Westerners In "social" Is A Comparative Study

The theme of dissertation is to discuss the western people's sociality as well as Chinese people's through the study of the common folk of Foreign Street. Although this angle of analysis is not popularly adopted by scholars until now, two motives make the author select this topic under discussion:The first one is to introduce the phenomenon of Foreign Street from the travel category into the horizon of academic research. Making the thorough field investigation and adopting the comprehensive and comparative methods, the author tries to find out the commonness of the two Foreign Streets in Yangshuo and Dali, and respectively provide the background, cause, meaning and characteristics of their formation and prosperity. In addition, the precise academic study of this cultural landscape, which is regarded as a small social community with its own peculiar features in the direct touch of Chinese and Western cultures, can unfold some academic importance in the ethnological and cultural studies, particularly in the comparative studies for Chinese and western cultures.The second motive is to discuss the difference between Chinese and western cultures from the perspective of sociality. Foreign Street is clearly characterized by its common folk, which is not only displayed in the native custom but also exhibited in the local westerners' daily life. One hand, they can fully enjoy their pastoral life at ease and express their personalities at best, it is in this course that they really share the freedom and equality. On the other hand, they never disjoint from the local social life, they actively participate in the local social affair, charity activities in particular. From help for other people in the daily life to the almsdeed for the local society, they express their great enthusiasm and activeness. Actually, these two sides are jointed so tightly that any single cannotcorrectly demonstrate the westerners' life panorama in Foreign Street. What the author has watched makes her recall the thesis in The Eastern and Western Cultures and their philosophy by Mr. Liang Shuming. He thought the big difference between Chinese and western people was the latter's "outspreading personality and developed sociality," which in author's eyes also portraits the main pattern of life in the current Foreign Street. All the considerations above made the author take the following aspects as the core study: expend the research area from the common folk of Foreign Street to the westerners' sociality, redefined the concept of sociality referred by Mr. Liang in the current background, comprehensively explore the westerners' consciousness of sociality and compare its characteristics with Chinese people's.It is very significant both in theoretical and practical levels to understand westerners' sociality through Foreign Street and accordingly discuss the Chinese people's. From the ethnological prospective, YangShuo and Dali locate in the south minority area, study for Foreign Street there satisfy the two requirements of Chineseanthropology--strengthen the study for the Chinese ethnic groups aswell as the minority area's modernization, and enhance the understanding of the world nations. Nowadays, the socialist construction for the modernization in minority areas creates unprecedented opportunity for the researchers in ethnology, which is a systematic knowledge on studying the ethnic community and its culture. As the ethnic community vary with the historical development, especially displayed in the development of ethnic society, economy and culture. Study of this change and development is just the important task of ethnology. Guided by these principle, the author tries to start from the realistic need of the minority areas, where the policy of openness towards outside is being implemented and the trend of internationalization is surging for meeting the international world, make the full investigation of Foreign Street,summarize their experiences, study the new things and problems in the modern change of ethnic region, and provide the constructive ad...