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1、ContentsAbstracti摘 要iHow to treat the European culture11. Introduction12. The meaning of western culture13. The effect that western culture will have on our society24. Our attitude to treat the wetern culture24.1 Balance the relationship between foreign cultures and our patriotism 34.2 Borrow the fo
2、reign cultures while using our brains34.3 There is no connection between race and culture35. Conclusion4References.5Abstract: During the development of the history, different cultures had influenced each other and permeate into each other. The western culture has influenced our Chinese culture to a
3、very great extent since the ancient times. This article answers the following questions. What is western culture? How does it influence the Chinese culture? Where does its glamour exist, and why are we bound up in the European culture? By explaining these aspects, this article tries to solve the pro
4、blem: how to treat the western culture so as to create our more brilliant civilizationKey words: European Culture Renaissance Influence Treatment摘要 在历史发展的进程中，不同的文化或者文明之间不可避免地相互影响相互渗透，西方文化也不例外。从古至今，西方文化在很大程度上影响了中华文明。本文试图从这几方面来分析：到底什么是西方文化？它是怎样影响了中华文明？西方文化的魅力到底在哪里? 从而解决我们又该怎样来对待西方文化，以便于更好的建设我们自己的文明这一问
5、题。关键词 西方文化 文艺复兴 影响 理智How to Treat the Europe Culture1. Introduction In a remote period of Greek history, probably around 1200 BC., a war was fought between Greece and Troy, a city on the Asiatic side of the Aegean, ending in the destruction of Troy. Thus, the European culture began.European culture
6、is made up of many elements, which have gone through changes over the centuries. Two of these elements are considered to be more enduring and they are: the Greco-Roman element, and the Judeo-Christian element, and there has been a complex interplay between the two, which adds to the richness of the
7、culture. From the Greek and Roman to the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance and even to the age of Enlightenment, there are various cultures, and the whole European culture forms like today.2. What is western culture?Here I want to mention the culture during the age of renaissance. Generally speaking,
8、 renaissance as a period in western civilization refers to the period between the 14th and mid 17th century. Its a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of conservatism in feudalist Europe and introduce new idea that expressed the interests o
9、f the rising bourgeoisie, to lift the restrictions in all areas placed by the Roman church authorities. And the most important element of the renaissance is humanism.During that time, old sciences revived and new sciences emerged. Art and literature flourished as never before and people in Europe ca
10、me to a new awareness which was to help shape what Europe is today. Renaissance started from Italy, and came later in England than other European countries. But when it did come, it was to produce some towering figures in the English like William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Sir Thomas More, Francis
11、 Bacon and a number of humanist scholars. And this was the literary heritage and the summit in the world. Among these great figures, Shakespeare showed his great creative abilities in writing especially in his play Hamlet. Hamlet is made a hero of the renaissance period and the representative of hum
12、anism. And this comedy is regarded as the summit of Shakespeares art. Shakespeare was a great master of English language. He commanded a vocabulary larger than any other English writer. And also, he is a great poet who is skilled in many poetic forms like songs, lyrics, sonnets, couplets, quatrains,
13、 and blank verse.Then what is western culture? Western culture refers to cultures of European origin. Roots of the Western civilization may be traced back to 9000 BC, when the first great cultures grew out of agricultural cores in South-West Asia, China, Pakistan, Mexico, and Peru. The Westernmost o
14、f this Old Worlds agricultural cores, the area around the headwaters of the Euphrates, Tigris, and Jordan Rivers in South-West Asia, spread outwards across Europe. Western culture in its strictly European geographical range began with the Greeks, was enlarged and strengthened by the Romans, reformed
15、 and modernized by the fifteenth-century Renaissance and Reformation, and globalized by successive European empires that spread the European ways of life and education between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. European Culture developed with a complex range of philosophy, medieval scholasticism
16、 and mysticism, Christian and secular humanism. Rational thinking developed through a long age of change and formation with the experiments of enlightenment, naturalism, romanticism, science, democracy, and socialism. With its global connection, European culture grew with an all-inclusive urge to ad
17、opt, adapt, and ultimately influence other trends of culture.There is no denying that the European culture is worthy to be learned by us. Some knowledge of it is necessary to us as citizens of the world, particularly so when our country is going ahead with modernization and taking an active part in
18、world affairs. But during this process, how will we treat this civilization and use it? Its really necessary for us to think over. Someone says that the western culture is superior. It is one of the reasons they learn about it. But on the contrary, many people strongly disagree with the belief that
19、a culture can be considered better than others. They do so because they view a cultures level of development as a product of race. As a result, they view any claim of cultural superiority as a claim of racial superiority. And, accordingly, condemn the idea of cultural superiority as racist. However,
20、 as we have seen, a cultures level of development is not a product of race. People also object to the idea of cultural supremacy because they do not believe that culture can be judged objectively. This is incorrect,too. The proper standard for objectively evaluating a culture is by the degree to whi
21、ch its core values are for or against human life. A pro-human life culture recognizes the requirements of proper human survival, namely the values of reason, individualism, happiness, rights and capitalism.Now we find that one of the chief defects of modern education has been its failure to find an
22、adequate method for the study of the western civilization. Here lets take the humanism for instance. The old humanist education taught all that it knew about the civilization of ancient Greece and Rome, and taught little else. In the nineteenth century, this aristocratic and humanist ideal was gradu
23、ally replaced by the democratic utilitarianism of compulsory state education and by the ideal of scientific specialization. The result has been an intellectual anarchy imperfectly controlled by the crude methods of the examination system and of payment by results. The mind of the student is overwhel
24、med and dazed by the volume of new knowledge which is being accumulated by the labor of specialists, while the necessity for using education as a stepping-stone to a profitable career leaves him little time to stop and think. And the same is true of the teacher, who has become a kind of civil servan
