1、 Traditional Mainstream Values of USA - the spirit of American people - Larry LiuI grow up in such a social environment: U.S. imperialism is our number one enemy. From my childhood, America is mysterious to me. In the process of my growing up, I was curious about American people and their stories an

2、d had a feeling that mydream came true when my foreignaffairs work led me to Americaand gave me chance to understand American culture. Humans nature makes people curious about each other. When they meet people from different countries, besides some simple questions like “What is life like in their c

3、ountry?” “What kind of food do they eat?” “What are their customs?”, they have more questions about the culture: What do the people believe in? What do they value most in life? What motivates them? Why do they behave the way they do? Today, I choose to take an American culture approach to our discus

4、sion, focusing on the traditional mainstream values(美國社會主流價(jià)值觀) that have attracted immigrants to the United States for over 200 years. After explaining how these traditional values developed, we will trace how they affect various aspects of American life. This information will help us get a composit

5、e picture of American beliefs and practices as they relate to education, business, government, sports, recreation, and so on. I hope the introduction can help us become more sensitive to cultural differences. However, my introduction is not to persuade Chinese people to accept American way，but rathe

6、r to help understand it more fully and compare with ours. And see what we can learn from each other. There are six mainstream values of American society:1.Individual Freedom（個(gè)人自由）;2.Self-Reliance（自力更生）;3.Equality of Opportunity （機(jī)會平等）;4.Competition（競爭）;5.Material Wealth（物質(zhì)財(cái)富）;6.Hard Work（辛勤工作） These

7、 values originated from “The Declaration of Independence”(獨(dú)立宣言), people will never forget its saying: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable（不能剝奪的）rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the purs

8、uit of Happiness.Lets have a further look into these six values. Historically, the United States has been viewed as “the land of opportunity”, attracting immigrants from all over the world. The immigrants believed that they would find opportunitiesin America with this set of values. Three of them -

9、Individual Freedom, Equality of Opportunity, and Material Wealth represent traditional reasons why immigrants have been drawn to America. In order to achieve these benefits, however, there were prices to be paid: Self-Reliance, Competition, and Hard Work. By and by, these six basic values become tra

10、ditional value system. Individual Freedom and Self-RelianceThe earliest settlers came to the North American continent to establish colonies that were free from the controls that existed in European societies. They wanted to escape to controls placed on their lives by kings and governments, priests（牧

11、師） and churches, noblemen and aristocrats(貴族). To a great extent, they succeeded. In 1789, when they wrote the Constitution for their new nation, they separated those “privileged class”(特權(quán)階層) mentioned above from the government to ensure that an aristocratic society would not develop. There would be

12、 no ruling class of nobilityin the new nation. The word freedom is one of the most respected popular words in the United States today. By freedom, Americans mean the desire and the ability of all individuals to control their own destiny(命運(yùn)) without outside interference from the government, a ruling

13、noble class, the church, or any other organized authority. There is, however, a price to be paid for this individual freedom: self-reliance. Individuals must learn to rely on themselves or risk losing freedom. This means achieving both financial and emotional independence from their parents as early

14、 as possible, usually by age 18 or 21. It means that Americans believe they should take care of themselves, solve their own problems, and “stand on their own two feet”. This strong belief in self-reliance continues today as a traditional basic American value. Most Americans believe that they must be

15、 self-reliant in order to keep their freedom. If they rely too much on the support of their families or the government or any organization, they may lose some of their freedom to do what they want. Equality of Opportunity and CompetitionBecause of the belief that everyone has a chance to succeed in

16、America, generations of immigrants, from the earliest settlers to the present day, have come to the United States with this expectation. Because titles of nobility were forbidden in the Constitution, no formal class system developed in the United States. The hopes and dreams of many of the immigrant

17、s were fulfilled in their new country. The lower social class into which many were born did not prevent them from trying to rise to a higher social position. Americans see much of life as a race(比賽) for success. For them, equalitymeans that everyone should have an equal chance to enter the race and

18、win. It helps ensure that the race for success is a fair one and that a person does not win just because he or she was born into a wealthy family, or lose because of religion. This American concept of“fair play” is an important aspect of the belief in equality of opportunity. There is, however, a pr

