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An Analysis of the Wine Culture in Chinese and Western Social Activates
By
Wang Ying
A Thesis
Submitted to the College of Foreign Languages
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
The Degree of Bachelor of Arts
Under the Supervision of MsYuan Bo
Ningbo Dahongying University
October 2011
With the development of society and exchanges between China and the West, people have paid more and more attention to the cultural difference. As a prop both link history and to the future, wine is not only an objective physical, but also a culture. Wine culture exists after the birth of wine. It has been paying an important role in people’s social life, so there are many researches on wine culture in China and Western countries. These researchers can be summed up in two aspects, its material culture and spiritual culture, such as the study of drinking vessels, the types of wine and the drinking customs. The Western countries’ studies also concentrated in these two aspects, like the origin of wine and table manners. In order to reduce the cultural differences between Chinese and Western social activities and promote the development, this paper analyzes wine culture on the basis of the previous researches through Chinese and Western social activities, which is by contrast with the types of wine, the drinking vessels, etiquette of drinking and the purpose of drinking in China and West. Moreover, this paper discusses the functions of wine in social activities and suggests that deeper understanding of wine culture in China and Western countries can promote international communication and the harmonious development of world.
Key Words: exchanges between east and west social activities wine culture
随着社会的发展，中西方交流也在不断地扩大，中西文化的差异也越来越受到重视。“酒”作为一个既传承历史又通向未来的道具，它不仅仅是一种客观的物质存在，更是一种文化。无论是中国还是西方国家，自从酒诞生那日起，酒文化也就随之产生了。酒文化在人们的社会生活中占据着极其重要的位置，所以国内外对酒文化的研究也有很多。国内对酒文化的研究主要是物质文化和精神文化，如对于酒器，酒种，酒德等的研究。西方国家也主要集中在这两个方面，如酒的起源，餐桌礼仪等。为了减少中西方社交活动的文化差异，促进中西方更近一步的发展，本文从中西方社交活动中的酒文化出发，比较中西方酒种，酒器，酒礼及饮酒目的的差异，探讨酒文化对社交活动的促进作用，从而进一步论证前人的结论。了解中西方的酒文化，促进中西方文化的交流，促进世界的和谐发展。
关键词：中西方交流 社交活动 酒文化
Abstract I
摘 要 II
Contents III
1 Introduction 1
2 Literature Review 2
3.1 Wine Culture in China 5
3.2 Wine Culture in the West 6
4 The Application of the Wine Culture in Chinese and Western Social Activities 7
4.1 Types of Wine 7
4.2 Drinking Vessels 8
4.3 Etiquette of Drinking 9
4.4 Purpose of Drinking 10
5 Functions of Wine Culture in Social Activities 11
5.1 Promoting Business Negotiations 11
5.2 Promoting Mutual Communication 11
6 Conclusion 13
Works Cited 14
An Analysis of the Wine Culture in Chinese and Western Social Activates
Wine is a peculiar and attractive beverage in the world which is in the shape of water but has the character of fire. As a core of wine culture, wine plays an important role in daily life. No matter in wedding banquet or negotiations, wine accompanies human beings all though the years. There is no doubt that people no matter in China or in Western countries all have the habit of drinking wine in all kinds of social activities. Wine is not only an objective physical, but also a culture, so they put wine culture in an important position and regard drinking wine as a part of life.
As we all know that wine is a necessity in the social activities and the application of the wine culture in Chinese and Western social activities is a good way to show wine culture. But as the different living environment, historical background, and values, people's understanding of wine culture is different. This paper analyses the wine culture in three aspects of the definition of wine culture in China and West, the application of the wine culture in Chinese and Western social activities and the functions of wine culture in social activities, so we can have a good understanding of wine culture and the differences between China and Western countries.
In the fact, the differences of wine culture in China and Western countries are the culture’s differences. This is indeed the case, to understand wine culture in China and the West is very important. With the development of international communication, learning the other nations’ cultures has become the necessary work. Therefore, suggesting the deeper understanding of wine culture can contribute to the development of the social activities and international communication.
Wine can regulate people’s feelings and promote the skill of communication among people. So there are many researches about wine and wine culture. After reading some articles about wine culture in China and western countries, we can obviously find that there exist differences and similarities. Both China and Western countries have their researches summed up in two aspects are material culture and spiritual culture. The material culture includes the origin of wine, the types of wine, the drinking vessels and so on; the spiritual culture is refer to the etiquette of drinking, purpose of drinking and so forth.
