Abstract

Culture has connection with almost every aspect of human society. Though there is no decided definition, culture is unique in a certain group and acquired by members of that team. Communication can bring people together, but culture may still keep them apart. This paper tries to interpret movie Guasha from the intercultural perspective. Based on the analysis of conflicts in the movie Guasha, through comparison of cultural differences between China and Western countries, this paper analyses the direct causes of these conflicts and explores the roots of cultural clashes. After presenting some existed theories about cross-cultural communication, this paper reveals that the future of cross-culture communication will generate a new culture-- an adaptive or a third culture. The adaptive culture is not a form of merging or unifying different cultures, but actually is about a new culture created artificially by reconciling of differences into a harmonious unity. It is developing all the time.

KEYWORDS:Culture; Guasha; Conflicts; Cross-cultural Communication; Adaptive Culture.


摘　要

文化几乎和人们生活的各个方面都息息相关。尽管到目前为止对文化这一概念还没有统一的定义，但都无可否认文化是某一团体所特有的组成部分，而且人们作为当中的一员可以获得文化。交流使人们相聚在一起，但是因为文化的差异，人们仍可能被分开。本文以《刮痧》为例，试图从跨文化交际这一角度分析影片中的文化冲突。文章通过比较中美文化差异，分析产生这些差异的原因，解释造成影片《刮痧》“冲突”的根源。最后通过分析现有的关于跨文化交际方面的理论，预测跨文化交际的未来走向将会使团体内产生一种新文化，我们称之为第三种文化或适应性文化。这种适应性文化将不仅仅只是融合和统一其他的文化，而是通过各种不同的文化元素间的相互协调而和谐地共存。它本身又在不断的变化发展之中。

关键词:文化；刮痧；冲突；跨文化交际；适应性文化

1. Introduction
Franz Boas says,
Culture may be defined as the totality of the mental and physical reactions and activities that characterize the behavior of individuals composing a social group collectively and individually in relations to their natural environment, to other groups, to members of the group itself and of each individual to himself. It also includes the products of these activities and their role in the life of the groups.
The word "culture" is one of the most favored words in human history and culture has connection with almost every aspect of human life. Culture is learned and shared. In addition, culture is adaptive. By communicating with different social groups, one can spread his own culture, and also absorb others’ advanced aspects.