毕业论文设计--中西服饰文化差异英语论文.doc

Catalogue

Chapter 1Chinese and western dress………………………………………..………..1
1.1 The different features of Chinese and western dress………………..…………….1
1.2 Why people wear clothing……………………………………………………....2
1.2.1 The functional reason………………………………………………………3
1.2.2 The social reason…………………………………………………………3

Chapter 2 Cultural differences between Chinese and western clothing.......…...3
2.1 Design………………………………………………………………………..……3
2.2 Color……………………………………………………………………………..4
2.3 Pattern and ornaments…………………………………………………………… 5
2.4 Material……………………………………………………………………………5

Chapter 3 An analysis of Chinese and western dress culture………………..9
3.1 Geographical environment………...………………………………………………9
3.2 The historical reason………………………………………………………………9
3.3 The political reason………………………………………………………………10

Chapter 4 Chinese and western dress aesthetic culture and dress concept ……………………………………………………………………….……..12
4.1 Dress aesthetic culture …………………………..……………………………….12
4.2 Dress concept ……………………………………………………………………13

Abstract: Dress culture is a cultural phenomenon unique to human beings. As it has different aesthetic ideas, different dressing concepts and different dress etiquette in China and west, it forms Chinese and western dress culture of the different connotation and characteristics. This thesis is divided into four major sections. The first part describes the different features of Chinese and western dress and why people wear clothing. The second part describes cultural differences between Chinese and western clothing. The third part gives an analysis of Chinese and western dress culture. The last part describes Chinese and western dress aesthetic culture and dress concept. Based on the analysis, the thesis finally draws a conclusion. Chinese and western dress culture each has rich connotation and distinct characteristics, which are precious cultural legacy which is left by human ancestors and are the world culture heritage. At the same time, we treasure our own civilization of five thousand years instead of belittling ourselves. It is significant to promote and develop our unique costume culture. We are confident and make contributions to realizing the rejuvenation of our Chinese nation and enriching the clothing culture of the whole world. Key words: Chinese and western clothing; culture；differences；aesthetic culture and clothing concepts
摘要:服饰文化是人类特有的文化现象。由于中西方各民族的审美观念、着装理念和服饰礼仪的不同，从而形成了不同内涵、不同特色的中西方服饰文化。本文共分为四部分。第一部分主要介绍了中西服饰的不同特征以及为什么人要穿衣服，第二部分写中西方服饰的差异，第三部分写导致中西方服饰文化差异的原因，第四部分则写中西方服饰审美文化和着装理念。通过以上简单的论述，最后得出结论，中西方服饰文化各具有丰富的内涵和鲜明的特色，她们都是人类祖先留下来的宝贵文化遗产 ,是世界文化的瑰宝。与此同时,我们应该珍惜自己五千年的文明而不是贬低自己的文明。促进和发展我们独特的民族服饰文化具有重要的意义。为了实现我们中华民族的文化复兴和丰富整个世界的文化，让我们自信起来吧！
关键词:中西服饰；文化；差异性；审美文化与着装理念

Introduction
Costume culture, carried by costume, is a respect of our physical and spiritual life and a mixture of our psychological activities like consciousness, emotion, idea and ideal. The rapid development of advanced technology makes multiculturalism stand out and also makes conflicts between China and the West increase. In that case, it becomes more and more important to recognize the similarities and differences of costume culture between China and the West.
Nowadays, the whole world is, to some extent, dominated by the western costume culture, which has wound its way into the daily life of the whole world, together with technology, life style and values from the West. Quite popular in China, it’s nominally called “internationalization” or “globalization”. In recent years, the costume industry of China has developed swiftly. The “international” costume, featured by the western costume culture, has become a pretty important part of our daily life.
However, as our economy takes off, international status rises and living standard improves, a wave of national costume culture resurgence is rising. Moreover, people from the West pay more and more attention to the giant dragon in the East——China. Western costume designers constantly introduce Chinese costume cultural elements to their latest designs. Those phenomena arouse a series of thoughts: what distinguishes Chinese costume culture from the western one? Are there any similarities between them? What kind of costume culture will we Chinese hold as the mainstream in the future, the so-called “international” western one, the Chinese one or the fusion of the two? To obtain the answers to these questions, we are supposed to study and contrast carefully the characteristics and developing processes of them, and then draw some regularity.
To contrast the costume culture between China and the West, it is necessary for us to master a good knowledge of the Chinese and western costume cultural characteristics.