China is an ancient civilization, so wine culture has a long history. A long time ago, China had the stories about Du Kang who invented the wine. In China, wine culture is first put forward in 1987 by renowned economist professor Yu Guangyuan. As we all known, wine culture has the broad and narrow meaning. In 1994, Xiao Jiaocheng said that the wine culture referred to the integration of the phenomena of material, technique, spirituality, custom, psychology and behavior which generated by wine. (Xiao, 2007, P11) This is indeed the case, Wan Xiaoyan (2009) explains that in the broad sense, wine culture including wine technology with thousands of years’ enhancement, technological level, legal system and drinking customs; in the narrow sense, wine culture is just referred to drinking etiquette, custom and anecdote. Therefore, wine culture has its both material culture and spiritual culture.
In the western countries, wine is a special kind of art and people all like it since it appeared. It can enrich human’s life and make them feel happy. In their opinions, wine is a gift what God gave them, so there is a beautiful myth about the origin of wine. Patrick E. McGovern（2003）and Julia Harding（2006）had studied the origin of grape wine and introduced the brewing of wine. Wine culture is very important for human being and has a high position.
So far, the study of wine culture mainly focused on the origin of wine, the drinking vessels, types of wine drinking etiquette and the purposes of drinking. Moreover, there are also some researchers try to find the values of wine culture in the poetries, traditional restaurant customs and international Communication. From what has been discussed above, we may safely draw the conclusion that there are no new ideas can be put forward for the material culture of wine culture but there is a lot of space for the study of wine culture. Due to the long history, wine culture has infiltrated all areas of life and affected people's lives from various degrees. Thus we can study wine culture from different angles and get hold of the potential effects for human being. Of course, there is no progress without innovation, so we should innovative consciousness. For example, through the social activities to get a good understanding of the wine cultures function and then make a good use of the wine culture’s function in international communication.
With the advancement of social, there are more and more social activities. Wine as the necessity in the social activities has a great research value. There are several reasons for people to study wine culture. Studying wine culture can help people have a good understanding of the ancient culture’s development; studying wine culture can contribute people have an in-depth knowledge of international culture; studying wine culture can be beneficial to understand the relationship between the ancient culture customs and modern one.
Dai Weidong (2010) put forward the definition of culture.
Culture, in a broad sense, means integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that is both a result of and integral to the human capacity for learning and transmitting to succeeding generations; in a narrow sense, culture may refer to local or special practice, beliefs or customs, which can be manifested in folk culture, enterprise culture or food culture, etc. (P125-126)
In the history of mankind, wine is not only an objective material, but also a culture. The wine accompanies human beings all through the years. So no matter in China or in the Western countries all has the splendid wine culture. Undoubtedly, the wine can be regarded as a riddle, because people always give wine a variety of emotions, such as heroic, noble, romantic and auspicious. What’s more, people regard drinking wine as an indispensable part of life, no mater the emperors and the beggars, the old and the young, the men and the women all like wine since it appeared. As a profound cultural phenomenon, wine culture has different definitions in different countries.
China is one of the ancient countries in the world and has a long history about the wine culture. “Since the appearing of wine and formed the methods of brewing wine, then the processes of brewing, the making of all kinds of drinking sets and drinking customs and etiquette were gradually formed and completed. ” (Lixiaoye, 2010, P7) This is just the definition of wine culture. It is well known that Confucianism is the core of Chinese culture, so people's understanding of the wine culture tends to the spiritual dimension and gives it a variety of emotions. In 1987, the renowned economist professor Yu Guangyuan put forward the phrase “wine culture” in China and Wan xiaoyan (2009) explains that the wine culture has broad and narrow meaning. In the broad sense, wine culture including wine technology with thousands of years’ enhancement, technological level, legal system and drinking customs; in the narrow sense, wine culture is just referred to drinking etiquette, custom and anecdote. There are many experts devote themselves to the research of wine culture, but it’s difficult to give a clear definition. Wine culture represents different characteristics in different times and has different effects on society.
Throughout the Chinese wine culture’s history, we know that wine culture studies the material, brewing techniques of wine and its social attitude. Xu Shaohua (1999) said that wine means drinking in social activities has a specific effect on politics, economic, culture, military affairs, religion, art, science and technology, social psychology, and folk customs. Wine culture is the combination of material culture and spiritual culture. It's a special and attractive culture.
