Issue208 [Victors小组]第十六次作业

乳虎UID: 2251211

208"The way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitudes and interests. You can tell much about a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people."

提纲:
1价值观不同的人穿的衣服往往不同。
2社会思想的变革往往引起服装的变化。
3价值观不同的人行为方式也不一样。



Can we tell much about a society’s ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people? I think so.

In the first place, clothes can reveal people's attitudes and interest. Different individuals have different aesthetic, which come into being gradually in one's life and reflect one's preference. The people in a group or sphere often have similar preference due to similar culture, ideology etc. In Great Britain, gentlemen wear suits, which looks genteel, while in Arabism people like wearing long gown. French clothes looks romantic while Japanese are dressed formally. Even in the same country, people in different spheres wear different. For instance, Hippies often wear colorful, which reflect their preference to freedom and personality. On the contrary, people in mainstream society often wear comparatively formally. Besides, people in different occupation often different clothes, for example, professors in universities often wear homely, but the managers often wears elegant. For that matter, clothes do reflect a society's ideas and values.

In the second place, the marked change in clothes often is induced by significant reform even revolution of society which changed many respects of the society markedly including the society’s idea. For example, Japan, a oriental nation, used to be influenced by China, in almost every respects including idea, politics and so on. Japanese clothes copied Chinese clothes In Tang Dynasty, while their idea is based on Confucianism, the predominant value system in china. However, during Meijirshin, Japanese gave up Chinese tradition and learned from western countries including culture, politics and so on. The ideology of Japanese converted from Confucianism to the ideology of western countries such as the thought of Rousseau, Voltaire etc. In accordance with the significant change in society's ideology, Japanese clothes changed markedly, Japanese gave up traditional long gown and wear suits. Similarly, during Ear-Mao, Chinese wear similar clothes which is mostly blue, green and grey, revealing the predominant ideology in the society. In Ear-Mao, China place more emphasis on collectivism and ignore the personality of individuals, so people trended to wear similar clothes. After reform-and- opening, Chinese clothes become faddish reflecting that the country value individuals’ personality more.

Apart from clothes, the action of people reveals society's idea too. People's thought naturally reveals via their action. People with different idea often act in different way. Examples supporting that is abundant, we need look no further than the details of people's action. Japanese make bow when meet the elderly, which reflect they value social order much. In Chinese, people like express friendship via body contact, especially between the same sexuality. For example, a teacher will pat students' shoulder to encourage them which means" Well down, come on." But in America, if a teacher pat a student’s shoulder, the student will protest, because American value individualism. Similarly, in America when two people talk they will keep some distance, however in Arabism, people like press close to each other when talking. In fact, action does reflect a society's idea and value.

To sum up, the appearance and action do reflect a society's idea, which can help us to tell a society better and fit the society better. What's more, we should respect other's habit and customs in clothes and action.

[ 本帖最后由 乳虎 于 2007-7-24 22:56 编辑 ]