Contrastive Study of Chinese and Western Cultures from the Perspective ofDocumentaries themed in "China'sDevelopment"Wang WeiqianA Thesis Submitted asa Partial Fulfillment for the Degree ofB.A. in EnglishCollege of Foreign LanguagesHebei Normal University of Science and TechnologyMay 19th, 2016摘要改革开放以来，中国经济的突飞猛进，一路高歌吸引了世界的眼光。
"中国题材"的纪录片成为世界各国感兴趣的主题。
中国和外国都各自推出了记录中国近些年发展的纪录片。
目前国内外对纪录片的研究，几乎都限于纪录片的理论研究与创作研究，而研究中西纪录片展现的文化差异非常少见。
本文从叙事方法、叙事关注点、叙述者口吻表现出的差异性入手，对比中西方“中国发展”题材纪录片以探究差异的文化渊源。
通过对比发现: 西方“中国发展”题材纪录片叙事方法角度更广泛；叙事更关注于个体情况；叙事口吻平等化。
主要原因在于中西方文化价值观的差异。
中国农耕文化基础上的集中制导致中国人思想具有一元性特征，儒家思想使国人更追求集体主义价值取向。
相反，西方文化属于多元文化，受古希腊文明和两次思想解放运动深刻影响的西方个人主义则根植于西方人头脑中，他们更关注个人思想，注重个人独立。
关键词：中国发展；纪录片；文化差异AbstractSince the reform and opening up, the economy in China develops so quickly that it draws the eyes of the world. And documentaries themed in China have become very popular. China and the West both have launched the documentaries which narrate and elaborate the development of China because of the great achievement China made recent years .At present, domestic and foreign researches on documentary are almost about the theory of documentary and creation research while the contrastive studies of the Western and Chinese cultures from the perspective of documentary are relatively rare. This thesis intends to compare the western documentaries themed in "China's Development" to Chinese ones to analyze the culture diversity between the West and China from the aspect of narrative method, narrative focus and narrative tone. Based on contrastive study, it can be found that the western ones are more diverse in narrative method; they stress individualism and their narrative tones are equality-based while that of Chinese are authority-based. That can be accounted for the differences of Chinese and Western cultures. Chinese centralism based on the farming culture leads to monism in Chinese mind, and due to ancient clan and Confucianism, people pursue collectivism. On the contrary, the Western culture is characterized by multiculturalism, and individualism influenced by the ancient Greece thoughts and two ideological liberation movements is deeply rooted in westerners' minds. They attach importance to personal ideas and individual's independence.Key words:China's development; documentary; culture differenceTable of ContentsAbstract in Chinese (i)Abstract in English (ii)I Introduction (1)1.1 Statement of the problem (1)1.2 Significance of the study (1)1.3 Outline of the thesis (2)II Literature Review (3)2.1 Researches abroad (3)2.1.1 Definition of culture (3)2.1.2 Studies of cultural values (3)2.2 Researches in China (4)2.2.1 The studies of Chinese and Western cultures (4)2.2.2 Studies of documentary from the perspective of culture (5)III Contrastive Study of Chinese and Western Documentaries (7)3.1 Narrative method (7)3.1.1 Mono-angle (7)3.1.2 Multi-angle (8)3.2 Narrative focus (9)3.2.1 Social group (9)3.2.2 Personal situation (9)3.3 Narrative tone (10)3.3.1 Authority-based (10)3.3.2 Equality-based (11)IV Cultural Analysis of Chinese and Western Documentaries (12)4.1 Monocuturalism/ multiculturalism (12)4.1.1 Monoculturalism (12)4.1.2 Multiculturalism (13)4.2Collectivism/ Individualism (13)4.2.1 Collectivism (14)4.2.2 Individualism (14)V Conclusion (16)Bibliography (18)Acknowledgements (19)Chapter One Introduction1.1 Statement of the problemDocumentary is not only a kind of television art form which records the rich and splendid culture, but also regarded as a part of human culture. Scholars have made a lot of contributions to the researches on documentary, and promoted the further prosperity of the documentary during the process of its naissance, development and evolution. However, the researches on the influence of cultural backgrounds and the national culture on the documentary are not sufficient, and even less concerning the contractive study of the Western and Chinese documentary culture.Nowadays, with the rapid development of economy, China stands in the eyes of the world with the image of a giant, and a number of documentaries that themed in China's development are made. For the differences of the values and diverse culture patterns, there are great differences between Western and Chinese documentaries. That provides the question for this thesis: What are the distinctive culture differences from the perspective of Western and Chinese documentaries? The thesis takes two Chinese documentaries and two Western documentaries as examples to explore the cultural differences in aspects of narrative method, narrative focus and narrative tone.1.2 Significance of the studyThe contrast between Chinese and Western culture has always been the problems for scholars to study, while it is original to explore the contrast from the angel of the documentary. Chinese mainstream media records and praises every aspect of the development in contemporary China. Meanwhile the West also shows an increasingly powerful China from its own perspective. And viewers can know the image of China in eyes of the Westerns, and have a preliminary understanding of the influence brought by cultural values on documentary. They can acquire a better understanding of differences Chinese and Western culture.1.3 Outline of the thesisThis thesis intends to study the Western and Chinese documentary from the perspective of cultural values. The whole passage can be divided in to five parts: The first chapter is the introduction, which involves the statement of the problem, the significance of the study and the outline