Completed Essay

Western Etiquette Culture Migrates to China

With the long-term communication between western and eastern countries, western etiquette culture has spilled over into many areas of people’s lives in China. Nowadays, it is not unusual to see exotic scenes in our daily lives. People drink coffee, use western-style tableware like knives and forks at western restaurants, wearing bridal veil and suits at the wedding, greeting their colleagues and friends with the word “Mr.” or “Miss” in public places. What changes the migration of western etiquette culture brings to China? What influences it leads to? It is worth exploring and considering.

The migration of western etiquette culture brings several new elements to Chinese etiquette culture and makes it change or develop gradually. The first one to be discussed is the social etiquette culture. For a long time, Chinese traditional etiquette culture had profound influences to people’s lives. But since the 1911 Revolution, with the influences of western bourgeoisie’s thoughts “liberty, equality and democracy” (Zhu 39), Chinese traditional etiquette culture suffered a great impact, then in the next May Fourth New Culture Movement, backward and decayed Chinese feudal ethical code was abandoned, and western social etiquette cultures were accepted gradually. Traditional ceremonial behaviors such as bowing and kneeling down in the old days of China are replaced by shaking hands, nodding and smiling. In addition, with the influence western concepts of equality, women’s status is improved notably. Chinese old thought that men are superior to women is replaced by the principle of “ladies first”. For instance, when meeting someone and having a friendly handshake, men should hold out their hands after ladies stretching out hers (Eyring 163). Women are also subject to preferential treatment when they go into the elevator, get on and off the bus, and so on. Moreover, the Chinese traditional social etiquette believes being self-effacing and modest in social occasions shows one’s good personal qualities, but with closer communication between countries, western social etiquette which forces on efficiency and self-confidence rather than stick to polite formulas and be too humble becomes more pragmatic and available, therefore, it is accepted by Chinese gradually.

The second is western dress etiquette culture migrates to China. In ancient China, costume was closely related to the class and identity, it depended on complicated systems and rules. Along with the Opium War which opened the door of China, China entered into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the social structure was changed, western lifestyle and cultures came to China. The western-style clothes were also spread to China just at that time, but it really became popular after the founding of the Republic of China. Based on western-style clothes, the leader of Xinhai Revolution Sun Zhongshan designed the Chinese tunic suit which combined the characteristic of both Chinese and western clothes, and it was widely used as man’s formal clothes in many important occasions that time (Zhu 42). Besides, Chinese women’s traditional clothes cheongsam also had an improvement at that time. It abandoned the old form of traditional Chinese clothing which always had wide robe and large sleeves, absorbed western aesthetic taste and boldly showed female curvaceous shape. It was a successful attempt which used traditional Chinese clothes and fused western culture meanwhile. Moreover, dress in some big occasions of China changes a lot because of the migration of western dress etiquette culture. For instance, at a traditional Chinese wedding, groom and bride both should wear red wedding clothes, the bride must use a red cloth to cover her head before the wedding finishes. But in today’s wedding, the groom usually wears a black suit with leather shoes, and the bride is supposed to wear a white bridal veil and high-heeled shoes.

Thirdly, the migration of western dining etiquette culture also brings considerable influences to China. After the Opium War in 1840, western powers flooded into China, and western cuisine and western dinning etiquette culture were brought there at the same time. More western-style restaurants were set up in China, western food became popular and western dining etiquette was known and observed by more and more Chinese people. For example, it is a basic etiquette to keep the fork in the left hand and the knife or spoon in the right during the meal (McCray 146). People are supposed to keep quiet and sit up straight when having meal, talking loudly or hunching over can be regarded as a very impolite behavior.

China has been a state of ceremonies from of old, thousands of years’ civilization contributes to its complete etiquette culture. However, because of the risen of Chinese etiquette culture at ancient time was to meet the need of its social system, it’s inevitable that it contained some characteristic features of that time and limitations. Therefore, the migration of western etiquette culture is effectively promote the development of Chinese etiquette culture, it eliminates a lot of backward and decayed factors of Chinese etiquette culture, brings vigor and vitality to it and makes it keeps up with the trend of times. But meanwhile, it is also important to insure the migration of western etiquette culture will not downplay positive impacts of Chinese traditional etiquette culture, which play a great role on the national cohesion, cultural inheritance, integration and development.