In the west, wine culture is also a richly historical culture. In most time, wine culture refers to grape wine in west countries. “It has a history more than 8000 or at most 10000 years since wine appeared, and much longer than the liquor history in China.”(Li xiaoye, 2010, P8) To western people, wine is a special kind of art and has its glamour. When we meet troubles in our daily life or feel sad, wine can help us become strong and comfort us. So there is no doubt that wine culture is not only a kind of material culture but also a kind of a spiritual culture. Owing to the different cultural backgrounds, the western people’s understanding of the wine culture tends to the symbol of the right and gives it elegant and luxury image. For example, they believe wine can enrich their life and regulate their feelings. Xu Yan (2004) said this view of life can be expressed as drink one’s sorrows/ troubles, drown one’s troubles away, drink down sorrow. Wine culture is the reflection of culture in history and it’s the witness of history.
Wine is the protagonist of social activities and the social activities are also the best place to reflect the wine culture. As we all know culture varies in different countries, so does the wine culture. China and the Western countries have different living environments, historical backgrounds and values, so there are some differences in wine culture.
Baijiu is a typical Chinese wine, while grape wine plays an important role in Western countries.
China is a country with a long history and it is no exaggeration to say that Chinese history with five thousand years is written by wine. As China is a large agricultural country, the most wine is brewed with grain. In China, the word is “jiu” can be used to represent all the types of alcoholic beverages, such as beer, grape wine and so on. The most popular wine in China can be classified into two types, namely, yellow wine and white wine. The yellow wine is brewed directly from rice and wheat. The white wine is also brewed grain, but it has a higher purity of the alcohol level. Although China has a lot of techniques to brew wine and there are various types of wine, the grain liquor is always in the important position; this is because of the effect of geographical environment and agricultural culture. China's climate is very good for the growth of rice and other grain, as a result, the grain liquor is very prevalent.
In the Western countries, no matter when we talk about the western wine, grape wine is always the first one comes to our minds. Grape wine is the major wine and plays an important role in people’s life. Grape wine has a long history, Qu Xiaohui(1996) said that the Western archaeologists found that people had drank grape wine seven thousand years ago. Western is different from China as a large agricultural country, so most of Western countries develop animal husbandry and business. But the climatic and soil in many places don’t fit the growth of crops, they are suitable for grape. Grape wine was produced and became more and more popular under this circumstance. With the development of society, there are more types of grape wine, such as whisky, brandy, rum, cocktail and so forth.
Where there is wine, there is drinking vessel. As the saying goes, if there is no drinking vessel, there is no way to drink. So there is no doubt that drinking vessel as a part of wine culture has a long history.
The development of drinking vessel is closely bound up with the national economics; it can reflect a country’s level of development. China always shows great respect for the use of drinking vessels. People divided the drinking vessels into different categories depending on their usage. In ancient times, due to the low level of social development, people use some natural materials to make drinking vessels, such as horns and gourds. With the improvement of productivity and development of the wine industry, there are more types of wine vessels, for example, the drinking vessels are made of bronze or jade or other materials. What’s more, some drinking vessels are made in different shapes, for instance sheep, tiger, cow, rabbit and other animals or landscape. Different shapes of drinking vessels not only can help people enjoy the beauty of wine, but also reflects the unique charm of Chinese art.
Compared with China's drinking vessels, West’s has a distinctive flavor. Westerners pay attention to different glasses for different kinds of wine. When they drink whisky, brandy and grape wine, they will prepare the corresponding cups. It is well known that most western drinking vessels are made of glass and crystal, because these cups are good for drinkers to appreciate the wine's color and enjoy the beauty of wine. This is indeed the case; the western drinking vessels have an elegant appearance as well as the good usage. Nowadays, the glasses become more popular and are carriers to spread the wine culture.
Wine is a medium to understand the culture of different countries. Knowing the etiquette of drinking can reduce the misunderstandings in social activities and promote communications between peoples. After careful studies, we can find that there are some differences of etiquette of drinking between China and Western countries.
China is a country known as ceremony and pay attention to etiquette. Talk freely about the saying “No Custom without Wine”, etiquette of drinking is becoming an important part of life. There were four steps in this ceremony in the past, first, people worshiped, then poured a little wine on the land to sacrifice the earth, after that they tasted the wine and finally drained it. People use drinking etiquette to express their respect to the drinker. When people take part in social activities, host and guest have fixed places to sit for and fixed order to toast. In the etiquette of drinking, people toast seniority first to express their respect, so the most distinguished guest is the first one to be toast. What’s more, when we toast, we must make sure our glass is full, and if the younger one making a toast to the elder, the younger should drink up first. The answer to this is that Chinese people express their respect to the drinker in the process of drinking.