of the thesis.In chapter two, it is the literature review which elaborates the studies on the value orientations, the contrastive researches on Western and Chinese culture and values and some cultural studies on documentary.Chapter three is to study the differences of Chinese and Western documentaries themed in "China Development" from the perspective of narrative method, narrative focus and narrative tone.In the fourth chapter, the author explores the cultural reasons of Chinese and Western documentaries.The fifth chapter is the conclusion of the whole thesis, which involves the main findings and some questions requiring further studies.Chapter Two Literature ReviewThis chapter gives a general overview of the studies of Western and Chinese cultures and documentaries. It begins with western scholars' studies of culture. Then, it shows Chinese scholars' studies of the differences between Western and Chinese culture patterns and some cultural studies on the documentary.2.1 Researches abroadThe connotation and function of culture is the focus of culture studies. And this is a proposition in the face of all the comparative cultural studies. What is more, for Chinese and Western scholars, value dimensions are used to measure the differences when comparing the Western and Chinese cultures.2.1.1 Definition of cultureEdward. B. Taylor, Britain's famous anthropologist, is the first scholar to summarize and epitome the cultural phenomena from the angle of anthropology. In his Primitive Culture, he (1871) defines culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society"(qtd in Xu, 2009:17). Taylor's definition of culture is of great significance in the academic field, which opens up a broader field of vision for the study of culture.2.1.2 Studies of cultural valuesValues are closely related to culture. Therefore, unique values and orientations can be explored from different cultures. The study of values began in 1930s. So far, the research on the values of foreign scholars has been very rich. One classification of cultural patterns which has been very influential, is that of Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's.Kluckhohn and Strodbeck singled out five values orientation from different cultures: Human Nature (people are regarded as basically good, evil, or mixed); Relationship to Nature (the relationship can be classified into three kind that humans over nature, nature over human, or harmony with nature); Sense of Time(primary value placed on past/tradition, present/enjoyment, or future/posterity/delayed gratification); Activity (being, becoming/inner development, or doing/striving/industriousness); and Social Relationships (hierarchical, collateral/collective-egalitarian, or individualistic) (Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck, 1961). In Annals of Tourism Research, Leah Watkins & Juergen Gnoth (2011) presents explanation about the five values orientations: "Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's five cultural assumptions together constitute a framework for understanding world-views. A world-view is a culture's orientation towards humanity, nature, the universe, life, death, and other philosophical issues that influence how we see the World."(p.1293).When comparing Chinese and western value orientations, it is generally considered that "the traditional Western belief about Social Relationship is each person is seen as autonomous and separate" and "Members of individualist cultures value self-reliance" (Davis, 2006:191-192).2.2 Researches in ChinaMany Chinese scholars trend to directly apply the Kluckhohn and Strodbeck's Social Relationship value orientations to cross-cultural studies. Some studies investigate the diverse values in the contrast of Chinese and Western cultures. People who study the documentary gradually shift their attention from pure history and creation skills to the cultural elements contained in documentaries.2.2.1 The studies of Chinese and Western culturesAccording to Professor Xu Xingyan, on the cultural form, Chinese culture is unified while western culture is diversified. China has been a strong independent agricultural nation from ancient times. Although there was nomadic culture at the same times, however, "It is only one side of the Chinese culture which can not change the basic nature of the Chinese culture based on farming". And ancient authoritarian rule was based on this kind of economy. Under the kind of economy and the ancient despotism, the unity of ideology is deeply rooted in the minds of people (Xu, 2009: 36-37).The western culture origins from ancient Greek and Roman culture, concentrated in the Mediterranean. And the territories of them are composed ofmany isolated islands. Agriculture in the islands is not as developed as the East River Basin, because of the lack of food, people need to buy from the coast of Egypt and the Black Sea, so the western commercial civilization developed. And the non slavery democratic politics was formed under this geographical conditions (ibid, :40) .According to Zhu Zhixian (1989) in Psychology Dictionary, values is defined as logic, science, art, moral, aesthetic, religious principles, beliefs and standard which promote and guide a person to take decisions and actions, and the core of a personal ideology (qtd. in Du, 2009:2). Professor Xu compares different concepts about human between Chinese and western cultures: Chinese culture adds importance to the social values of people and regards human as a member of a group. Whereas, the