Chinese Culture Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Chinese Culture - Term Paper Example Anthropological studies provide information, which explain cultural diversity that people experience across the world. Historical facts project various dimensions in human culture. Historians use cultural dimensions such as language, social structure, religion, beliefs, and relation to the environment among other dimensions to acknowledge diversity in humanity. Each geographical location in the world has people who are distinguished using their cultural identity. Chinese culture provides historical information about the Chinese people, their beliefs, and their attitude towards other people, social economic practices, and education among other factors. This paper is analysis of Chinese culture in relation to socio economic practices, language, education, belief, government, environment, topology, and historical facts about their cultural heritage. Language Historians believe that language is one aspect of culture, which distinguishes various communities from each other. Historians bel ieve that Chinese language has varieties, which have some close relation. The language family of Chinese is Sino-Tebetan (Pletcher, 68). Each group of Chinese language has its own dialect or sub-dialect. These dialects are less or more mutually intelligible. Chinese population, which stands at about 1.2 billion, speaks one these dialects. In China, Chinese is formal language, which they use in both public and domestic places. Sign communication and media communication in China uses Chinese language. It is arguable visitors coming China need to learn Chinese or use interpreters to help them in their communication. Clothes Chinese culture ranks clothing among other primary necessities in life. China a renowned history of garment making in which Chinese exchanged their garments in trade. Chinese garments in the ancient time had ornate details, refined artisanship, and bright colors. Clothes in Chinese culture changed with different dynasties. However, 20 century has observable changes in garments. Some styles portrayed on Chinese garment include Cheongsam, Qipao, western suits, silk stocking, hat, high heels, jackets, bell-bottom, bikinis, miniskirt, and bell-bottom among other fashion trends in the 20 century (Chen 111). Analysts believe that China decided to respond positively to the fashion trends in 1978 by embracing some western practices (Choi 89). During the ancient age, Chinese people devoted, various clothing to people according to the color of the skin. For instance, ordinary people wore costume and long hat when offering sacrifices to ancestors or gods. Another notable aspect of Chinese clothing culture is that ethnic minority wore clothing, which was colorful, flowery, and highly distinctive. Chinese people associate red color to good fortune. Red color characterizes wedding clothes for the Chinese people. It is notable that Chinese in the north wear qipao, and southern Chinese wear Kwa for their weddings. Dominance hierarchy Gender dominance is relev ant in Chinese culture. Men gender dominated over women in the Chinese culture. The culture views a woman a subordinate who is subject to his father during the youthful stages, to her husband upon reaching maturity, and to her son at old age (Palmer 44). Dominance by the male gender in the Chinese culture influences the activities of women. Women should not roam freely as men. Largely, their duty is to stay inside the house performing house chores. Cultural responsibility for women gave them the authority to govern their homes, whereas men guarded the outer world. In ancient time, women never had dominant role in the family. Historic information about hierarchy in ancient time in China indicates that social stigmatization characterized life of the Chinese people (Chen 138). For instance, women