1。3 Methodology 3

2。 Theoretical Framework 4

2。1 General Introduction to Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory 4

2。2 Detailed Description of Power Distance Index 4

3。 The Films and the Power Distance Theory 5

3。1 The Main Content of Pushing Hands 5

3。2 The Main Content of The Wedding Banquet 5

3。3 Detailed Description of the Power Distance in the Films 6

3。3。1 Details Showing High Power Distance 6

3。3。2 Details Showing Low Power Distance 7

4。 Reasons of Different Degrees of Power Distance 8

4。1 Agriculture Civilization & Business Civilization 8

4。2Confucian Ethics & Christian Ethics 9

4。3 Official Civilization & Citizen Civilization 11

5。 Conclusion and Suggestions 12

References 14

1。 Introduction

1。1 Research Background and Significance

Due to the quickening integration of global economy, the coexistence of multi-culture and the frequent communication of all nations, cross-cultural communication among the world becomes inevitable。论文网

Nowadays, more and more people seize the opportunity to participate themselves in this surge。 Maybe they go abroad for further study, for work, for travel。 Obviously, people around the world put a higher demanding to cross-cultural communication。 However, different countries have their own values and heritages, which cause the culture conflicts, the biggest problem we have to handle。 In order to integrate into the world stage better, all nations have to pay much attention to cultural differences。 

In 1960s and 1970s, Geert Hofstede, after making a world-wide survey of employee values by IBM, he developed the cultural dimensions theory, used widely as a crucial framework for cross-cultural communication。 Power distance, one branch of his theories, provides a reference for measuring the degree to which people accept hierarchical authority and how far they are willing to subordinate themselves。 Many researches have been done in Power distance, while they are more related to company, business, and even the management。 A small number of people stand on typical films to discuss and analyze the cultural differences, but they don’t combine s certain theory with their analysis, to some extent, they lack of theory evidence。

In the study of Hofstede, the level of power distance is measured by the power distance index。 The power distance index is the form of data to show the power of the high or low distance。 The data is relative, only in two or more countries when the cultural dimension of the comparison will make sense。 Hofstede defines the range of the index between 0 and 100, and the higher the score, the higher the degree of power。 Chinese culture and American culture are often respectively regarded as the high power distance and the low power distance, because the power distance in the United States scores a 40 on the cultural scale while China’s power distance index is 80。

This paper intends to probe into one of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theories—power distance and an attempt to compare the different power distance in China and America through analyzing typical settings in Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet, then the relationship between father and son, leaders and subordinates that reflect Chinese high power distance and American low power distance, will vividly show up。