摘要
随着不同文化间人们交流的日益频繁,对跨文化交际的研究越来越受重视。对文化的误解和偏见会导致交流障碍,因此对不同文化的研究就显得尤为重要。当今,学者们从语言学、社会学、心理学和人类学等各个不同的角度和领域研究跨文化交际。然而此类研究大多抽象,对具体文化元素的意义分析研究较少。
从符号学的角度,交际的过程可以被看作是符号交流的过程。每个符号都有其特殊的符号意义,符号的意义是人类文化的产物。对符号的正确理解能够帮助人们形象地体会其符号背后的文化内涵。作为展览世界各国文明成果的盛会,上海世博会以科技与文化的交流为主要目的,为人们之间的交流以及学习他国文化提供了平台,其各个展馆更是包含了各自独特的文化元素。
美国学者皮尔斯把符号分为第一性符号、第二性符号和第三性符号。这种分类实际上就是符号活动过程,从“符号代表物”(representamen)到“对象”(object)再到“解释项”(interpretant),每个阶段都是一个符号。依照皮尔斯给符号下的定义,符号,或者说是代表项,在某种方面和程度上向人们代表某样东西并在人们的头脑里激起一个相应的符号,或者一个更加发达的符号。这个后产生的符号称为第一个符号的解释项。符号代表某样东西,即它的对象。在这个视角下,本研究中上海世博会中美展馆的文化元素也是由三个方面构成的:世博会展馆的文化元素即代表项,文化元素所呈现出来的文化形态即指涉对象,以及其中包含的文化内涵即解释项。
本文以皮尔斯的符号学理论为基础,以上海世博会中美展馆文化元素包括展馆外观及展馆内部展示内容等为研究对象,运用定性研究以及个案研究的方法,分析其符号意义及文化内涵。基于此,文章提出两个问题,分别是:
1.上海世博会中美展馆文化元素的符号意义及文化内涵。
2.通过符号分析所反映出的文化差异。
由于不同的文化背景和个人观念的差异,对于上海世博会中美展馆所包含的文化元素的界定也各有不同。所以,此研究分析的对象主要集中于上海世博会官方网站以及各个媒体的宣传介绍中比较受关注的文化元素。中国展馆的文化元素主要包括展馆的建筑风格和外形以及展馆内部的一些有特色的文化元素。美国馆的文化元素主要为美国馆的鹰状外形,其展馆中的符号主要体现在其名为《花园》的短片中。
运用符号学相关理论,分析研究上海世博会中美展馆的文化元素,不仅可以帮助人们更好地欣赏各国经典独特的展览,还能够帮助人们更好地理解不同文化特色。在此基础上,文章借助克拉克洪(Kluckhohn)和斯特罗的贝克(Strodtbeck)的文化价值取向理论论述了中美文化的文化差异及其原因。对上海世博会文化元素进行分析,结果表明:这些符号蕴含了深刻的文化内涵并且能够反映出不同国家文化的差异,文化差异的产生是由于文化价值观的不同所造成的。虽然各国文化由于人们交流的频繁出现文化全球化与文化一体化的趋势,但是一个民族的深层文化价值观会对人们的观念和行为产生潜移默化的影响并且不会在短期内发生变化。此外,文化之间的差异并不是绝对的,而会受到环境与社会等因素的影响与制约。因此,需要正确看待文化差异,避免形成文化定势与文化偏见。
As the communication between people from different cultures becomes increasinglyfrequent, the study of intercultural communication has been given more attention thanever before. Misunderstanding and prejudice against different cultures will causecommunication barriers between communicators, so the understanding of differentcultures seems particularly important. Nowadays, scholars research the interculturalcommunication problems from various perspectives and disciplines, such as linguistics,sociology, psychology and anthropology. However, most of their studies are abstract, andthe case studies of certain cultural element are rare.
The communication process can be considered as a sign exchanging process fromperspective of semiotics. Every sign contains the specific semiotic meanings which areoriginated from human cultures. Correct understanding of the meanings in signs can helppeople know the cultural connotations contained in them. As a grand feast of displayingcivilizations all over the world, Shanghai Expo provides people a chance to communicatewith each other and learn from other cultures. With its purpose of displaying science,technology and culture, the pavilions of it contain many elements with typical cultures.
American scholar Peirce had classified sign into three categories: Firstness,Secondness and Thirdness. This category considers the action of sign as “semiosis” thatinvolves the interaction among three factors: the representamen, the object and theinterpretant. According to Peirce’s theory, a sign or a representamen is the form of signthat stands to people for something which can be called the object in some aspect orcapacity. The sign can encourage people to create in their minds an equivalent sign or amore developed sign that can be called interpretant. From this perspective, the culturalelement in Chinese and American pavilions in this research also consists of three aspects:the cultural element of pavilions (representamen), the cultural form reflected by culturalelement (object) and the cultural connotations (interpretant).
With the help of Peirce’s semiotic theory, this thesis adopts qualitative research andcase study methods to analyze the semiotic significances and cultural connotationscontained in the cultural elements of the Chinese and American pavilions in ShanghaiExpo. Mainly for the above reasons, this thesis proposes two questions:
1. What are the semiotic significances and cultural connotations of the culturalelements in the Chinese and American pavilions of Shanghai Expo?
2. What are the cultural differences reflected from the semiotic analysis?
Different people may have different views on the classification of the culturalelements of Shanghai Expo on the basis of their distinct cultural backgrounds andpersonal feelings, so the cultural elements in this thesis are those focused more in theintroduction of Shanghai Expo official website and the mass media. The culturalelements of Chinese pavilion generally include the architectural style and outlook of itand some typical cultural elements displayed in it. The cultural elements of Americanpavilion contain the outlook of it and the elements in the video-Garden displayed in it.
The analysis of these cultural elements based on semiotic theory not only can helppeople appreciate the classical displays of each country but also better understand thedifferent cultural features. Besides, this thesis also discusses the cultural differences anddeep reasons of cultural difference with the help of Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s ValueOrientations theory. The analysis of the cultural elements of Shanghai Expo indicates thatthese signs contain rich cultural connotations and can reflect the cultural divergencescaused by different cultural values of different countries. Moreover, the deep culturalvalues can influence people’s concepts and behaviors unconsciously and can hardlychange in short time, though cultural globalization and integration become more and moreacceptable because of frequent communication between people. Last but not the least,cultural differences are not absolute, and it is affected by many factors such asenvironment and society, so people should avoid cultural stereotype and cultural prejudiceand keep an objective attitude towards cultural differences.
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