Review on Chinese Cultures

14 to any event or venture that may involve an element of risk – from selecting an auspicious date for a wedding to sitting a new building. From the client’s point of view, the interpreters’ primary task is to guard against any disaster. Hsu 1948: 30 writes that the life in Chinese community is full of rituals starting from their birth until their death. Chinese people have to obey the rituals and traditions in their religion properly. According to Smith 1994: 112, birth for Chinese is important, especially when the baby is male. Sons are very important in carrying on the family line and in maintaining the honors to ancestors. That is why it is considered sinful for a man not to have any son. Latourette 1956: 679 states that girls have been generally considered much less valuable than boys and sayings in common circulation appraise sons as infinitely preferable to daughters. Chinese man was viewed higher than Chinese woman in the past, yet the discrimination may still happen in today’s Chinese culture. The most important element in the Chinese cosmological system is the yin- yang dichotomy. Yin represents all forces in the universe that emanate from darkness, while yang is the representation of light. The yin-yang dichotomy is derived from human’s experience, which often conceptualized as the following opposites; good-evil, life-death, and male- female. According to yin-yang dichotomy, it is obvious that women inferior to men. Yin represents women, which are believed as dark, destructive and in characteristics believed as weak, emotional untrustworthy being, whereas yang represents men, which in nature and characteristically believed as the opposite side of women. Loewe, 1990: 105 Marriage in China is carried out to produce sons or continue male line. Concubinage can be done if a man could not get any son from his first wife Smith 15 1994: 154. It is called an ideal marriage if both families know each other well. If a marriage happens between two families which are not familiar to one another, they need a go-between matchmaker to arrange the matters. The matchmaker is usually a woman who knows both families. She must carry the proposal to the girl’s family and ask both the girl and the boy about all the things needed, such as the year, month, and date of their birth. Based on the conclusion taken, she will decide whether the boy and the girl are a perfect match Hsu, 1948: 32. Succeeded in matching the couple, the matchmaker intercedes in the negotiation of exchanging gifts between both families. The family of the bride has to decide on the proper dowry and trousseau to send along for the exhibition at the groom’s home. After they get married, the couple will live in the groom’s residence. The mother- in-law has tremendous power towards the daughter- in- law, since the son has a duty to fulfill his mother’s wishes, even when his mother asks him to divorce his wife. The fact that a husband cannot be divorced by his wife often makes many women find marriage life is intolerable and then may decide either to run away or commit suicide . The worse thing is that, alas, many families are not willing to receive their daughters who return to them after their broken marriage. There is rarely found a single old spinster or bachelor in Chinese community. A widower is suggested to remarry, but a woman, in her second marriage, is a dishonored object. It has been considered a virtue for a widow not to do so. The society demands women to remain faithful with their deceased husband and his family. Some societies even highly regard the action of a wife who committed suicide upon the death of her husband Smith, 1994: 256-258. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 16 Nanquin and Rawski 1987: 81, affirm that the ritual of a funeral is very important for the Chinese. The children have to manage a burial ritual. After death, the spirits of deceased relatives represented by wooden tablets are cared by their descendants on a daily basis supplemented by offering at the grave at regular intervals, and given special attention on the anniversaries of the death. Bloomfield 1989: 30-36 asserts that the Chinese provide the gods their place on an altar. They try to keep the spirits of the ancestors happy. The living has a responsibility of sustaining the spirit of the ancestors and protecting their graves, as long as the reciprocal relationship is maintained both the living and the dead are benefited. Abandoned ancestors will become ‘hungry ghosts’, a general term for the spirits of dead people who do not have any reciprocal relationship with the living. Another great fear, apart from keeping the ancestors happy, is the fear of ghosts and spirits. These are not necessarily the spirits of dead people; they also could be the spirits of a place, trees, rocks, even the earth spirit of a village. As said by Latourette 1956: 665-666, one of the outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization has been its emphasis upon social relations. The basic characteristic of a Chinese institution is the family. The family, of course, constitutes an outstanding feature of the life of every nation. Among the Chinese, however, it has been emphasized more than among most people. It has a leading part in economic life, in social control, in moral education, and in government. According to Smith 1994: 250, children have a duty to keep the good name and reputation of the families and are expected to dedicate themselves to their parents. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 17 Chinese people have a much stronger tendency to identify their home and place than any other ethnics in the world, for they are highly rooted to their culture and their place of birth Smith, 1994: 56. It is known best as the Chinatown which usually exists in every big city or country all around the world. The Chinese live together with the other Chinese in a community in which they maintain their customs, beliefs, and culture. There are several basic features observed in Chinese families’ houses. Firstly, the old parents usually live in one of the wings, commonly the west one, the same part of the main house occupied by the eldest son. Secondly, in the normal cause of events, some rooms are found overcrowded, while larger sections of the house are intentionally left unoccupied. Thirdly, except for children and married couples, the two sexes are generally separated. Fourthly, the members of each individual family within the household usually occupy some rooms in the same wing or in two wings adjacent to each other. The characteristic of the dwellings shows that the division of rooms for each family is determined by the rules of social appropriateness, not by personal preference, comfort, or hygiene Hsu, 1948: 56-57. Asian people are polite, courteous, and aware of each other’s presence and needs according to To Thi Anh 1994: 33-34. They want to maintain a good relationship with their families, relatives, and neighbors. They sometimes are willing to give up their rights in order to preserve the harmony among people. However, the price fo r such a noble idea is very high and they live in an excessive fear of losing face. They have to hide their disruptive feelings – discontentment, 18 anger, contempt, and hatred. They rather suffer in silence than resolve the situation by an active and overt approach.

