跨文化视角下中美网络征婚广告对比研究.docx

ContentsChinese Abstract2English Abstract31. Introduction42. Literature Review52.1 Researches on Cross-cultural Theory at Home and Abroad52.2 Researches on the Online Dating Advertising at Home and Abroad63. Comparison of the Characteristics of Chinese and American Online Dating advertisements73.1 Personal Conditions83.2 Personal Needs94. The Reasons for the Differences Between China and the United States114.1 Power Distance124.2 Individualism vs. Collectivism124.3 Uncertainty Avoidance134.4 Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation145. Conclusion14References16跨文化视角下中美网络征婚广告对比研究摘 要征婚广告是人们通过杂志、报纸和其他媒体发布个人信息、寻找伴侣的一种广告形式。征婚广告直接地反映了人们在择偶标准的态度差异，同时也反映出了不同国家的文化价值观差异。本文通过对中美网络征婚广告的对比研究发现，虽然中美两国都有许多的网络征婚广告，但是他们在选择伴侣时传达的信息、考虑的方面、观念和目的却表现出了不同的特征，更多中国征婚者在描述自己时，都提到自己的外表、经济条件、教育背景以及职业等方面，然而在美国网络征婚广告中，他们描述自己时很少提及自己的经济情况以及教育背景，他们更多地描述自己的性格和兴趣，因此这与中国征婚广告的特征有所差异，而中美文化差异正是导致这些不同特征的根源。通过理解不同的文化价值观，我们可以更好地理解中美两国的婚恋观，更有效地进行跨文化交流。关键词：跨文化交际； 网络征婚广告； 中美文化差异A Contrastive Study on Chinese and American Online Dating Advertisements from the Cross-cultural PerspectiveAbstractDating advertisement is a form of advertisement in which the prospective person publishes personal information and seeks a partner through magazine, newspapers and other media. Dating advertisements intuitively reflect peoples different views on the criteria of spouse selection, and it also reflects the cultural values of different countries. This thesis, through a comparative study of online marriage advertisements between China and the United States, finds that although there are many online marriage advertisements in both countries, the information, considerations, ideas and purposes they convey in choosing a partner show different characteristics. More Chinese marriage seekers mention their appearance, economic economic condition, educational background and occupation when describing themselves. However, American marriage seekers seldom tell about their own economic situation and educational background, and they describe their personality and interests more often. Cultural differences between China and the United States are roots of these different features. Through comprehending different cultural values, we can better understand the concept of marriage and love between China and the United States, and carry out cross-cultural exchanges more effectively.Key words: Intercultural communication; Online dating advertisements; Cultural differences between China and the United States 1. Introduction Dating advertisement is a kind of means by which those females or males who want to get married can seek their mates. People intend to find an ideal companion and they want to start from friendship firstly. They want to know more about each other. As to whether they will get married finally, it is determined by the mutual feeling about each other during the interaction (孙亮, 翟华祥, 1997). With the advancement in network technology, more and more people begin to issue dating advertisements on the Internet as the so-called online dating advertisements. The online dating advertisement has a great advantage over the traditional paper media, and Internet marriage has become the first choice for people in modern times, for it can not only provide the relevant information of the solicitor and the expectation of the ideal partner, but also reflect the the individuals cultural value orientation. In recent years, scholars at home and abroad have carried out extensive researches on advertisements from different angles, including discourse, grammar, vocabulary and so on. However, few studies have been conducted on online dating advertisements, not to mention those with cross-cultural insights. As a result, this paper attempts to explore different cultural values between Chinese and American in their current online dating advertisements with the qualitative research approach, combining the Hofstedes value dimension theory from collectivism, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, long-term vs. short-term orientation and other dimensions of the corpus.One hundred advertisements have been selected mainly from two of the biggest online dating sites home and abroad: J and M. J is the number one online dating website in China, committed to providing users with a full range of online dating services. It is also the first online dating platform to be listed in China. By May 2020, the total number of registered J users exceeded 190 million. J has been leading the industry in market share, user registration, user stickiness, user activity and user browsing time for many years. Match is the founder of the online matchmaking mode of search system and the largest dating website in the world. Matchs website serves more than 50 countries in 12 languages. In the first quarter of 2020, the number of paid members of match group exceeded 9.9 million. Through the comparative study between China and the United States, this paper examines their differences in marriage-seeking in terms of cultural value.This study found that the Chinese pursue the stability of life, while the Americans are willing to accept new things to take risks; Chinese see marriage as a responsibility, while Americans prefer to see marriage as a right; Chinese culture puts family interests first, while America pursues personal pleasure.2. Literature ReviewIn order to better understand the behavior of people in other countries and to conduct cross-cultural communication more effectively, this paper mainly refers to the theories of cross-cultural communication in related fields. The following part will introduce the research results of intercultural communication theory.2.1 Researches on Cross-cultural Theory at Home and Abroad 2.1.1 Current Research Status of Cross-cultural Theory at Home The cross-cultural research in China began in the 1980s. After Chinas reform and opening up, intercultural communication has gradually prove to be a outstanding topic (戴晓东, 2011). He Daokuan and Yan Zhuang (1986) proposed that cultural differences often caused two types of mistakes:the first is the error of language itself, and the second is the error of social language. Lin Dajin (1996) put forward his own opinion according to D. Hymes theory. He believed that intercultural communicative competence could be explained from the three levels of behavior, knowledge structure and moral principles. Gao Yihong (1998) interpreted the connotation of cross-cultural communication by using “Dao” and “instrument” in Chinese culture, and criticized the defects of studying “efficacy” as the center. Xu Lisheng (1997, 2000) believed that in terms of language level, communicative competence includes the competence of four aspects of grammar, social language, utterance and strategy; in cross-cultural communication, grammatical and strategic competence are of prominent importance because they are more cross-cultural than the other two. Gao Yongchen (2003, 2005) pointed out that cultural empathy ability was the most important component in the elements of intercultural communicative competence; cultural empathy should follow the principle of moderation. Jia Yuxin (2009) pointed out that globalization is the key factor in cross-cultural communication today, which means cultural diversity; in this context, people should carry out dialogue with the concept of “harmony but difference”, the premise of dialogue is listening rather than persuasion. 