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Chinese as a Second Language (漢語教學研究—美國中文教師學會學報): Online-First Articles

Investigating the Chinese cultural mind through Chinese-American cross-cultural films

Implications for teaching culture to Chinese language learners

ORCID logo | Lafayette College
| Lafayette College
The importance of teaching cultural perspectives or cultural mind is now widely recognized in the field of foreign language education. Meanwhile, language teachers and scholars are also aware of the difficulty of implementing this aspect of cultural instruction in the classroom because the cultural mind tends to be abstract, intangible, and invisible. As Chinese-American cross-cultural films often foreground cultural differences and conflicts caused by underlying systems of values, beliefs, and behaviors in Chinese and American societies, they serve as tangible discussion points for guiding students in exploring the Chinese cultural mind. Therefore, this paper utilizes Chinese-American cross-cultural films as a springboard to analyze four key themes reflective of the Chinese cultural mind as depicted in the films (i.e., collectivism vs individualism, saving face, filial piety, and the role of women) and discusses pedagogical implications for cultural instruction, especially the teaching of cultural perspectives or cultural mind in the Chinese language classroom.
Keywords: cultural mind, cultural perspectives, teaching culture, Chinese, cross-cultural films
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.An overview of Chinese-American cross-cultural films
  • 3.Key themes in Chinese-American cross-cultural films
    • 3.1Individualism vs. collectivism
    • 3.2Saving face
    • 3.3Filial Piety
    • 3.4The role of women
  • 4.Pedagogical implications and conclusion
  • References
Published online: 5 November 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/csl.24003.luo
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