negative transfer of surface-structure culture in language forms and that of deep-structure culture in values, thought patterns, religious beliefs and ethics. It holds that failure in intercultural communication will occur if inadequate attention is paid to cultural differences in the process of language and culture learning.

Translation on Hats in Chinese Garments from the Perspective of Susan Bassnett's Cultural Translation Theory

With the trend of political and economic globalization, the relationship between culture and language is increasingly close. In the field of translation both at home and abroad, some scholars are trying to replace traditional translation theory with cultural translation theory. Susan Bassnett, an outstanding representative of Cultural Translation School, puts forward the Cultural Translation Theory, which accords with the standards of modern translation and the development of cultural diversity. China enjoys an extensive and profound costume culture, and hat is an important part of it. Its accurate translation is of great significance to the spread of Chinese traditional culture. Based on Bassnett's Cultural Translation Theory, the translation on hats in different literary works will be analyzed to further clarify the significance of cultural equivalency in translation.

Reflection of Different Cultural Schemata in Advertisement

Schema,as a kind of background knowledge through experience,plays an important role in communication.This paper explores schema theory,analyzes the reason why schema differs in different culture,and then by comparison deals with the intercultural differences in schema reflected in a text of a certain genre,advertisement.

Developing Intercultural Competence in a Third Space

From the perspective of the Third Space Theory(TST),this study explores eighteen international students’experiences and perceptions of their intercultural interactions on a university campus in Shanghai,the People’s Repulic of China(PRC).The study employs an open-ended questionnaire and two focus group interviews to collect qualitative data.The research findings reveal that participants make creative use of their third space to different degrees and in certain forms.Furthermore,the research findings identify several factors influencing their intercultural growth,including the lack of meaningful learning in intercultural interaction and students’discrepant motives.The conclusion supports the claim that to better improve international students’intercultural competence,it is of great importance for both students and faculty members to co-develop intercultural awareness and skills.

Sociodemographic characteristics, cultural biases, and environmental attitudes: An empirical application of grid-group cultural theory in Northwestern China

Natural resource-management studies have become increasingly attentive to the influences of human factors. Among these,cultural biases shape people’s responses to changes in natural resource systems. Several studies have applied grid-group cultural theory to assess the effects of multiple value biases among stakeholders on natural resource management. We developed and administered a questionnaire in the Heihe River Basin(n = 364) in northwestern China to investigate the appropriateness of applying this theory in the Chinese context of natural resource management. The results revealed various cultural biases among the respondents. In descending order of prevalence, these biases were hierarchism(46.98%), individualism(26.65%), egalitarianism(18.96%), and fatalism(2.78%), with the remaining respondents(4.67%) evidencing no obvious bias. Our empirical study revealed respondents’ worldviews and the influence of sociodemographic characteristics on cultural biases, as theoretically posited. Among the variables examined, age had a positive and significant effect across all biases except individualism. The correlation of income to all cultural biases was consistently negative. Only education had a negative and significant effect across all biases. Women were found to adhere to egalitarianism, whereas men adhered to individualism and hierarchism. Thus, grid-group cultural theory was found to be appropriate in the Chinese context, with gender, age, education, and income evidently accounting for cultural biases. Relationships between environmental attitudes and cultural biases conformed with the hypothesis advanced by grid-group cultural theory. This finding may be of value in explaining individuals’ environmental attitudes and facilitating the development and implementation of natural resource-management policies.

A Pilot Study on Chinese Students’Intercultural Adaption in the UK

This paper conducted a pilot study by interviewing five Chinese students who study at a British university to see how they have adapted to British culture.This paper mainly found that the'curve'theory couldn't fully reflect students'intercultural adaptation,students'failure in becoming intercultural and the language pressure they suffer.At the end of the study,some possible measurements limitations are discussed.

The Actualization of Post-colonialism in Movies

The post-colonialism is a theory proposed by the eastern colonial academist Edward W. Said. With the understanding and the definition of post-colonialism, the paper is to analyze phenomena of the movie 2012 and Avatar from several aspects. Firstly, the ＂other＂ is the first angle to be talked about. In the Westerners＇ perspective, they are the center of the world, and they dominate the world. Their rules are the accepted rules, and people of different origin or different cultures are all called ＂other＂. Secondly, it is the degeneration of eastern culture. In the complex of the degeneration of the culture, the demonization of the under-developed nations, the dominant language of English in the communication with the people around, feminization of the characters in the movies, and the updated colonialism of the colonized countries are to be mentioned.

The Asian Dimension Reflection of Hofstede’s Cultural Theory—Based on the Consumption Cognitive Characteristics of Chinese Post-90s College Students

This article is based on Hofstede’s cultural theory,taking the post-90s college students as the research object,and through a small-scale survey method,uses the cultural conflicts of the post-90s college students’cognition of“frugality”and“consumption”to explore the characteristics of their consumption outlook.The consumption behavior of post-90s college students presents a diversified structure,lacks planning,and has short-term orientation tendencies such as light luxury and impulsive consumption.At the same time,it displays an obvious living within its means and a wait-and-see attitude towards advanced consumption,focusing on the long-term orientation of its own investment in the future.The Confucian cultural characteristics of the contradictory but complementary consumption outlook of college students born in the 1990s provide Hofstede with a new perspective beyond the long-term and short-term dualistic orientation.

Teaching Literature Course in the Cultural Perspective

The course of English and American literature plays an important role in ELT （English Language Teaching）, however, English majors in class are tired of the conversationalist＇s introduction by the teacher of literary backgrounds, characters, plots, even the literary writing styles. Consequently, the course of literature goes into the bottleneck because of the null of cultural addition.The literature class seems out of moded, even CAI （Computing Aided Instruction） fails to motivate students. How to solve the problem？ This paper takes teaching methodology of literature in the cultural perspective to solve the problem. It is feasible for teachers to improve students＇ intercultural communication competence in cultural content imput in the literature course.

On Cultural Default and Compensation in Big Breasts and Wide Hips From the Perspective of Cultural Schema Theory

Cultural schema theory proposes that when we interact with members of the same culture in certain situations, or talk about certain information with them many times, cultural schemas are created and stored in our brain, which can promote coherence between the original and target language text, thus solving the cultural default caused by the cultural differences. It is vital to make cultural compensation to different cultural schemas and to coordinate the cultural contradiction. This thesis focuses on the translation methods and strategies in Big Breasts and Wide Hips from the perspective of the cultural schema theory, which exemplifies how cultural default and compensation functions in this novel.

The Cultural Diaspora Perspective on Translation Studies

Along with the process of globalization, diaspora has already become an eye-catching cultural phenomenon. More people cross borders of nations, leave their homeland and live in new homes, but they still maintain the characteristics of native culture and convention. The cultural turn in translation studies offers the best chance to understand more about the complexities of textual transfer and the patterns of cultural interaction. By virtue of this mode of cultural interaction, this paper has analyzed the translation practice and translation strategies from the cultural diaspora perspective, to deeply understand the relations between translation and culture beyond linguistic analysis. As in-between culture identity translators may re-examine two cultures with different eyes to find the intersection of two cultures and gain a balanced point. This move requires translators who play the role of intermediaries between cultures, to select the heterogeneous reconstruction, so as to achieve the intercultural communication in the translation activity