| Christmas, which originated from the commemoration of Jesus Christ, is the most important festival in western countries. Since the process of globalization accelerated and China became more opening up, Christmas has been brought into China with the communication between Chinese and Western cultures. Based on Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s value orientation theory and Bennett’s developmental model of intercultural sensitivity, this thesis analyses 150 pieces of Christmas news reports aiming to compare the features and cultural values reflected in Christmas celebration in the west and China. All the news are selected from the database of Founder Chinese Digital Bookstore.This study shows three features for western Christmas celebration, i.e. religious,social and commercial. This thesis divides the time of dissemination of Christmas in China into four parts: the feudal period, the end of the Qing Dynasty to the period of the Republic of China, the period of the foundation of People’s Republic of China and the period of rapid development of economy. According to the analysis of data, the main features of Christmas in China are less religious, more commercial and localized.The thesis attempts to analyze these situations from the aspects of economy and culture. In the respect of cultural value, there are roughly three kinds of attitudes when Chinese celebrate Christmas: western cultural independence, cultural rejection and cultural fusion. The present research also finds that some values of Chinese people have slightly changed and the spread of Christmas in China causes a cultural conflict.In the end, the author makes a comparison between Christmas in the west and Spring Festival in China in some aspects in order to find a better way for thetraditional cultural inheritance. |