19、ice to be paid for the equality of opportunity: competition. If much of life is seen as a race, then a person must run the race in order to succeed; a person must compete with others. If every person has an equal chance to succeed in the United States, then it is every persons duty to try Americans

20、match their energy and intelligence against that of others in a competitive contest for success. People who like to compete and are more successful than others are honored by being called winners. On the other hand, those who do not like to compete and are not successful when they try are often dish

21、onored by being called losers. The pressures of competition in the life of an American begin in childhood and continue until retirement from work, and learning to compete successfully is part of growing up in the United States. Though competition causes Americans to be energetic, but it also places

22、a feeling of useless and unwanted on those who are not very energetic such as old people who generally did not compete well. The third reason for immigrants to come to the United States is very important for a better life. That is, to raise their standard of living. Of course, most immigrants did no

23、t “get rich overnight”, and many of them suffered terribly, but the majority of them were eventually ableto improve upontheir former standardof living. Even if they were not able to achieve the economic success they wanted, they could be fairly certain that their children would have the opportunity

24、for a better life. In America, most Americans do have other values and ideals, but acquiring and maintaining a large number of material possessions is of great importance. The main reason is that material wealth has traditionally been a widely accepted measure of social status in the United States.

25、Because Americans rejected the European system of hereditary aristocracy(世襲貴族) and titles of nobility(貴族頭銜), they had to find a substitute for judging social status. The quality and quantity of an individuals material possessions became an accepted measure of success and social status. Americans hav

26、e paid a price, however, for their material wealth: hard work. Americans see material possessions asthe natural reward for theirhard work. In some ways, material possessions were seen not only as tangible (有形資產(chǎn)) evidence of peoples work, but also of their abilities. They believe that people should h

27、old jobs and not live off welfare payments fromthe government. The six basic values presented above - Individual Freedom, Self-Reliance, Equality of Opportunity, Competition, Material Wealth, and Hard Work - do not tell the whole story of the American picture. In reality, some people have a better c

28、hance for success than others. Those who are born into rich have more opportunities than those who are born into poorer families. Inheriting(繼承) money does give a person a decided advantage. Many black Americans have fewer opportunities than the average white American, and many women have fewer oppo

29、rtunities than men, in spite of laws designed to promote equality of opportunityfor all individuals. As the United States has shifted from an industry-based economy to one that is service or information-based, there has been a decline in high-paying job. As the United States competes in a global eco

30、nomy, many workers of manufacture industry are losing their old jobs and finding that they and their family members must now work longer hours for less money and fewer benefits. But all of these do not diminish the importance of the six basic values. American people believe in them and are stronglya

31、ffected by themin their everydaylives. It is easier to understand what Americans are thinking and feeling if we can understand what these basic traditional American values are and how they have influenced almost every facets of life in the UnitedStates.My opinion:Firstly, why should we study America

32、n culture? People in China now would like to talk about last thirty years reform and opening to outsideworld when Chinahas had great changes. The biggest change, I believe, is the culture. Chinas traditional culture which has lasted several thousand years has met challenge. The society is full of un

33、certainty, a lot of people just feel at a loss. For thousands of years China focus on imperial power(皇權(quán)), people got used to listening to the words of kings and their superiors, but now ordinary Chinese people have to learn to be their own decision maker. People realize that China should be moderniz

34、ed, just like west, but they do not know how. Cultural conflict sometimes is hard. In this case, draw lessons from western country especially America is wise, “The stone of other hill can polish the jade of ours”(他山之石可以攻玉), just as one of the old saying goes. Secondly, we can not avoid one fact when

35、 we learn foreign languages - we are learning different culture which is much more important than the language itself. What do we really learn when we study about other cultures? First and foremost, we learn about our own. Until we are confronted by a different way of doing things, we assume that ev

36、eryone does things the same way that we do, and thus our own culture our values, attitudes, behavior - is largely hidden from our view. When we spend some time analyzing another culture, however, we begin to see our own more clearly and to understand some of the subtleties（微妙） that motivate our behavior and our opinions. Therefore, you cannot help but begin to understand yourself and your own cultures better as a result. For example, Mr. Lu Xun(魯迅)，Chinas great modern writer and thinker, wrote