wills and value of the individual are emphasized in western culture. Jia Yuxin compares Chinese and Western values from the perspective of intercultural communication: "The unity of heaven and man is bound to lead to the group orientation as Dividedness Between Man and Nature definitely results in the orientation of individualism" (Jia, 1997:61)2.2.2 Studies of documentary from the perspective of cultureSome scholars such as Hou Hong (2006) and Zhu Jinghe (2002) study the production or content of documentary. Differing from them, Zhang Hongjun (2006) discusses the documentary in point of culture. As a special cultural phenomenon, the image recording contains the material level, theoretical system and spiritual core. People determine their own pursuit, faith, and ideals with certain values, and judge their own behaviors with these values to determine their relationship with the world. So value orientation is an important standard to explore the culture of documentary.The documentary, which is dominated by the official consciousness and elite consciousness, is still a major part of China's image recording. And Zhang (2006) tries to give the cultural explanation to that phenomenon: The elite and privileged person are valued, whereas the commonage and the populace are not put stress on because of the sense of hierarchy rooted in patriarchal clan system of traditional society, which has influenced Chinese society for a long time. What is more, the authoritarian nature of the social structure in ancient China brought about the political paradigm of Chinese culture. The elite and the privilege awareness of traditional consciousness affect mentality of Chinese butalso the characteristics of the Chinese documentary (p. 93). As for the implication of kindheartedness to Chinese documentary, the author regards humanism as the basic spirit of Chinese culture. But differing from Western humanism which emphasizes the individuals, Chinese humanism "To put people in the state of harmony between man and nature... and to attach importance to the spiritual world of people" (ibid.:102)Chapter Three Contrastive Study of Chinese and WesternDocumentariesThis chapter chooses two Chinese documentaries The Great Course and The Road to Revival and two Western documentaries China, A New Super Power and China on Four Wheels as the research subjects to study the differences of Western and Chinese documentaries from the points of narrative method, narrative focus and narrative tone.3.1 Narrative methodThe Chinese documentaries promote the image of China by displaying China's achievements, taking a sense of social responsibility and promotion of the theme as the main guiding ideology. Because of the impact of this concept, the Chinese documentaries which the thesis studies record the theme from a unitary perspective. On the contrary, the western documentaries themed in "China's development" are relatively concerned about more extensive perspectives and pay more specific attention to the content, so diverse ideas can be seen in the documentaries.3.1.1 Mono-angleThe Chinese documentaries themed in "China's development" are in keynote of praise. As national spokespeople, they usually use the magnificent frame, exciting events in China and infectious music to show the hardships of the development process and the splendid state of contemporary China from the view of the country. The main theme documentaries usually bear the responsibility of publicizing the achievement of the government to encourage people to contribute to the country. For example, The Great Course is connected with a voiceover commentary spoken by one person and several interviews, showing few different ideas from common people. It introduces how the whole country took actions when China encountered SARS epidemic: "Facing the sudden outbreak of SARS, under leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Council, the whole Party and the people unite as one, win the fight against SARS." That commentary intends to showfirm and great confidence of the whole country to fight with the disease. But it does not dig out from more angles such as doctors' efforts or people's recovery. Actually, in most part of the two documentaries, general state of national development is introduced, showing the theme: "China's prosperity".3.1.2 Multi-angleThe western documentaries, differing from the Chinese ones, choose richer angle of views and themes. With a similar theme, voiceover and site soundbite intersperses with each other in the documentary China: A New Super Power.In addition to the collection of literature, this German documentary also interviews Chinese people from all walks of life, asking economists, military experts, political commentators, sociologists, writers, journalists, artists, engineers, businessmen and workers and so on about some of the issues in China's development. It affirms China's rapid economic growth: "China has become a recognized power" and "being the second largest economy in the world". Meanwhile, it points out some problems in the development: The modernization of rural area construction lags behind the city. And the protection of rights and interests of migrant workers are still needed to improved, and Guo Yuhua, a socialist, expresses her worries about this phenomenon in the documentary.The documentary also points out that China has made a huge effort to enhance education and scientific research: "China is becoming one of the world's leading think-tank step by step. Though education