【Absrtact】today, Chinese and Western cultures are still worthy of interpretation and discussion from the perspective of communication. In the process of cultural exchange between China and the West, many problems still need to be further combed, and the connotation of Chinese culture is further interpreted.
【Key words】cultural exchanges; between China and the West; quan'shi
【作者簡(jiǎn)介】黃子桐,湖南省衡陽(yáng)市第一中學(xué)。
Chinese culture is broad and profound, while western culture leads the way in understanding and practicing modernity. Therefore, how to enable the two cultures to have an effective dialogue should be a topic requiring attention.
1. Is it possible to have equal cultural exchanges
To discuss the cultural exchange between China and the West in the context of Chinese historiography, "the history of cultural exchange between China and the West" and "the spreading history of Christianity in China" are basically synonyms for discussing the issue of Christianity in the context of Chinese religious circles. There is an insoluble crux in the study of the history of cultural exchange between China and the West, that is, the equality of cultural exchange and communication. Some scholars hold that the cultural exchanges between China and the West over the past 400 years have always been unequal, while others believe that most of the time in the past 400 years has been unequal, and only in a few times has it been equal. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, many researchers actually thought it was unequal, but some scholars thought that it was equal in some aspects, but did not dare to define it as an equal exchange in general.
2. Is it possible to have a non-discriminatory and unified world culture
The theory of cultural interaction transformation recognizes that cultural communication is the driving force of cultural development, but it holds that the channels of cultural exchange and dissemination are often two-way and, in many cases, an interactive process; the two sides of the exchange interact with each other. On many occasions it is difficult to tell who is the pure active disseminator and the completely passive recipient; the distinction between foreign culture and native culture is relative in the stage of cultural integration. Judging from the published academic works on the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West, many people, consciously or unconsciously, have set Western culture and Chinese culture as hostile sides, and because of some advantages of Western culture since modern times, Therefore, people pay attention to the expansion of western culture to China in the discussion, but ignore the influence of Chinese culture on western culture.
3. Is accurate cultural translation possible
Translation refers not only to the translation of one language into another, but also to translation in the sense of culturology, that is, the conversion of different ways of thinking. The two meanings of translation are linked together in practice, because the need for word translation arises from cultural communication, which can not be separated from language translation. Will the frequent misunderstanding or error in translation hinder the deepening of cultural communication and lead to the accumulation of misunderstanding? in short, is it possible to achieve accurate cultural translation? Philosopher Quinn proposed a "principle of uncertainty in translation", pointing out that the exact correspondence between the two languages is uncertain. Therefore, there is no "thorough translation" between two languages, and the meaning expressed in one language cannot be translated unambiguously into another language.
4. Conclusion
History has proved and the future will further prove that the healthy development of cultural exchanges between China and the West is an important driving force for the development of human cultural undertakings. Just as Liang Qichao described it at the beginning of the century, the combination of Chinese culture and western culture is bound to give birth to the crystallization of human culture.
References:
[1]Norden B W V.Thinking from the Han: Self, Truth and Transcendence in Chinese and Western Culture by David L. Hall; Roger T.Ames[J].China Review International,1999,6(2):449-452.
[2]Lin H. The historical status of Sup Sam Hung in the cultural exchange between China and the West[J].Journal of Guangzhou University,2006.