The comparison of wine drinking culture between China and Western countries中西方饮酒文化差异的比较.doc

中西方饮酒文化差异的比较内容摘要(主要应解决的问题、难点):主要弥补前人在专门针对饮酒这一具体行为上来比较中西方文化差异的不足,全面地研究这一差异的实质,原因,和具体表现等。难点在于相关文献较少,引用例证困难。主要任务:分析并比较了中西方的饮酒文化,其中包括酒的起源、人们饮酒的目的、饮酒礼仪和酒诗,指出了中西方饮酒文化的差异实际上就是不同的文化信仰。Abstract This undergraduate thesis analyzes and compares Chinese and western wine drinking culture of,including the origin of wine, the purpose of drinking wine, etiquette of drinking, and poetry about drinking. Based on the cultural analysis of drinking behavior,this thesis points out that the variability of the drinking culture in China and the West is determined by different cultural beliefs.Chinese drinking culture shows the preference of people oriented,while western drinking culture is only to the respect and appreciation of the wine itself.This comparison of wine drinking culture between China and Western countries can perform the unique charm of Chinese wine culture and let more people in the world understand Chinese wine culture better and enjoy Chinese wine culture more.Key Words: Chinese; western; drinking culture; difference 摘 要 本文分析并比较了中西方的饮酒文化,其中包括酒的起源、人们饮酒的目的、饮酒礼仪和酒诗,指出了中西方饮酒文化的差异实际上就是不同的文化信仰。中国的饮酒文化重在以人为本,而西方的饮酒文化更多地是出于对酒本身的尊重和欣赏。比较中西方的饮酒文化的差异更能彰显中国酒文化的魅力,也让世界上越来越多的人了解并欣赏中国酒文化。关键词:中国; 西方; 饮酒文化; 差异ContentsIntroduction41. Research Background51.1 The Previous Studies of Wine Culture51.2 The Research Perspective of This Thesis71.3 Detailed Research Design82. The Origins of Wine82.1 The Origins of Wine in China82.2 The Origins of Wine in the West93. The Purpose of People Drinking Wine103.1 The Purpose of Chinese Drinking Alcoholic Drink103.1.1 Drinking for Sacrifice103.1.2 Drinking for Festivals113.1.3 Drinking for Customs123.1.4 Drinking for Interpersonal Relationship133.1.5 Drinking for Health Care143.2 The Purpose of Westerners Drinking Wine153. Drinking Etiquette154.1 Chinese Drinking Etiquette154.2 Western Drinking Etiquette165. Drinking and Poetry185.1 Drinking and Chinese Poetry185.2 Drinking and Western Poetry19Conclusion20References21Introduction In the long history of human culture, the wine is not only a kind of objectively existing material, but a cultural icon. According to Wang 2007, p.20, “wine culture exists after the birth of wine, and wine contains thousands of years of human civilization, wine culture as the same as other cultures have great influence on people's life”. Wine culture derives from people's lives, reflects direct and indirect pursuit of all fronts of people, and influences social fashion. Wine culture has the broad and profound connotation, represented in the following three aspects: natural property, social attribute, and spiritual expression. Wine culture has natural property such as the study of wine set, brewing and identifying techniques. It is also related to social attribute, such as wines phenomena of custom and behavior. In addition, it concerns spiritual expression, including wine poetry, literature, thoughts, celebrity anecdotes and etc Many existing studies of drinking culture have been done on these three aspects, with a focus on the variability of Chinese and western drinking culture. Jing & Wu 2006 studied all the records of stories and legends that are related to Chinese celebrities and alcohol. Li 2007 systematically introduces the Chinese wine culture from history, category, artistic wine vessels, drinking etiquette and function of health care. Johnson 2003 describes the history and development of wine all over the world. However, most of these studies focused on the wine itself rather than drinking behavior. Therefore, this thesis is going to study the social attribute and spiritual expression of wine culture. Precisely, it is focused on “drinking” behavior to dig up its cultural roots through a comparative study of drinking culture in China and western countries. Few people do research of wine culture without studying its natural property, but I must abandon it for two reasons. The first is that there have been many researches about natural properties of wine but few researches on drinking behavior. The second is that wines natural properties, such as the materials, drinking sets and brewing techniques are easy to exchange between two countries, but social and spiritual properties of wine are quite difficult to be accepted by another country. Drinking behaviors in a country are very typical, with no alternative, invisible but touchable culture. This thesis, therefore, analyzes and compares the wine drinking culture between Chinese and the Western, including the relation between drinking culture and literature, art, manners and wine games. It points out that the difference of the drinking culture between the East and the West is actually a way of different thinking and beliefs. Chinese drinking culture mainly shows the humanistic dimension, with the poetry and literature and a long history of wine games; while Western drinking culture including