摘 要

随着国际交流的日益频繁，跨文化交际成为语言学习者的一大关注点。推手》这部电影中许多场景都是在家中发生的，它们反应了中美不同的家庭价值观。本文基于电影《推手》，从家庭空间、家庭地位和家庭教育三个方面分析了中美家庭观念的差异且就他们产生的原因进行了分析。表面上这部电影讲述了一个家庭的内部矛盾，实际上它反映了两个国家，两种文化的矛盾。

首先， 家庭空间指的是在一个家庭中家庭成员之间的距离。在中国，一家几代人住在同一屋檐下共享空间是很常见的；而在美国，更加尊重个人空间。本文还发现，造成中美家庭空间差异原因是由于中美不同的历史文化背景。其次，家庭地位指的是在一个家庭中成员关系是否是平等的是否有等级之分。在中国家庭中，父亲的地位往往是最高的，子女必须尊重长辈；而美国每个家庭成员在家中的地位是平等。最后，本文从教育的目的和方法两个方面分析了中美家庭教育观的不同。中国家长要求子女按照他们自己的意愿发展，把子女的教育和整个家庭的发展相联系。在教育子女的过程中很少尊重孩子自己的想法和意愿；而美国人鼓励孩子创新和探索，父母在孩子教育的过程中只提供必要的建议和帮助。分析发现，历史因素是影响家庭教育和家庭地位的主要因素。本文基于电影《推手》从家庭观念的角度分析了两者的不同以及产生的原因，对于更深入的了解中美两国的文化以及两国的跨文化交流有重大意义。

关键词：《推手》 家庭观念差异 家庭教育 家庭空间 家庭地位

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

Pushing Hands is the first movie directed by Ang Lee. Born in Taiwan, he is one of the few scholar directors with years of movie-learning experience in the U.S. That background has endowed him a dual nature in his thoughts. For one thing, under the education of Chinese traditional culture, he has been deeply influenced by Confucianism; and for the other, he has also got a deep understanding of the western ideology and culture after years of education in the U.S. Perhaps only Ann Lee, who has accepted Chinese traditional culture and lived for a long time in America, can produce such a movie deeply based on real life.

Admittedly, the two cultures, which have their own sources and carriers, will surely meet in collision. Many others who have almost the same background as Ang Lee are also paying attention to the collision and explore it in movies. However, none of them can eclipse Ang Lee’s, just because his analysis and understanding of the collision never only rest on the superficial dramatic conflicts; instead, he puts his attention further to the problems of Chinese traditional culture after deeply exploring the sources of the two cultures. That means he gives a subtle theme to each of his movies.

An excellent movie director must be an excellent story teller. The story is vividly told in the movie. It is a story about a retired old man, the hero of the story, who came to America and planned to spend his retirement life in his later years with his son. He lived together with his son, foreign daughter-in-law and a mix-blood grandson. Thus collision began in the family. The old man, Mr. Zhu was a Tai chi master and crazy about Taoism. In real life, he longed for a happy family of three generations under one roof.

1.2 Need for the study

Cross-cultural communication is a science for accommodating the environment of globalization. The inter-cultural communication has become more and more important with the process of globalization. Family value, as one of the fundamental parts in culture, reflects various cultural phenomena. To a certain extent, it can develop the empathy and eliminate the cultural centralism. With growth in the two countries’ economic strength, the cultural exchange between the America and China is also developing. The study of family values of two countries is a good way to cultivate people’s awareness of bi-directional communication. In this sense, the study is particularly important.

Family values include various cultural phenomena. It reflects every country’s traditional history and social cultural background. In the movie Pushing Hands, there are lots of scenes which are worth analyzing. On the surface, the movie described an emotional disputes and conflicts in a family. It is a cultural conflict between two countries. Pushing Hands fully reflects the American and Chinese culture. Throughout the analysis of Pushing Hands, we can have a deeper understanding of the different family values between China and America.

2. Literature Review

2.1Definition of family values

Xiang Hua hold that: “Family values are the core in the research of cultural values, and it has a huge influence on people’s thoughts and behaviors. It also influences the family decisions and family affairs.”(Cultural Exploration into differences of Chinese and American Family Values, Academics,2014(12).)

A family is defined as a social unit consisting of parents and the children they raise. 

Value is defined as the quality or worth of a thing.  To combine the words together yields a definition of:  a traditional set of social standards defined by the family and a history of customs that provide the emotional and physical basis for raising a family.  The social values are often reinforced by our spiritual or religious beliefs and traditions. (Shi Jian, Comparison of Values between China and America,

Family values’ definition consists of ideas passed down from generation to generation.  It boils down to the philosophy of how people want to live their family life. 

2.2Classification of family values

In this paper, Family values can be divided into 3 parts: family space, family authority and family education.

Family space refers to the family members’ individual space in the family. In China, the individual life is tightly coupled with family life. The family is a public space. All the family members should share the same space. However, American thinks highly of privacy. Every family member should respect other members’ individual space.

Family status includes providing for the aged and family hierarchy.

Family education refers to all the educating activities in the family. By the way of parents’ own words and deeds, they educate their children consciously or unconsciously.

2.3 Previous study on Pushing Hands

Pushing Hands is a typical example of cross-culture movie. In recent years, many scholars have analyzed the cultural phenomena of Pushing hands from different aspects.

As the major dimension of the differences between western and eastern values, individualism and collectivism is the focus in many scholars’ research of Pushing Hands. For example, Li Huafeng (2013) pointed out that the movie revealed the conflict between two different cultural values showing the conflicts between western individualism and Chinese collectivism in The Conflicts and Concordance of China and America in Pushing Hands. Besides, even though the individualism and collectivism are two different values, they are not completely opposite. Sun Jingyu and Dai Tingting (2015) stated that collectivism and individualism are two irreconcilable values, as long as the communicators can orientate the culture properly and try to know the culture difference, cross-cultural communication is not difficult.

Besides, lots of scholars researched the root of the two cultures based on Pushing Hands. Some of them analyzed it from traditional culture. The filial piety has a long history in China and the children must be extremely filial towards their parents. However, Americans prefer to honor gods. Wan Min (2013) analyzed the conflicts from four aspects including value orientation, intergenerational relations, ethical support and their different core values based on the film in A Brief Analysis of “Filial Piety” of China and West Based on Pushing Hands