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2 An Analysis of Cultural Dimensions in Modern Family 7
2.1 Inpidualism. 7
2.2 Power Distance. 9
2.3 UncertaintyAvoidance. 12
2.4 Masculinity 14
2.5 Short-term Orientation 16
3 Conclusion 19
3.1 Summary of the Annotation. 19
3.2 Implication of the Study. 20
3.3 Limitation of the Dissertation.. 20
Bibliography. 22
1 Introduction
With the development of society, television has become a basic home appliance. Therefore, watching TV plays has become a popular form of recreation to modern people. And because of the popularity of the universal internet, there are not only a variety of local types of TV plays to choose, but also a number of foreign TV series to watch. Among them, American TV dramas, as the most-widely-spread type of entertainment around the world, have attracted tens of thousands of people. Countless well-made TV series appear on the screen, including Desperate Housewives, Modern Family, Lost and Supernatural, which are all well received.
The United States is a melting pot for people coming from every corner of the world, no matter what age, gender, race and color. Due to this kind of extended family, the U.S. successfully integrates cultures from different countries, and finally forms its distinct local culture. Most TV dramas in the U.S. reflect real life by embedding the native culture. Therefore, TV plays, as an important form of art, which is embodying abundant culture elements of different times and nations, vividly depict culture, preserve culture and disseminate culture (Yang, 2013:141). As the result of instilment to subconscious mind, American TV dramas, as the product of culture, based on USA core values, constitute a new type of cultural infiltration (Feng & Xia, 2013:162).
In international communication, even a simple gesture may cause grave offence, let alone values----an intangible concept rooted deeply in mind. Hence, in view of the propagation of American TV dramas, to explore American values plays an immeasurable role in solving culture shock and commanding a better understanding of American culture. Under this research background, this dissertation intends to select Modern Family as a medium and to resort to Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension as the theoretical basis while adopting a qualitative approach and content analysis to make a dissection of American values in this TV play.
1.1 The Background Information of Cultural Dimensions
Cultural dimensions are formally presented by Geert Hofstede. They are introduced through an inquiry into the philosophical opposition between the specific and the general, the different and the similar (Hofstede, 2008:1). Between 1967 and 1973, Geert Hofstede and his team carried out a
large-scale investigation about culture values in the International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, one of the world’s largest multinationals. They conducted two rounds of questionnaire surveys to the international employees in this company. There were more than 116,000 questions in the survey, which were in 20 languages and included 72 countries. Through analyzing the data collected from the survey, Hofstede found the differences of the cultural values of people from different countries. In 1980, his masterpiece, Culture’s Consequences was published. In his book, he used four dimensions to describe the differences of cultural values: Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Inpidualism and Collectivism, Masculinity and Femininity. Ten years later, Hofstede added a fifth dimension of national culture in this theory. The new dimension, Long- Versus Short-term Orientation, was formed according to the Chinese Value Survey (CVS), an assessment developed by Michael Harris Bond in Hong Kong from values suggested by Chinese scholars. The investigation stemmed from the answers of students samples from 23 countries in 1985.
1.2 The Key Concepts of Cultural Dimensions