drinking with fashion is only to the respect and appreciation of the wine itself.At last, there will be a deeper understanding of each culture and a better communication.1. Research Background This part is going to discuss the previous studies of wine culture, analyze their achievement and deficiency, and to show the research perspective of this thesis. There are also some details to introduce the research methods of this thesis1.1 The Previous Studies of Wine Culture Large numbers of researches have been done on wine culture in both China and the West. Most of these researches, however, compare Chinese drinking culture with the westerners in the aspects of brewing materials and techniques; few of them comparatively studies on the variability of drinking behavior in Chinese and the Western wine culture. Therefore, with the basis of existing investigations, this thesis aims to study the social attribute and spiritual expression of wine culture. Precisely, it is focused on “drinking” behavior to dig up its cultural roots, rather than the wine itself. So this thesis is exactly a comparative study of drinking culture, rather than wine culture, in China and western countries. China has a long history of wine drinking. Chinese ancestors had wine even when they were man apes. According to Li 2007, p.4, “as the earliest drinking was fruit wine which naturally fermented, we can say the wine was not invented by humans but by nature, and wine culture began together with human history” In a broad sense, wine culture refers to all the studies that relate to alcoholic drinks. There are so many researches about alcoholic drinks, such as its origin, drinking etiquette, poetry about drinking and etc, these studies have much in common and can be divided roughly into the following five categories. The first category is the studies focused on the origin of wine. These studies, for examples, Li 2007 and Wang 2007,have the similar research information ancient books and get similar verdict. The second category is about drinking etiquette. For instance, Rao 2010 has a detailed description of Chinese and western drinking etiquette and points out the obvious difference between Chinese and western drinking etiquettes is that westerners put more emphasis on the wine itself, and they care more about what to drink and whether it is delicious; comparatively, Chinese care more about the guests and drinking atmosphere. Xiao 2010 has pointed out the difference and the causes of variability of drinking etiquettes. The third category is focused on interpersonal communication with drinking. Xu 2008 firstly studied the Chinese ancient peoples view on impersonal communication with drinking that are embedded in the Chinese ancient poetry, then he studied fundamental difference between cultural values, from the perspective of modern Chinese people Xu, 2011 The fourth category is poetry about drinking. While Yang 2004 has compared the different technique of expression in Chinese and western poetry, Xu 2008 studied from the view of English translation of Tang poetry The fifth category is about the comparative analysis between Winebibber Spirit and Dionysian Spirit. Such researches investigate Chinas Winebibber Spirit and the Western Dionysian Spirit Liu,1993 and argued that Chinese scholars being drunk can demonstrate their soul state, while the Western supernatural spirit of alcohol shows instinctive inebriation and the revelry of the desire Liu, 1993; Gong, 2008; & Shan, 2006. Therefore, Chinese scholars being drunk is intoxicated, similar to dreams, showing the state of spiritual life. Comparatively, the Western supernatural spirit of alcohol has such instinctive revelry characteristics like instinct nature, destructiveness, surmounting, sense of strength and etc, and these features plant in the instinctive life.1.2 The Research Perspective of This Thesis With more and more frequent communication between Chinese and western, the cultural difference is gradually exposed. The most common occasions of communication between Chinese and westerners is reception, and here the wine is indispensable. At the same time, the differences and contradictions in drinking behavior are on the outstanding. People can easily distinguish a native Chinese and overseas Chinese at the banquet. There is something deep inside but we can see by observing outside. Through my observation of people's drinking behavior, I understand that it is perhaps more reasonable to define a person who he is according to the birthplace than the pedigree. The fundamental difference between Chinese and Westerners lies deep inside rather than the outside physical things. Sometimes we call it culture. According to Liang 1988 evidence from first language acquisition indicates that culture can be summarized into three aspects: spiritual life, social life, and material life. From these three aspects, drinking wine can well reflect a country's culture. Drinking