25、t tied to a routine over which he can have little control. Now the old humanist education, with all its limitations and faults, possessed something that modern education has lost. It possessed an intelligible form, owing to the fact that the classical culture which it studied was seen as a whole, no
26、t only in its literary manifestations but also in its social structure and in historical development. Modern education lacks this formal unity because it has never attempted to study modern civilization with the care and earnestness which humanist education devoted to classical culture. Consequently
27、, the common background of humanist culture has been lost, and modern education finds its goal in competing specialism. This is really a kind of tragedy and we play it by ourselves. Then lets come to our own culture.The civilization of our own was delivered from generation to generation for thousand
28、s of years. But today, we can see obviously that citizens of our nation are becoming more and more fawning on foreign things. Its so easy to find a shirt with English words. Its so prevailing to wear jeans. We like going into the European-styled restaurant to enjoy the western food. We say “Bye-bye”
29、 instead of “zaijian”. Whats more, our traditional festivals like the Spring Festival are desolated. We celebrate the Valentines Day every February instead of the Chinese Valentines Day according to the lunar calendar every June. 3. What effect that the Western Culture have on our society?Then the q
30、uestion is that whether we will enjoy it or worry about it. What effect will they have on our society?Before our discussion, lets think about some other questions related closely to our topic. When did the western civilization permeate our community? Where does its glamour exist, and why are we boun
31、d up in the European culture?In fact, its influence to us started from the Han Dynasty. At that time, we were already in contact with the Roman Empire through the world-famous Silk Road. Till the Tang Dynasty, this kind of association become more frequently. The afference of Christianity which was c
32、alled “jingjiao” at that time is an important mark. This is the first time that western culture permeates our culture on a large scale. The second percolation appeared at the reign of Yuan Dynasty. A multitude of western missionary came into our nation, among which, the most famous one is Marco Polo
33、 whose “Touhou Kenbunroku” has enormous implications in the western countries. And this is the beginning of our being the Garden of Eden in the eyes of European countries. The third percolation came at the end of Ming Dynasty when the bourgeois revolution happened in the western countries. Some west
34、ern missionary came to China to extend their advanced technology and ideas such as Matteo Ricci and Johann Adam Schall von Bell. However, its a shame that we did not pay attention to these things and were indulging in the dream of Sinozentrismus. The fourth percolation came after the Opium War. At t
35、he beginning of this percolation, there were also some western missionary disseminating their religion, philosophy and their economical and political ideas. Nevertheless, at the later period, a batch of youth who were full of patriotism became the main part of propagating western ideas about democra
36、cy and science. The last percolation should be in the period afterwards the policy of reformation and opening in 1978. Abundant of western culture came into our nation, and changed our lifestyle to a very great extent.Then where does its glamour exist? Since Western culture is based on objective rea
37、lity and universal human nature, it is open to everyone, transcending both geography and race. In other words, Western culture is humanitys culture. Contrary to conventional belief, one does not need to be Caucasian or of European descent to admire Western culture or even help to build it. Any indiv
38、idual or society on earth can adopt it and thereby become westernized. Indeed, millions of people each year with no ancestral ties to Europe recognize the universal appeal of Western culture. They do so by immigrating to and immersing themselves in nations where Western culture has meaningful presen
39、ce. Or they personally embrace and promote Western culture in the nations where they live. These adopters of Western culture understand that truth is truth, ideals are ideals and values are values, and it does not matter from where such things come or who originally discovered or identified them. In
40、 other words, adopters of Western culture know, on some level, that culture is an intellectual matter, not an issue of geography or race. And for that matter, it is an issue of ethnicity, language, class, national origin or gender. 4. How to treat the western culture?Following lets come to our quest
41、ion: how to treat the western culture? 4.1 Balance the relationship between foreign cultures and our patriotism. First of all, we have to balance the relationship between foreign cultures and our patriotism. It has to be admitted that from the bottom of our heart, we have accepted this kind of cultu
42、re borrowed from abroad, and we allow this civilization to change our mind or lifestyle. In recent hundreds of years, many western countries have advanced rapidly in the quality of life. Therefore, we begin to query and oppose the culture of our own, even want to do some reformation. However, what s
43、hould be our reformation? Is it reformation to talk or say something with some foreign words now and then? is it reformation to pursue the western culture directly without our own thought? Many people think that it refers to another question-whether you are patriotic. How to be patriotic while you a
44、re reforming reasonably? A famous scholar and writer called zhou Guoping has said, “There is no need to emphasize the patriotism intentionally. Today so many youth are appealing patriotism while trying their best to settle down abroad. Its the fault of the public guidance. One should has selfrespect
45、, and the same goes to a nation. At this period of globalization, we should distinguish the essence and the chaff in our own culture, and recognize the past, the present and the future, so as to construct a more flourishing China. As for me, this is true patriotism.”4.2 Borrow the foreign cultures w
46、hile using our brains.In the second place, we should borrow the foreign cultures while using our brains. Have you realized that you are the sacrificial lamb instead of flaunting the individuality when you are going for the western-cultured skirt and the junk food? Today, our traditional culture whic
47、h should be carried forward is destroyed seriously by the culture abroad. If one day Confucius possibly revives, dont you feel that it is so dismal to point at the classical roofs of the skyscrapers beside the Changan Street and tell him, “This is our Chinese civilization”? Looking at our Chinese ar
48、chitecture, except the so-called classical architecture “culture heritage” established by the culture protection association, most of the architectures are of “modern style”. Maybe the reason is that they are the product of imitating the style of western architecture. They have no origins as well as belongings. So we can just cal them “modern”. Can we say that we learn from the west well? Many parents bring their children to the KFC without minding waiting for a lon
