Mending wall: Separating the boundary between cultures

【Abstract】As the acceleration of globalization， cultural exchanges through countries are increasing. Some powerful nations attempt to impose values in their own cultures to other less privileged countries to have a better control towards them. Significance of not imposing values to other countries would be discussed and it is essential to prevent other countries values from invading other dominant customs.

【Key words】intercultural communication; cultural infiltration; Mending Wall; Mummy

【作者簡介】于濛（1996-），女，南开大学英语系毕业生，研究方向：应用语言学。

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Culture is distinct media through which people creatively represent and classify the different ways that they lived within each community. Besides， it is also a platform through which a nations unique historical backgrounds， traditional conventions and spiritual features are expressed. With the accelerating pace of the globalization and the communication of cultures， some powerful nations attempt to impose their views and values on other countries regardless of respecting their history and tradition. In this process， history and values are distorted and these strong states would subconsciously hurt the national pride and confidence of other less-developed countries， which might do harm to their relationship. Thus， it is of great significance to mend the ‘wall， in specific， the boundary between various cultures. The following content focuses on some negative effects of cultural infiltration based on the film Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and the poem Mending Wall.

First， comprehending the wrong values can lead to misinterpretation of contexts from another cultural background， triggering misunderstanding of the culture. Although in the film Mummy： Tomb of the Dragon Emperor， people have a better understanding of China such as the traditional clothes， the scenes in 1940s. One thing must be mentioned is that Chinese culture is distorted by American directors， imposing their values in this film. At the start of the film， it depicts how the whole story takes place. More than 2000 years ago， the Dragon Emperor， who conquered the whole China， must be faced with the threat of death because he is a human being who is not immortal. In order to live forever， he finds a sorceress named Zi Yuan， who is considered to know the secret of immortality. The Emperor tells General Ming， his trusted friend that he wants to own this woman to help him live forever. However， in the process of searching for immortality， General Ming falls in love with Zi Yuan in secret.， which cannot happen at that time.

In ancient time， there is a school that dominates the values and behaviors of all Chinese people. According to the Confucianism， the subjects must be loyal to the emperor. After knowing that the emperor loves Zi Yuan， Ming still betrays him without hesitation， which is against the rule of ‘Righteousness in Confucianism. His action is not in accordance with Chinese traditional values. In this film， the director makes General Ming westernized.

In western civilization， it is not difficult to find betrayal and disloyalty. For example， Judas， one of the original disciples of Jesus Christ， is known for the betrayal of Jesus to the Sanhedrin for thirty silver coins. Whats more， the God creates the angels， however， the archangel is treasonable to the God later and becomes Satan instead. The western people have a partiality for individualism and freedom， not restricted by the rules or values. Therefore， if this western culture is applied to the Chinese culture on purpose， it would twist the characters as well as our own traditional cultures. People around the world may have a misunderstanding of Chinese culture and the action of imposing the culture in another country may hurt the relationship.

Secondly， confusing the two cultures demonstrates that American people dont have a deeper exploration of the separate cultures or show much respect to China. In Chinese， people dont have the ‘mummy. Similarly， zombie refers to a dead body. The word ‘mummy initially borrows from the Egyptian culture and is mistakenly used into the Chinese culture. Egyptian embalmers protect the bodies of deceased individuals through a process of mummification. They buried their dead in small pits in the desert， then the heat and dryness of the sand dehydrated the bodies quickly， creating lifelike and natural ‘mummies.

In addition， over the Terracotta Army， or to say， on the ground， there is a huge head sculpture which is made of stone. We cant help thinking of the king tut in the Egypt. While in China， the process of preserving the dead is totally diverse. People put the body into coffin and look for a place which has excellent geomantic omen. Then they bury the coffin underground. Chinese people are more conservative， so they dont build a sculpture on the ground just as Egyptians. The two cultures have immense differentiation. Not distinguishing them may trigger disrespect of their culture.

Thirdly， misusing of the culture may make people or even the next generation bewilder about the history and the achievements that the country made. In the film， the Terracotta Army is spotted by a foreigner named Alex OConnell. However， in history it was found by a Chinese peasant， not the people outside China. The history is misrepresented by American people and the achievements of finding one of the eight wanders of the world then mistakenly belongs to the people from another nation. If foreign people or our next generations watch this film， they would think that the Terracotta Army is discovered by a foreigner instead of a native. Foreigners might laugh at our Chinese people and we lose our national pride and confidence.

This kind of behavior is called the cultural aggression which means a countrys conquering another one through cultural transformation. It is not like the war， however， this kind of potential， long-time invasion can be more devastating to peoples mind， which not only plunders achievements made by our Chinese people， but also imposes Americans values to our nation. For example， the U.S. attacks Iraq in order to maximize its benefits. When we hear the word ‘terrorism， we cannot help but think people from the Middle East kill someone in other countries. The word ‘terrorism is specifically used by western media when their states attacked by people from these less-privileged countries. Why dont they use ‘terrorism when it holds a big war and kills many people in Iraq？ Is it just when they hold a war against another country just for their fortune like petroleum or gold？ Is it unjust when the people from the nation that the western country attacks wants to revenge for their dead family and friends？ Some western countries potentially spread their views and attitudes to the world and manages to make their behaviors pretend to be on behalf of the justice.

In the poem Mending Wall， the wall has a dual significance. On one hand， a wall can prevent other peoples invasion. Therefore， building a wall between different cultures controls intercultural permeation from a stronger country. On the other hand， if the wall is too big and high， it might impede the communication and understanding of cultures. The poem teaches us that a respectful distance between neighbors as well as cultures is the recipe for harmonious relationship. ‘Good fences make good neighbors. Thus， it is very important to prevent other nations cultures from invading too much on peoples own culture.

In conclusion， we are supposed to mend the ‘wall between different cultures. Appropriate communication of cultures is beneficial to make the transmission of own culture throughout the world. However， the well-developed nations shouldnt cross the boundary between the cultures and impose their values to others and deprive the achievements accomplished by another nation. They ought to respect different cultures.

It is true that as the acceleration of globalization， cultural exchanges through countries are increasingly wide spreading nowadays. It cannot be neglected that some powerful nations attempt to impose the values in their own cultures to other less privileged countries in order to have a better control towards them， which is not inappropriate and even inhuman. Some significance of imposing values to other countries would be discussed and it is very essential to prevent other countries values invading other dominant customs too much.

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