Fetus Digestion in China: Folklore or Reality?

Take a moment to think about the following question: what is culture? Culture is everything a person does, believes in, creates, came from, and has done. It is also so much more than this simple list, but this is a good idea of what it generally is. Culture affects a lot of things as well. It can affect what you do, how you do certain things, and how you see things comparison to others. Culture is a major factor in how people perceive the world and those around them. Everybody sees the world differently through their cultural glasses. Some people see things as foreign and confusing, while others see the same things as daily life. The idea of different cultural viewpoints is shown in many articles throughout the years. Each of these stories

Well-known author Amy Tan, in her short narrative “Fish Cheeks”, writes about the embarrassment she has because of her culture and ethnicity. She talks about this when a white father and his son, Robert, whom she likes, want to come over her house, and as a chinese-american young woman, she is a little ashamed of the chinese food. She also is ashamed by the type of house and environment she lives in.

Culture is one of the most relevant elements that can define not only a society but also a country’s cumulative beliefs and system. Often noted as the origins of a country, culture is definitive in the sense that it harbors all the elements that can provide justification on the traditions and norms set by the society for its members. More often than not, the society members follow norms in order to create a harmonious community, and the beliefs and the traditions serve as the poles or grounding rules for each member to follow. Culture is very dynamic in the way that it can change over a variety of foreign influences but what is permanent about it is that original elements about it often lingers with the influences, therefore making it multi-faceted and broad. More importantly, culture serves as an individual and unique trait each society has, and therefore sets it apart from other countries and other societies.

Culture is very important to many individuals in this world. It plays key parts in a vast amount of people’s lives. While some may follow everything to do with their culture, your culture doesn’t have to affect your life. You can still choose to have your own personal views, or to follow your accustomed culture. People will all view everything differently depending on who they are, what cultural background they have, and what scenario they’re in.

“Fish Cheeks,” an essay written by Amy Tan, emphasizes the importance of accepting once customs and surpass embarrassment. It relates the humiliation she went through as a teenager for Christmas Eve, when her family invites her crush, and his family to enjoy a Chinese traditional meal. The affection she had towards the minister’s son blinded her from seeing her families effort. Indeed, Tan was focusing on what others would think of her appearances and customs. The quote “Your only shame is to have shame,” is the lesson imparted by her mother, meaning she should be a shame of not accepting herself, her family, and traditions (Tan 111).

Chinese value silence and avoid disagreeing. The purpose of avoidance is to lessen conflict and maintain a peaceful environment. When assessing a pregnant Chinese woman, it is important to understand this idea of silence. The Chinese woman may remain silent during an exam and while the nurse is educating. Although the woman is not verbalizing her understanding, she most likely does. It is important to gauge how the woman demonstrates understanding. Head nods or silence are often non-verbal cues that a Chinese patient may demonstrate (Giger and Davidhizar, 2006, p. 445).

The word culture has a very generic and often oversimplified meaning that encompasses a variety of different interpretations. In fact, a pair of individuals by the names of Kroeber and Kluckhohn had managed to even come up with 168 explanations of what culture can mean in the context of humans (Humle et al. 2013). However, a more short and precise explanation of human culture was stated by Tyler in 1871 as “the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Tyler 1871: 1). This short definition points out the key features such as knowledge, customs and arts that collectively provide a unique meaning for human culture. Although chimpanzees are capable of social learning, tool use and many other shared characteristics, they just don’t have the unique and complex form of human culture.

Permeating every aspect of society yet never openly spoken of, culture, on the surface is a collection of items, norms, thought processes, foods, rituals, and traditions which form the everyday experiences we face. The culture we reside within, gives a set of clear standards for those who reside within it as to how to act. Yet these “guidelines” though well established are not always taken as law. Within each society, is a schism between those who mind the “guidelines”, and those who

Films are seen as an escape from pre-established reality. Films based upon actual events, however—dramatized or adapted for the screen—infringe on the relationship between viewer subjectivity and their continuously engaged reality. The result is subtle yet engrossing; a subjective visualization of the past reborn for the present. Polanski’s Chinatown echoes the sensibilities of 20th century American film movements while also being historically accurate. Through the use of a limited point-of-view, symbolism, and theme, Chinatown creates dynamic characters while restricting audience perspective.

While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact time human beings began to consume foods, for millions of years a diverse range of culinary patterns and convivial customs were cultivated. As the human dining habits evolve, food can be seen as a continuous reflection of the different cultures around the world. In fact, “food is perhaps the most distinctive expression of an ethnic group, a culture, or, in modern terms, a nation” (Flandrin, Montanari and Sonnenfeld 1999, p. xvi). The huge wave of globalisation in the past few decades made cultural exchange commonplace, however, indigenous dishes from an alien country may come as cultural shocks to people who are foreign to the certain culture. This essay intends to explain how Asian identity is expressed

When comparing cultures, one must form a definition of what culture is. Culture can be easily defined as the social behavior and normality’s found in human societies. It can also be easily made up of a composed arrangement of educated conduct and thought designs. Culture is a sorted out framework since it includes many parts. Throughout the world, there are many cultures that are both very different and also very similar. "Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at table, how we greet visitors, how we behave and one million other things." (Cristina De Rossi.)

Have you ever wondered how people from different countries view your lifestyle? Have you ever thought that people from different cultures have a unusual way of doing things? Culture is defined by dictionary.com as “the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc” (Dictionary.com). Culture is something that defines what our beliefs are and how we handle certain situations. People all around the world have their own culture that they considered to be normal. As humans, it’s one of the things that actually make us human. However culture can skew our perception of other cultures. Because of our perception is causes us to shun anything that is not

In Edward Yang’s filmYi Yi (2000), the audience witnesses the Jian family over the span of about a year and can be marked by three events: a wedding, a birthday, and a funeral. These events are built with traditions and social functions, and are meant to be a gathering of family and friends around tables, sharing in food and memories. We can potentially understand the table is a metaphor of life, as it represents in a direct and exacting way both membership in a group and the relationships defined within that group. How then, can we understand a film such as Yi Yi, which centres around the gatherings of a wedding, birthday, and funeral, but makes little effort to show the food, consumption of food, or even the successful gathering of the family without bickering or trauma? Through understanding the lack of on-screen food, but with a film still focused on food-based events, we can look at what food in Yi Yi signifies in a larger thematic scale. In what follows I will explore three ways of understanding the consumption and absence of food in Yi Yi, namely, food as function, food as language, and food as perspective.

The Chinese Mayor is a controversial documentary film that is from China. Datong is a historically important city in China, but it was fall into a decline. The mayor Yanbo Geng has a transformation plan for this city. The birth of the documentary is associated with the social situation of China. This documentary film shows a different mayor with his distinctive thinking in China and the things he does in his tenure of office. Creators create is because of a need to change thinking. They want to take the new ideas to challenge the old ones to push the And also, the reason of this documentary film born will be discussed clearly in this essay.

Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1962) identify over 150 scientific definitions of the concept of culture. Indeed, many authors have tried to define culture and this is why there are so many definitions and that a unique one is hard to find. First of all, Kroeber and Kluckholn (1952) assume that culture is a suite of patterns, implicit and explicit, “of and for behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts” (p.47). Later, Hofstede adds that culture is “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another” (Hofstede, 1991, p.51). This definition is the most widely accepted one amongst practitioners. For Winthrop (1991), culture is the distinctive models of thoughts, actions and values that composed members of a society or a social group. In other words,