In the western countries, they don't have so many customs for drinking as in China. In their opinions, etiquette of drinking is used to express respect to the wine. When drinking grape wine, they enjoy wine with all sensory organs, so the first thing to do is watching the color smelling it, and then tasting it. In the process of drinking, Li Xiaoye (2010) introduced that “they pay attention to the drinking turns, Write wine first and Red wine follows, mild wine first and then rich wine, and short-time wine before longer wine.’’(P9) In order to have a better enjoyment of wine, they choose different glasses for different kinds of wine. A particular example for this is that goblet for gathering aroma of wine. It is hard to see western people toast each other at the table, they just enjoy themselves. The etiquette of drinking in the west is just to help people have a good time and enjoy the good things.
Wine, as an objective substance in the world, is in the shape of water and has the character of fire. Wine not only can over the pain in people’s heart, but also can light the hope in people’s heart. Due to the different of cultures, the purpose of drinking is different in China and the Western countries.
In China, wine is always used as a tool. In many cases, people’s destination is to get pleasure whether drink for happiness or sorrow. As the saying goes “Many kiss the baby for the nurse's sake.” When Chinese people drink, they must want to reach some goals. For instance, in order to define a hero, Caocao warm the wine and people ask for rewards while worshiping their ancestors. What’s more, wine is also used as a tool for communication. Wine is a necessity in Chinese social activities, because it can promote communications between each other. So in Chinese wine culture, people pay more attention to the function after drinking and there is lack the understanding of wine itself.
In the Western countries, the purpose for drinking is very simple. When people drinking, they just want to appreciate and enjoy wine. Of course, they also drink to get rid of restraint and search for their inner desire. There is no doubt that wine also has the function of communication in the West, but people think the most important thing in drink is to pursuit a better enjoyment of wine. There are strict rules as regards the different kinds of wine and glasses are applied to different occasions. Western people’s aesthetics is direct, so their purposes for drinking are just enjoy the wine and want to get happiness and forget sorrow.
Wine has a specific effect on politics, economics, culture, military affairs, religion, social psychology and folk customs. In social activities, wine is a lubricant which promotes communications between people.
Wine, as a necessity in the social activities, is a tool for people to reach their purposes. With the development of economy and the pace of the society, business negotiation has become very popular. As we all heard this phrase “Dutch bargain”, this is true that in most cases, business negotiation takes place in the dinner. Wine culture has some special effects on promoting business negotiation. For example, wine can overcome the sense of tension and promote the feelings between people. Business negotiation is a serious thing and tension is inevitable, but wine can let atmosphere becomes relax and make people feel comfortable. What’s more, by the influences of culture, the people become very unassuming and wine culture contributes negotiators to achieve their goals. Finally, wine culture can help people make more friends and lay foundations for the next business negotiations. Wine is the most effective tool for business negotiations and is the key to the success of business negotiations.
In most people’s views, mutual communication refers to the communication between people, it’s an indispensable part of today's society. Wine as a favorite thing has a strong catalytic influence in mutual communication. No matter in party or business market or other social activities, wine is the emotional bond between people. Through wine culture, people can from strangers to friends; through wine culture, we could meet more people and learn kill of mutual communication; through wine culture, people may understand the difference between different countries and contribute to mutual communication among nations. Due to the functions of wine culture, we can make good use of wine culture in mutual communication. First of all, we can use wine to over shy and get courage. Moreover, we all know that “When the wine enters, out go the truth”, so we can avoid falsity and have a sincere communication by wine. Last of all, we can take advantage of wine culture’s effect to get the common interest and reduce the misunderstandings of culture.
Wine is the best gift what God gave human being. Wine culture is important to people and it plays a special role in human social life. Wine culture can be divided into material culture and spiritual culture. The material culture includes the origin of wine, the types of wine, the drinking vessels and so on; the spiritual culture is refer to the etiquette of drinking, purpose of drinking and so forth. Wine can reduce people’s sorrow, enrich human’s life and promote the communication among people. Certainly, wine culture also has the effect on politics, economics, culture and military affairs. As the different living environment, historical background, and values, people have different understandings of wine culture. As we all know that the application of the wine culture in Chinese and Western social activities is a good way to show wine culture. This paper analyses the wine culture in three aspects of the definition of wine culture in China and West, the application of the wine culture in Chinese and Western social activities and the functions of wine culture in social activities, so we can easily know the differences of wine culture and take good use of its functions for social activities.
All in all, having a good understanding of wine culture is highly significant. In the first place, people can know other countries’ cultural background and reduce the cultural conflicts. In the second place, it will play a vital role in international exchange and cooperation. Last but not least, it can promote the development of globalization and the harmonious progress of world.
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