第一篇：My understanding of western culture

My understanding of western culture

Mary Du, No.36, Class 7, Senior 1

I choose “what are the differences between western culture and Chinese culture” as my topic.It’s an open topic because everyone has its own idea.For example, western music is different from Chinese songs.They have jazz, reggae, country and so on.Different music can be a part of the differences.I think western culture is probably completely different from Chinese culture.So, it’s necessary for the students or other people who want to go abroad to know the differences, or they may not adapt themselves to the new environment.Of course, western culture is very interesting.If you know more about it, you can say proudly “I know a lot about western country!I can introduce it to all of you!” This is not showing off, but a kind of knowledge accumulation.So, in which way is western culture different from Chinese culture?

First, west and China have different history.And I think that the different history is main and basic difference between the western culture and Chinese culture.China has a long history of two thousand years and at last formed a socialist state.But most of the western countries are capitalistic states.Based on the difference in the essence of the states, more and more differences are formed between these two kinds of culture.For example, western people believe that property is private while Chinese follow socialist public ownership.Art in western culture is also different from the Chinese one.Take music as an example.There are many different kinds of music which come from western country.As I have said in the beginning of the article, jazz originated in America, rock and roll was also born in America, reggae was from Jamaica and many other kinds of music could originate from western countries.But there are not many styles of music which began in China.Except the traditional kind of music, I can’t even find some other style.Of course, besides music, art includes many things.Another example is paintings.Most of the Chinese traditional paintings are washing paintings;you can also call it “ink and wash”.In western culture, most of the pictures which we often see are oil paintings.The things the artists drew and what they wanted to express are different because the different history which go back to the first opinion I have written before.The third difference reflects on the different languages in western country and China.In west countries, people often use English, French, Germany and Spanish.These are all alphabetic writings.But people in China use hieroglyph.There are also some differences in grammar.Besides the three above, name, beliefs, festivals are different, too.There are many things to say.If I want, I can write more.I think that I have given you enough evidences to prove that the western culture and Chinese culture are different in many ways.The proofs I given

involve in histories, arts, languages and more sides.To answer my question at the beginning of the article(What are the differences between western culture and Chinese culture?), I cannot tell you one by one, but I can give you a general overview, such as the kinds of art, the differences in the languages which people use in different areas, and some other thing.It is important to have these differences between two kinds of culture for the world should be consisted of varied and colourful civilization and culture which can make our world a better place.Culture represents the situation of the development in a particular country or area and it is another important reason for develop different kinds of culture.At last, my understanding of western culture is that it is different from Chinese culture and these differences are necessary to exist.