2. Review on American Culture

Individualism in America seems to be the core of American culture. Glazer 1988: 227 writes that the positive image of individualism has emphasized the American as a pioneer, moving out into wilderness among savages and making his way alone with riffle and axe. In relation to that, Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines individualism as a doctrine that the interest of the individual are or ought to be ethically paramount; and refers to a conception that all values, rights, and duties originate in individuals. It gives freedom to people to make their own decision, based on their thoughts even though it has to oppose those of the society where they live. According to Kearny 1984: 20, individual freedom is believed as the most important values of all American beliefs. American history notes that America is the land to which people escaped from their old country to seek freedom and get away from the control of governments, churches, noblemen, and aristocrats. They came to America to establish the new colonies with freedom as the basis of their living values. The individual freedom is also applied to the family life. Americans are free to choose the man or woman whom they want to marry with. The parents have no right to interfere in their freedom to decide. After marriage, they have to live apart from their parents. In an American family, there would be no one who controls against the other. It may be good to be controlled by their parents when they are younger, but as soon as they are considered mature, the children have PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 19 their right to make a decision on their own. Other family members may give some opinions and suggestions, but still they do not have any right to decide anything for them. In education, the principles of freedom can also be found in American schools. Sex education is being taught among children or teenagers nowadays. The Chinese in America can be classified into two categories: immigrants from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia are considered as the first generation and American-born Chinese are the second and third generations. Most of the first generation Chinese still use Chinese as their first language. Their descendants who were born in America use English as their first language http:www.camla.org.history.html accessed on July 19, 2007. In America, To Thi Anh observed, children speak with confidence in front of adults. They are not inhibited by shyness or fear. They enjoy much choice in their work, leisure, and relationships because they are brought up in liberal ways. They are not morally bound to behave in order to please other people. They are simply given permission to be themselves, and to develop their own characters. They are equal in their relationships with people, regardless of their age, wealth, or social position. One of the characteristics of Chinese-American in the United States is modern thoughts. It is difficult for them to accept something that is too abstract to be described. Therefore, everything should be explained scientifically and can be thought logically. If somebody teaches them about an abstract object such as ghost or spirit, they will have a different perception with the elders. The elders from China usually still admit the existence of ghosts and spirits.