has the different origin and deep cultural connotations both in China and western countries. The answers to the questions, such as why people do it, how they do it, what the result is, what they can get from doing it and so on, can well reflect the difference of thinking mode and values between Chinese and westerners, which are just the fundamental differences between Chinese and western culture. Therefore, this thesis aims to have a better understanding of the differences between the Chinese and western cultures through a comparative study on their drinking culture The most appropriate research tradition for the research problem identified in this thesis is comparison. Firstly, some certain index to compare is chosen. Then this thesis presents the characteristics in each of the different situations. Finally, it reveals and summarizes the difference of drinking culture in China and the western countries. This kind of method is reasonable and manageable for an undergraduate student.1.3 Detailed Research Design This thesis takes the method of parallel comparison. Firstly, it compares purpose and situation of drinking between Chinese and Western; and what they think when they drink it is also a part of reason they drink, as well as what they can get while drinking and what they pursue for. There are also comparisons in each side, such as comparisons between different poets or different background and times and between the different social groups. Then, this thesis analyzes wine culture through wine literature, mainly based on wine poems, because it contains the largest amount of information and the most widely circulated range. Finally, this thesis is going to put attention to observe the life we are living now, to prove whether this research finding is changed and to find the new difference up to date when the two kind of culture meet.2. The Origins of Wine The origin of wine in China is different from the Western. In China, people believe that human beings brewed wine first; while in the west, people believe that wine was brewed by the spirit. Maybe the difference of the wine drinking culture between Chinese and Westerners appeared at the very beginning. Chinese believe that wine is made by people and is reasonably served the people so that when drinking Chinese people care more about drinkers. Comparatively, the Westerners believe that wine is made by god and it is a gift to make people happy so that the westerners care more about wine itself.2.1 The Origins of Wine in China There are so many legends about the origin of wine, but no one is so clear and accepted by all. Some people believe that wine is made by a human. The book Shi Ben Qin Dynasty and Origin of Chinese Characters Donghan Dynasty compiled by Xu Shen has some records about Yi Di making wine. However, many scholars do not believe that. There are also many records in ancient books deny that Yi Di made wine. According to these books, Yi Di just summarized up the method of making wine and handed it down to later generations. Among these ancient legends, the most famous one is Du Kang making wine. Jiang Tong in Jin Dynasty was the first person who held the theory of natural fermentation of grain brewing in Chinese history. He said that Du Kang made wine Jiu Gao, Jin Dynasty. Du Kang is a real person in history. Many ancient books have records about him such as Lv Buweis book Lv Familys History Qing Dynasty, Xu Shens book Origin of Chinese Characters Donghan Dynasty and Cao Caos famous Short Song Some Chinese people also believe that the apes made wine. Li Rihua in Ming Dynasty wrote in his book that the apes in Mount Huang in Anhui Province made wine. It is said that many apes in the mountain who are good at picking flowers brew wine. People who cutting wood found the wine stored in the caves. We can know wine made by the apes is just one kind of wine with the taste of fruit, but in another way we can say this is the original and the oldest wine. There are also some archaeological excavations to improve it. According to Li 2007, the fossil of drunken apes has been found under grass Bay of HongZe Lake in Jiangsu province There is another legend that the Wine Star made wine Dou, Song Dynasty. People in ancient society lacked scientific knowledge, they thought wine was controlled by the constellation in the sky and everything was from the sky, so this legend was brought out. Many famous poets such as Li Bai, Kong Rong and Li He had mentioned the Wine Star in their poems. To summarize, Chinese scholars do not reach a unified point of view on the origin of the wine. The three different views above all have strong proof to be supported.2.2 The Origins of Wine in the West There is no clear record of the origins of wine in western history. However, the West has its own legend about the origin of wine ? Dionysus. Dionysus is the god of wine and carnival in Greek mythology, and also the art god of ancient Greek. Because of h