level is improved, the children of migrant workers do not enjoy equal right to receive education." In summary, the Western documentaries not only explain the development from the aspect of economy, but also from aspects of politics, military, education, science and technology and so on. What's more, both documentaries --- China,A New Super Power and China on Four Wheels choose to interview many Chinese to realize the sate of China and describe the development with diverse angles to show the objectivity. In this way, the subject is enriched with plentiful materials, so the objectivity and diversity of perspectives increase. Indeed, there are some unjust comments and prejudice in the whole video, but they are not discussed in this thesis.3.2 Narrative focusThe two Chinese documentaries are also distinct from the western one in terms of the narrative focus. The Chinese ones trends to show the concern to the whole society while the Western ones tend to focus on personal situation. "Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings" according to Wiki, and generally, it emphasizes people's dignity, encourages liberal views and advocates the equality. Blue ocean civilization gives birth to the Western independence, equality, individual spirit, while the farming civilization has made the Chinese people form a collective ideology of unity and struggle.3.2.1 Social groupIn terms of value orientation, China, as an eastern country, belongs to collectivism which pays attention to the interests of the group and individual social value. Clan, country, the thought of collectivism affects the creation of documentary in the country. In terms of the theme of "China's development", the Chinese documentaries stress on social responsibility, the sense of belonging to the organization and the spirit of collectivism. There are only a few interviews of the common people in the documentaries. And when one is interviewed, he is not the representative of himself but the spokesman of his group. Taking an example, when talking about developing rural area, a farmer Hua Fangping in Pinghu Village being interviewed in The Great Course said: "Now the urban and rural areas are integrating, I think we live in the same level as citizens, and we have been able to catch up with them". What he said is not only about the life of himself, but also represents the entire villager of Pinghu. And it even indicates that many rural areas are showing a new look. This is a typical "group" value: To show a group through the individuals.3.2.2 Personal situationWestern directors focus on the personal liberal spirit, emphasizing the ideas of the individuals. In the Western documentaries, people from all walks of life are interviewed, and each is the representative of himself. In the British documentary China on Four Wheels,the situation after the earthquake in Sichuan is recorded. It focuses on the living situation and emotional state of Mrs. Li andher students after the earthquake in Wenchuan, paying attention to the change of their feelings to show their personal situations. There is neither evaluation of post disaster reconstruction nor the life state of the whole victims after Wenchuan earthquake. China, A New Super Power comprises a series of interviews with more than 20 Chinese people. It is the personal ideas but not the mass views that occupy an important position. These examples show the narrative focus of the Western documentaries trend to single person instead of a group.3.3 Narrative toneThe Chinese documentaries recording the development are also distinct from the western ones in terms of tone of the narrator. The Chinese narrator is in an authoritative tone while the Western one is based on equality.3.3.1 Authority-basedIt is easy to find out that when narrating the serious theme of the development of contemporary China, the Chinese narrators maintain an official, authoritative image in the documentary. And the documentary publicizes its mainstream ideology and manages to educate the audience. There is part of the reason that documentary is influenced by a concept named "Visual Politics" which derives from the Soviet Union. Besides, Chinese collectivism which attaches importance to authority, can also account for the authority-based tone. On study of the two Chinese documentaries The Road to Revival and The Great Course, the producers describe the development of China with a convincing and earnest attitude in an authoritative tone, especially in The Great Course. When it introduces the accomplishments of China's aerospace industry, the narrator says: "‘Shenzhou' and ‘Chang E' symbolize the new state of the Chinese nation on the way to the revival; It shows the world that the independent innovation is the soul of the national progress in a convincing way; Science and technology progress is the powerful engine to promote the country to take off." This truth is told to the audience directly by the narrator rather than found by the audience. Therefore, the audience is placed in the position of listeners. Based on the tone of authority, both documentaries manage to mould their audience with the patriotism feelings and social responsibility.3.3.2 Equality-basedAudience and narrator usually have equal status in western documentaries. The Western documentary producers usually regard themselves as participants in the event during the process of shooting. They are more like explorers and discoverers, intending to explore the secrets and let the life speak itself naturally and sincerely. So