Chapter 1 Chinese and western dress
1.1 The different features of Chinese and western dress
China is known as “Xia” as it’s a land of propriety, and it’s also known as “Hua” with the beauty of its costume. (①《左传》p83) Our national costume is Hanfu. It originated in the Yanhuang era, formed in the Spring and Autumn Period and officially took form in Han Dynasty. That’s the reason why it’s called “Hanfu”. Since then, in spite of historical evolutions of all ages, their basic characteristics have never changed. Hanfu, on the whole, can be divided into four developing stages: Zhou Han Hanfu, Wei Jin Hanfu, Sui Tang Hanfu and Song Ming Hanfu. Zhou Han Hanfu was featured by dignity and simplicity, while Wei Jin Hanfu by chic and elegance, Sui Tang Hanfu by dignified, graceful, elegant and poised style. Hanfu in Song and Ming Dynasties epitomizes the characteristics of the past-simple, dignified, elegant, etc. In Qing Dynasty, Hanfu was forbidden by the government and disappeared from the land of China.
The main features of Chinese clothing are focusing on the right collar’s overlap, the band deducted hidden, big sleeves, no buttons and using string binding, giving the impression of free and easy flowing. These characteristics are obviously different from those of other ethnic costumes. Hanfu is divided into uniform and common clothing. With strict standards, uniform is dressed on formal occasions while the common clothing, without long sleeves, is very convenient to people’s daily life.
However, the western clothing is different form the Chinese clothing. The West belongs to Marine civilization, it emphasizes the subjective and objective separation and that we should rationally treat clothing, advocate releasing personality, stress dress effect and be good at showing beautiful the posture of the body. Besides, we use various clipping, color collocation means to perfect bodily curve and give a person with visual comfort in the modeling.
A suit, also known as a business suit, comprises a collection of matching clothing consisting of: a coat﹙commonly known as a jacket﹚,a waistcoat﹙optional﹚﹙USA vest﹚for men, a pair of trousers﹙USA pants﹚, or for women, a shirt or trousers. A suit is generally accompanied by torment, a shirt and tie or for women, a blouse.
1.2 Why people wear clothing
Chinese people are concerned more about its social function of helping to rule a country well than that of keeping warm or decorating. It has a lot to do with ruling a country to regulate the dressing way of the common people. Nevertheless, the westerners pay more attention to its wealth value and function. Therefore, people put on clothing for functional and social reasons.
1.2.1 The functional reason
The first use of clothing is to resist the cold and cover the body. Functions of clothing include providing the human body protection against extremes of climate (extreme heat, icy winters, and drenching storms) and protection against insects, noxious, chemicals, and contact with abrasive substances. In sum, clothing protects human beings against anything that might injure the naked, unprotected human body.
1.2.2 The social reason
Clothing also delivers social messages to other humans. Social messages sent by clothing, accessories, and decorations can involve social status, occupation, ethnic and religious belief, marital status, cultural degree and sexual availability, etc. For example, only Roman citizens can wear “Toga” in Rome while dragon robe can only be dressed by the emperor in China.

