3. The Cultural Differences Between China and America From the Perspective of Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions
3.1 The Power-Distance（PDI）Reflected in The Joy Luck Club
PDI is used to indicate the degree of acceptance of people in a culture for inequality in the distribution of power. In general, Asia has a higher PDI, the usual reaction of Chinese for inequality is to endure, to obey the authority, and they are educated to obey their parents. While Western countries have a lower PDI, they have a strong resistance to the inequality in power distribution. Chinese and the United States’ PDI of the gap is obvious.
The differences between Woo Jingmei’s concept and psychologically accepted PDI and those of her mother Woo Suyun were reflected in "playing piano event". This mother suffered bitterly for her daughter’s musical education and was willing to clean the room of Mr. Chung without charge in exchange for her daughter’s practice opportunity for piano, but her daughter refused to continue to play the piano because of a performance imperfection. Then mother and daughter had a fierce contradiction, the mother never expected her daughter dared to openly fight against her and she simply blamed the …show more content…
People under individualism influence tend to focus on themselves and pay more respect for dignity and power. And the children under such influence always think from perspective of "ego" and consider plain speaking is an honest way. Failures will lead to subjective guilt and self-esteem weakening. People under collectivism influence tend to focus on family, and individuals must obey the collective will. The children learn to consider the problem from perspective of "collective", failures will lead to personal and collective shame. It is clear that Chinese culture belongs to collectivism culture, and American culture belongs to individualism
3.1 The Power-Distance（PDI）Reflected in The Joy Luck Club
PDI is used to indicate the degree of acceptance of people in a culture for inequality in the distribution of power. In general, Asia has a higher PDI, the usual reaction of Chinese for inequality is to endure, to obey the authority, and they are educated to obey their parents. While Western countries have a lower PDI, they have a strong resistance to the inequality in power distribution. Chinese and the United States’ PDI of the gap is obvious.
The differences between Woo Jingmei’s concept and psychologically accepted PDI and those of her mother Woo Suyun were reflected in "playing piano event". This mother suffered bitterly for her daughter’s musical education and was willing to clean the room of Mr. Chung without charge in exchange for her daughter’s practice opportunity for piano, but her daughter refused to continue to play the piano because of a performance imperfection. Then mother and daughter had a fierce contradiction, the mother never expected her daughter dared to openly fight against her and she simply blamed the …show more content…
People under individualism influence tend to focus on themselves and pay more respect for dignity and power. And the children under such influence always think from perspective of "ego" and consider plain speaking is an honest way. Failures will lead to subjective guilt and self-esteem weakening. People under collectivism influence tend to focus on family, and individuals must obey the collective will. The children learn to consider the problem from perspective of "collective", failures will lead to personal and collective shame. It is clear that Chinese culture belongs to collectivism culture, and American culture belongs to individualism