我的ISSUE习作

zzsituUID: 2722415

TOPIC: ISSUE63 - "To truly understand your own culture-no matter how you define it-requires personal knowledge of at least one other culture, one that is distinctly different from your own."

We all brought out in our own culture. Native culture teaches us what we should do and what should not do, tell us what is right and what is wrong. In this way, our views and values are highly influenced by our culture. As a result, we tend to partially see good nature of our culture while at the same time overlook the shortcoming of it. Equiped(Equipped) with distinct culture from other parts of the world, we can understand our own culture comprehensively.

The situation of comparing other culture to better comprehend our own, is an analogy of our own experience of self-understanding. While I was in high school, I consider diligency(diligence) as the most important cause to success. Hence, I form a habit of passively waiting for orders from others, and it's my job to pay my effort. But when I get involved in the campus life and meet many outstanding students, I ultimately found that it is very important to be an active individual to grab every possible oppertunity (opportunity) to make my own desicions(decisions) and introduce myself to people. Without comparing other person with different characters, I won't fully understand my defects. Similarly, culture has its own characteristics. As the saying goes: outsiders see more than insiders. We should equip ourselves with knowledge of other culture to be an "outsiders" in order to see more of our culture.

By comparing, we see the differences between our culture and others. Here is a joke about it: a international apartment was on fire one night, a Jew first extracted his case out of fire, a French held his lover out, an American picked up his wife and a Chinese carry his mother out of the fire. This joke reflects the differences of different cultures. Through the comparison of these distinct behaviors, we realize that Jewish culture values money, France has romantic culture, American regards the family and China thinks highly of eldership. It gives us other ways of thinking, which lead us contrast to our own. By contrasting, a board understanding is formed.

It's neccesary(necessary) to learn cultures of other countries because it tells us the advantages and disadvantages of native culture. Western countries emphasize personal independence. We should not tell our friends of those countries how to do because he/she will think you look down upon them. However, Chinese people often provide explicit suggestions to give his care to friends. We can learn the importance of independent thinking from western culture and acknowledge the significance of expressing the care for others from eastern culture. They both has its merits and shortcomings. And the knowledge of foreign culture is essential.

In summary, information of foreign cultures is required have a broader and better comprehension. It provides platform to the comparison of different cultures and raises thinking of the flaws and virtue of our culture as well as others. Adavantages(Advantages) and disadavantages(disadvantages)
are two important and contradictary(contradictory) parts of one country, and we can have equal attention by knowing the knowledge of other cultures.

zzsituUID: 2722415

TOPIC: ISSUE10 - "Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive, because it is primarily in cities that a nation's cultural traditions are preserved and generated."

The progress of culture always affects the development of cities. In the culture of liberty and democracy, the ancient Athen cultivated a lot of orators, philosophers, thinkers and artists.While in ancient Rome, the aggressive and violent environment made Rome conquer Europe and part of Asia. The city of  Athen and the ancient Rome are completely different cities due to their entirely different culture. How we shape our culture, to some extent, determines what our cities and thus our nation are going to be.

However, the competition between cities and countries has made them lose its own spirits, especially in developing countries. In the competitive situation of modern world, developing countries fight to survive, taking any possible approach even at the cost of losing their cultural traditions. When I travel from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and from Shenzhen to Shanghai, I can hardly sense the distinctions between those three cities. While you travel in the cities, you see the same things: tall buildings, large shopping malls, squares and western-style houses.  You have moments of wondering where you are.We see less and less culture traditions that differentiate our cities from others. We are all too eager and hasty to catch up with the developed countries and struggled to grow by taking the same roads of other coutries.In Hainan Province, in the south of China, the architectures are just simulations of Hawaii-style buildings, without any of its own characters. What makes the city a city is the spirits of its own, that the culture it cultivates itself.

It's very important to preserve our cultural traditions and advance it fit into the new situation rather than just copying others.
Culture is the identification of one city. Unfortunately, we devote too much attention to other cities, and overlook the significance of our culture. When we intentionally or unintentionally destroy many cultural tradition, we failed to create a new culture to fill in the blanck of the city's culture. It's the Renaissance that stimulated the development of the European society and later the Enlightment help set up the capitalism in many western countries. Without the base of one's culture, the city would lose its identity and it's wrong to unquestionally adopt the culture of other city. It's the governments' duties to keep the good and cast away the bad of their culture.

To sum up, "Culture is the economy of tomorrow" by the former culture minister of France. The propper way of developing one cities is not imigrating the successful experience of other cities but developing city's own character that are distinctive from others, the way that will ultimately win the respect of our own and others.