Chapter 2 Cultural differences between Chinese and western clothing
As the saying goes："People rely on apparel, beauty relies on good make-up". This is the same between China and the West, but for the specific performance - it will be different.
Chinese clothing culture differs from western clothing culture in the following aspects.
2.1 Design
The Chinese style is decided by the unique Chinese culture and the Oriental body feature. As the curve of we yellow race’s body is not so obvious, and Chinese are fastidious about self-respect, implicitly and the doctrine of the mean, our clothing is a straight overall with wide coat and fat sleeves, which emphasizes plane design. Men’s wear is a one-piece robe while women’s wear is a short Chinese-style jacket and a long skirt. The western style is determined by the western aesthetic thought of pragmatism and nationalism and the white race’s body structure. Their body curve is pretty sharp. Stressing scientific nature, the western clothing is in keeping with the law of motion. Its semi-stereoscopic designed with muffs, puckers, etc. Besides, it advocates individuality and physical beauty. Various kinds of designs sharply revealed the body line. Men wear a suit of coat and trousers while women wear a one-piece dress. In a word, Chinese costume culture is a “covering” one while the western one is a “revealing” one.
2.2 Color
Chinese clothing color lays particular stress on ethic and asks for maintaining social order, but western-style clothing color lays particular stress on emotion and pays attention to psychological adjustment. The most important factor is the color element of clothing. Clothing color falls into two colors which are the pure color and the secondary color in ancient China. The pure color is blue, yellow, red, white and black, the other colors are secondary color, and it provides that: ＂The upper garment is the pure color, the under garment is the secondary color.＂ (②《礼记·玉藻》) Darker colors were favored over lighter ones in traditional Chinese clothing, so the main color of ceremonial clothing tended to be dark while bright. Lighter colored clothing was worn more frequently by the common people for everyday. Chinese are said to have a fully developed system of matching, coordinating colors and shades of light and dark in clothing.
People in ancient China also use different colors of clothing to distinguish people’s identity. The black color was regarded as the one of the Celestial Ruler Supreme God to rule everything. So in the Xia Shang and Zhou Dynasty, the clothing was mainly black. With the development of the feudal Unitarianism, people began to adore the ground (yellow) instead of god (black). So it formed the rulers in ancient China believed in the theory of “Five Element”. They though the blue, red yellow, white and black represented respectively five elements of the wood, fire, earth, gold and water. “Yellow, regarded as the noblest, symbolized the east；red, the south；white，the west; and black, the north. These five colors were “principal colors,” and in some dynasties were exclusive to the garment of emperors and officials, Common people were allowed to wear only secondary colors.”(③Zhi 73) This system of clothing colors had lasted to the Qing Dynasty and the yellow robe had been the symbol of imperial power all the time. The red color is regarded as an auspicious color. While having a happy event, such as wedding, the bride and bridegroom will wear red clothes and shoes in ancient China to show their happy feelings and wishes for good luck. Today Chinese people still tend to choose red color on happy occasion.
However, in the western countries, the red color is too showy to be sexy. The white and purple are more popular. White symbolizes purity, innocence and justice, purple means nobility. At weddings, the bride will wear white wedding grown to symbolize her purity and nobility. In the medieval period, the colorful windows of the unique church were decorated splendidly to guide people to the heaven. So the designs with religious colors are adored. Jesus teaches in a blue garment, and the Virgin Mary is usually depicted in a blue mantle. So, blue is considered as the color for the spirit and the intelligent. It is loved by many western people.
2.3 Pattern and ornaments
The former emphasizes color matching, pattern design, the effect of embroidery and the change of the clothing’s front piece, collar, sleeves, and buckles and so on. Representing the Chinese writers’ ideal spirits, plum blossom, orchid, and chrysanthemum and pine tree can be commonly seen on Chinese clothing. Among all ornaments, the jade is the most popular one. However, the latter pays more attention to the lace and embroidery of the neck, chest and sleeves. The patterns are mostly regular pomegranate grains and water chestnut lines. Its layout is symmetrical, modeling full and colors gorgeous. The female attire is usually decorated with jewelry like pearls and diamonds. Besides, the hat and gloves are indispensable ornaments. For men, a hat and a walking stick are enough.
2.4 Material
The relationship of human to nature is also reflected in the choice of the materials. During the Stone Age, Chinese invented the bone awl and the bone needle and created primitive clothing with the aid of these tools. Approximately 5000 years ago, China was in the Neolithic Primitive agriculture and the textiles industry. At first people use plant fiber, such as linen, ramie, etc., and animal fibers, such as wool to weave. Later they discovered how to raise the silk worn and spin silk, and the pure silk clothes were liked by many Chinese people, especially the wealthy. It is a symbol of their social status. Silk is a great contribution to human life from Chinese people, so it is impossible to talk Chinese clothing culture without silk.
Different from silk culture in China, flax culture prevails in ancient Egypt, wool culture prevails in the Mesopotamia and cotton culture prevails in India. Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome have no pioneering work in materials, and they imports flax and wool cultures from Mediterranean coasts and Upper Paleozoic civilizations. As for silk, although ancient Rome has touched silk from Far East through Silk Road in 138 BC, they were never able to understand the mysteries of this beautiful fabric. Lately, they known the secrets of silk from two missionaries send to China by the Byzantine Empire. Then one century later, the first silk is produced in Byzantine Empire, but Europeans produced first silk until the Italian Renaissance in 13-14 century.
In a word, Chinese clothing prefers si