western documentaries are closer to audience and appeal to them to show their respect for the viewers. The China on Four Wheels is a typical western documentary which is very different from the Chinese one. In the lens of the documentary, the narrators do not take an official view to observe China. Justin and Anita, the presenters, drive themselves throughout China in order to experience the great changes China has made. Anita walks along the eastern part of China to observe the prosperous side of China while Justin walks along the western to experience the poor side. They attempt to talk with native people to realize the current situation of their lives. Justin goes around ancient Feng Huang Town to capture what Miao, a minority nationality's life is like. In his lens, Feng Huang has been a tourist resort where many tourists flood in for its characteristic culture. According to his native tour guide, tourism improves Miao People's lives' level here: "We are much better now". But he wonders what life is like in remote neither interviews any officials nor uses official literature but just record what they see and experience. In this way, the documentary satisfies the audience's curiosity with an equality-based tone. And the audience can see a real China through the recorders' eyes.Chapter Four Cultural Analysis of Chinese and WesternDocumentariesIn this chapter, the author analyzes the culture origins that lead to the differences of the Chinese and Western documentaries themed in "China's Development".4.1 Monocuturalism/ multiculturalismChina culture is unified, while western culture is diversified (Xu, 2009). Monoculturalism is the practice of actively preserving a national culture via the exclusion of external influences while Multiculturalism describes the existence, acceptance, or promotion of multiple cultural traditions within a single jurisdiction according to Wiki. These two different forms of culture lead to different narrative methods.4.1.1 MonoculturalismChinese civilization was originated from the Yongzi River and Huanghe River. In the vast land, "the river crisscross, the climate is damp and warm, the product is abundant..." (Xu, 2009:34). It provides great soil to develop agriculture which dominated the ancient Chinese economy. What is more, there is extensive desert in the northern frontier, high mountain chains and forest in the southwest being the obstruction which made it difficult to contact with other countries in ancient time. What is more, the ancient rulers advocated physiocracy, which led to the poor exchanges between our country and other countries. Therefore, traditional culture develops along the direction of its own, having a style of its own. China is basically in a unified and centralized state since it entered the civilized society, and the period was very short when there was a split. Under the despotism, the thinking "The land belongs to the king, people all over the word are the king's servants" rooted in people's minds and the Confucianism which advocated the authority dominated people's thought. Generally speaking, monoculturalism is formed because of the monism of economy, politics and thinking in ancient China. So in the Chinese documentaries, the current development is introduced from a general view,introducing the prosperous or positive aspects. As is recorded in Road to the Revival,the commentary makes a general introduction to the fight with the SARS without details from other angles. Both Chinese documentaries publicize one theme: China's power and prosperity.4.1.2 MulticulturalismWestern civilization is different from Chinese civilization. Xu says: "ship of the Western culture was born in the blue sea." The main representative of Western civilization, Roman and Greece are located in Mediterranean, and their territories were dotted with Islands. The narrow land, poor soil and the dry and hot climate in the summer form the environment which is not suitable for growing grain, so the food production are not even self-sufficient. Some densely populated cities such as Athens, purchased grain from the Black Sea coast and Egypt. Thus, business culture was developed in the West. Due to the geographical and economic features of the place, the West formed democracy which was applied to citizens. Owing to the commercial foundation and democratic political conditions, cultural diversity came into being. The world is divided, showing plural patterns to the islands residents. The influence of the multiculturalism can be found in the Western documentaries: They collect the views of Chinese people from all walks of life in order to show a current situation of China. They manage to record China's development from richer angles: economy, politics and so on. It is no doubt that the massive materials and the various perspectives are influenced by the cultural diversity in the West.4.2Collectivism/ IndividualismDocumentary, as a kind of image culture, is bound to imply some values. Kluckhohn (1961) defined value as: "A conception, explicit or implicit, distinctive of an individual or characteristic of a group, of the desirable which influences the selection from available modes, means and ends of action. People's attitudes are based on the relatively few, stable values they hold". Kluchohn and Stodtbeck advanced five values orientations. In aspect of social relationship, they classify it into three types: Hierarchy, Group and Individual. "Generally speaking, the most apparent difference between Western and Eastern。
