malisa 新Gfirst小组作业

小黑米malisaUID: 3091211

学号 四号
第2次作业，题目：

To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities.
提纲：Position: Conditionally Agree
Outline 1.Major cities comprise people from different places with different social backgrounds, therefore major cities are most representative models of a society.
2. Major cities originate its own culture, history and own its own characteristic differentiating itself from other groups which are also major component of a society.
3 One can know also know some of the important characteristics of a society in rural regions or small cities, where fashions changing slowly and cultural traditions kept intact.

正文：
The assertion suggest that the best way to understand a society is to study its major cities in that the major cities best demonstrate the most important characteristics of the a society. There is doubt that in today’s world majors cities in any nation attracts the nations elites as well as people with their unique cultures. Compared to the small places where traditions dominate the majority of social affairs, major cities are more liberal to the metamorphosis and mavericks which generates the innovations in a society. For example, how the wedding ceremony operates may different in the urban and rural areas. In rural areas, the wedding ceremonies may hold the same, the bride and groom obey the same procedure and treats the guests with similar local foods according to local traditions. However, in major cities, especially ones deemed as the economical and cultural centers, brides and grooms may use their own traditional ceremony procedures or adopt new ceremony fashions which mostly represents their new attitudes towards the marriage of their own generation. No matter what their original purposes are, no matter they come to the major city for lucre-pursuing, for better education, for more comprehensive medical security or for self-fulfillment, people come to the city with their own social identities. Therefore, major cities can be considered as a microcosm of the whole society.

At the same time, due to the diverse its components, major cities are liable to originates new trends in the society. Those new trends reflect the up-to-date social transformation. Nowadays in China, younger people tend to hold their wedding collectively. They think it is an easier and more economical way to get married. Both the brides and grooms are busy workers in the daytime and have little time to spend on the wedding preparations. Moreover, most of them are the only child of both families due the population limitation policy in late 1980s in China and with no brothers or sisters they tend to befriend with other peers for companionship. Therefore, they create the collective wedding ceremony, with all the relatives of each couple participate and celebrate the big wedding which combines different elements from each couples hometown., With their high diversity, major cities are always the source of most new characteristics of a society. Once a new idea being accepted in a major city, it is much more likely that it will soon spread out to the remaining part of the society. By studying major cities, one can not only get a complete idea of the most important characteristics of a society, but can also, to some extent, predict the trend of the evolution of the society.

However, we can never neglect the other parts of the society if we want to obtain a overall view of a society. Most majors cities are inevitably influenced by different trends in and out of the society. The blended social aspects cannot represent the original aspects anymore. For example, most modern architecture in major cities looks the same and lose its own culture identities. In a jungle of similar square buildings, one may not be able to figure out he/she is in New York or in Beijing without the help of the language on the road signs. In such case, one also needs to observe the local or suburban areas where customs are kept for a relatively long period without being influenced to grasp accurate information about the society. Therefore, they represent their regions and constitute the remaining fragments of understanding of a whole society.

In conclusion, major cities should be meticulously observed and studied in order to understand the most significant traits of a society and small places who consist another part of a society cannot be neglect in order to understand the society comprehensively.