This thesis lays more emphasis on analyzing the differences between American grandson Brooks and Chinese grandfather Yang, including the diet structure, language form and the values。 Besides, this thesis also proposes some strategies responding to the cultural conflicts。 The importance of this thesis relates to theoretical and practical intercultural communication。
2。 Literature Review
About 50 years ago, America first began the study of cross-cultural communication。 People from almost all around the world came to America, making it become a famous immigrant country。 In 1959, a book-- The Silent Language was published whose writer is a famous American anthropologist Edward T。 Hall。 After that, the field of intercultural communication has been flourishing。 Due to his work, the study of intercultural communication had a great progression and attacked more scholars' attention。
In western countries, more researchers published books on intercultural communication。 R。 T。 Oliver wrote Culture and Communication in 1962。 Larry Samovar and Richard Porter wrote Intercultural Communication: A Reader。 Besides, in 1970s, John Condon and Fathi Yousef published An Introduction to Intercultural Communication。 In China, the study of intercultural communication became more and more important。 In 1990s, the courses began to be offered in universities。 Many Chinese scholars have spared no effort to promote the blossom of the study。 The kernel of it is to establish and understand how people communicate with other people from different cultures。 Its intention is to produce some principles which can help people from different cultures have a good communication with each other。
In China, many scholars wrote papers about the film A Grandson from America。 Among those scholars who have shown great interest in this film, scholar Zhu Xiaofen, Huang Fang, Wang Fang analyze the culture differences and integration in this film。 Their papers put emphasis on the differences of diet, language and pattern of thinking。 Scholar Sun Daojun makes a comparison between the two characters in order to analyze the culture differences between the east and west。 While, other scholars analyze the feeling between the two characters in this film。 For example, scholar Bai Ying writes about the affection between a Chinese old man and a American child, which indicates love without borders。 Besides, scholar Hong Changyu analyzes the linguistics differences between east and west in this film, including pragmatic language errors and social pragmatic failure, etc。 Scholars like Li Jiuru, Meng Gaizheng, Yan Lin,etc。, are also taking great efforts to analyze this film from other different aspects。
3。 General Introduction to A Grandson from America
The following gives the general introduction of the film A Grandson from America from two aspects。 First part is the main plot of the film, telling people the time, location and the characters of the film, which can help people have a basic understanding of this film。 The second part is about the two characters, Chinese grandfather Yang and American grandson Brooks。
3。1 The main plot of A Grandson from America文献综述
The film A Grandson from America tells a cross-cultural story of a old man and a child。 The old man is a Chinese shadow artist Yang, and the child is a American boy Brooks。 Shadow artist Yang, living in a small village of Shaanxi province alone, had a son, Yang Dongliang。 Dongliang took a foreign widow Aihua to their house, after he lived in America for several years。 When he said Aihua was his fiancee, the conservative Yang immediately felt disgraced。 And then, when Yang knew Brooks was not his own grandson, he was unable to accepted it。 Because of a sudden change of work, his son and AiHua hurried to the habitat of Tibetan antelope。 Thus, Brooks who was left solely must be looked after by the grandfather。 Although Yang was unprepared to this occurrence, he had to take care of Brooks passively。 Thanks to differences of lifestyle, language, values, culture and so on, their life was full of conflicts。 When Brooks' favorite doll of Spider-Man was inadvertently trampled by Yang, Brooks was depressed and refused to eat。 As a result, he got a high fever。 In order to make Brooks happy, Yang made a Chinese version of "Spider-Man" shadow doll and won the grandson's love。 They gradually understood each other and established the deep affection。 从《孙子从美国来》中看中美文化冲突(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_201410.html