Contents
Foreword…1
Part I East and West
Unit 1 Why Contrasting Chinese and Western Cultures?…2
I. Ancient Civilizations and Cultures…2
II. Cross-cultural Comparative Studies in China…4
III. Imperatives to Contrast Chinese and Western Cultures…7
IV. A Note on Some Key Concepts…11
Unit 2 Traditional Characteristics of Chinese and Western Cultures…14
I. “There Are All Kinds of Birds When a Forest Gets Large”…15
II. Traditional Chinese Cultural Characteristics…17
III. Traditional Western Cultural Characteristics…24
Unit 3 Affinities across Cultures…29
I. An Unexpected Affinity…30
II. Reading for More Cultural Affinities…30
III. A Note on Some Key Concepts…38
Part II Cultural Differences in Silent Languages
Unit 4 Time…43
I. Time in China and the West…44
II. Two Time Modes…48
III. Past-oriented Societies vs. Future-oriented Societies…54
IV. Two Time Orientations…57
Unit 5 Space…61
I. Spatial Language…62
II. Spatial Language and Culture…65
III. Spatial Language and Life…71
IV. Changes We Cannot Afford…73
Unit 6 Smiles, Nods and Silence…75
I. Smiles…75
II. Nods in the Intercultural Communication…80
III. Silence in the Intercultural Communication…82
Part III Cultural Differences in Thinking
Unit 7 Intuitive vs. Logical Thinking…89
I. Definitions of Intuitive and Logical Thinking…89
II. Philosophy and Thinking…90
III. Application of the Two Thinking Modes…94
IV. Impact of Thinking Modes on Writings…98
V. Logic in China and Intuition in the West…100
Unit 8 Dialectical vs. Analytical Reasoning…104
I. Proverb Preferences across Cultures…104
II. Dialectical Reasoning…105
III. Analytical Reasoning…109
IV. More about the Two Reasoning Modes…113
Unit 9 Holistic vs. Atomistic Visions…116
I. A Detention Room Incident…116
II. Prominent Attributes of Holistic and Atomistic Visions…117
III. Vision and Cognition…122
IV. Vision and Language…123
V. Zhengshan Xiaozhong and Lipton Black Tea…128
Unit 10 Categorizing Objects by Relation
