Abstract How the survivor deals with a man’s death says a great deal not only about the deceased inpidual’s life but also about the survivor and his society’s approaches to death。 All announcements about death are subsumed under “Obituary” section, which is a very prominent feature of most Western newspapers。 Chinese newspapers, however, pay less attention to this section due to various reasons。 Thus, this thesis will focus on the obituary difference in newspapers from structure to content, analyzing the viewpoints on life and death, affected by Confucianism in China and the Enlightenment in Western world。 Examples are to be given of the figure in China and his or her counterpart in Western world of the same field or industry in order to come to the conclusion that Chinese cherish social value of the dead, while the Westerner personal feeling and contribution。 Besides the figures, the unknown ones will also be mentioned as they are the majority in daily obituary。93432

Keywords: obituary; Chinese and Western newspapers; view of life and death; cultural difference

摘要 生者如何对待一个人的逝去，不仅跟逝者有关，还很大程度上反映了生者与其所处的社会对待死亡的方式。所有关于死亡的公告都属于讣告，这在西方报刊中占据重要地位。但是，中国报刊中讣闻板块占据的版面微乎其微。因此，本课题从形式和内容两方面着手，从中国传统儒家思想对中华民族生死观的影响以及西方启蒙运动对以英美为主的西方人生死观的影响的角度，来解读中西相同领域旗鼓相当的代表人物讣告，旨在说明中国更加注重亡者社会价值，而西方更加注重亡者个人感受和价值的论点。除了名人外，本课题也会涉及普通群众的逝世，因为他们才是讣闻板块的主体。源F于K优B尔C论V文N网WwW.youeRw.com 原文+QQ752^018766

毕业论文关键词：讣告；中西报刊；生死观；文化差异

Contents

1。 Introduction1

2。 Literature Review2

3。 The Obituary’s Structural Difference between Chinese and Western Newspaper2

4。 The Obituary’s Content Difference between Chinese and Western Newspaper (Analysis Based on Excerpt Obituaries)。4

4。1 Politics — a constant theme in both4

4。2 Confucianism and its influence 5

4。3 The Enlightenment and its influence。。。9

5。 Conclusion。11

Works Cited。。。12

1。 Introduction 

It is only through the living that we can know about the dead, and yet through the dead we can learn much about the living。 I have taken notice of the fact that the obituary pages are some of the best-read pages in the newspaper in Western countries。 To the Westerner, an obituary serves many purposes beyond notification of a death。 Paul Bohannan in the May 1991 Anthropology Newsletter (p 3) wrote that “ The announcement of ‘Deaths’ is the least important thing about obituaries。 Obits are complete life stories—death is relevant only to the timing。 If obits are well written, and if we will just forget our absurd (and culture-bound) thanatophobia, they are good reading as well as vital historical data。 Obits are short biographies。 Here is a person with whom we all share a lot whose story is complete。” 论文网

However, in Chinese view, an obituary is probably just the death notice。 In modern China, neither do ordinary people pay to get an obituary printed nor do they read them out of habit。 Only the obituaries of the famous get published through their family members or friends or through public agency。 Nowadays, with the Internet growing rapidly and the newspaper sales dropping considerably, much newspaper in China abandon their ink-print form and focus on their website management and its application popularization。 Therefore, part of the obituaries are chosen from the website。 In spite of the limited number of obituaries, we could still get a glimpse of Chinese people’s viewpoint on life and death。 Thus the significance of this paper can be summed up to two points: the study will help develop a proper understanding of the view of life and death of Chinese and the Westerner; by case study selected from newspaper, especially the big three in the United States, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, and the big four in London, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, the Independent and The Times, and by comparative analysis, it can promote our healthy awareness of cultural influence, self-consciously recognize the cultural identity of our own and, most importantly, appreciate the cultural difference。