2.1.2 Current Researches on Cross-cultural Theory in Foreign Countries Cross-cultural communication is an applied subject that refers to many subjects. It was born in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1956, in his article Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Chomsky first proposed the concept of “language competence” and defined it as “an autonomous users knowledge of his language”, stressing the regulations of language use. However, the use of language was inseparable from social culture. The foundation work of this subject is Silent Language written by Hall in 1959. Two monographs on culture and communication appeared in the 1960s. The American sociolinguist Hymes firstly used “communicative competence” to criticize Chomsky in 1967, and he believed that the definition of “competence” has limitations. Hymes (1972) put forward four constituents of communicative competence: probability, practicability, suitability and performance. Among them, appropriateness emphasized that language use should conform to the specific social and cultural context. Then many scholars continue to explore in this field. After half a centurys journey, the theoretical framework of intercultural communication has become more specific and has gradually developed into an independent discipline. Gudykunst et al. (1977) explained communicative behavior from a psychological perspective and proposed the theory of anxiety and uncertainty management. He pointed out that successful intercultural communicators interpret their behavior patterns from the perspective of a third party rather than their cultural norms. In the 1970s, a large number of textbooks for undergraduates and postgraduates came out one after another. In the 1980s, new books paid more attention to the theoretical construction of discipline. At the moment, “cross-cultural communication research” at home and abroad has the tendency of not clear subject nature, such as ignoring the pan cultural research of specific communication behavior, as well as the general behavior research of insufficient revealing of deep cultural factors. Hofstedes (2008) cultural dimension theory is a framework for measuring cultural differences in different countries. Power distance refers to the degree to which people of low status in a society accept the unequal distribution of power in the society or organization. Uncertainty avoidance refers to whether a society can avoid and control uncertainty through formal channels when faced with uncertain events and unconventional environmental threats. The individualist vs. collectivist dimension measures whether a society as a whole is concerned with the interests of the individual or the interests of the group. The long-term orientation and short-term orientation dimensions refer to the extent to which members of a culture can accept delayed gratification of their material, emotional, and social needs. 2.2 Researches on the Online Dating Advertising at Home and Abroad 2.2.1 Current Researches on the Online Dating Advertisements in Foreign Countries In 2010, Elizabeth et al. in their article Comparing narratives of personal and preferred partner characteristics in online dating advertisements analyzed the three characteristics of individuals and preferred partners based on the sex, sexual orientation, age and ideal relationship type of advertisers. It also discussed the characteristic similarity between personal partner narrative and preferred sex partner narratives, finding a significant correlation of the three variables, supporting the matching hypothesis in terms of dating partner characteristics. In 2017, Liat Ayalon and Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan used open-ended coding for a qualitative content analysis followed by grouping of codes into major themes in their article Senior, mature or single: A qualitative analysis of homepage advertisements of dating sites for older adults. Dating sites for older adults were identified through the Google web-search engine. All oral information provided on the homepage of the website was used for analytical purposes. The first theme was “how are older adults described?”, addressing the traits of the target population. The elderly were portrayed in positive-neutral terms and negative terms. The second theme was “What do the elderly want?” The main purpose of each site was to promote long-term relationships, even marriage and companionship or flirting. The advertising mode of the elderly and the dating website clearly reflects the contradictory psychology of the elderly. 2.2.2 Current Researches on the Online Dating Advertisements at HomeAccording to Lin Xins Comparative Study of Online Dating Advertisements Based on Hofstedes Cultural Dimension, with the rapid development of social economy, peoples values have changed. From the cross-cultural perspective, with the help of Hofstede cultural dimension theory of the six dimensions as a theoretical framework, variables including appearance, revenue, occupation, interest and other factors were analyzed and concluded. Liu Yuans Comparative Study of Cultural Values in Chinese and English Online Marriage advertisements, using quantitative and comparative analysis methods, selected a number of iconic advertisements from L and other advertising sites for marriage, also involved different variables (appearance, income, house, car, home rank, housework, nationality, interest,education, temperament quality, whether to have children, etc.), and got the value orientation of domestic marriage advertisements. Li Leitings research on the development of Chinas marriage website, was based on the empirical data collected through multiple channels, through literature, interview, case analysis and other research methods, the development of our countrys marriage website, pairing mode, marriage information dissemination and so on, to explore its similarities and differences with the traditional marriage and love model. It reveals the reasons for young people to choose a mate through marriage website and the difficulties of the development of marriage website. At present, although there are some cross-cultural studies in China, there is still a lot of research space. The form of cross-cultural marriage advertising reflects the status quo of different forms of marriage. From the content of the advertisement, it shows the standard of mate selection of men and women in many countries, which is caused by the effect of different regional cultures. Data from advertisements for marriage in the United States and China show that China has higher requirements for age, character, appearance, economy, occupation and education than the United States. America focuses on the interests of its spouses in their daily lives. 3. Comparison of the Characteristics of Chinese and American Online Dating advertisementsOnline dating advertisements tend to reflect peoples view of marriage, family and cultural values, etc. Therefore, this paper collects 100 pieces of dating advertisements fr