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When you first come to China you can almost imagine that it isn’t really that different from home. It certainly isn’t the old China that you see in the movies – women walking around in Qipao, Shaolin monks roaming the streets, temples and pagodas on every corner. In fact, many Chinese cities physically resemble their counterparts abroad, and it can be easy when you first step off the plane to feel like, aside from the funny signs in a different language, not that much is different. But the differences between China and the West are often more subtle and include differences in lifestyle and ways that might not stand out immediately when you take your first forays onto Chinese soil; but you will notice them, in time. Here we look at ways that Chinese lives are different from ours back home.
當你第一次踏上中國這片熱土，你完全會驚訝地發現：它和你的祖國并沒有太大的區別。中國已不再是你從舊電影里所看到的那樣：滿大街都是穿著旗袍的女人，到處可以看到少林寺和尚的身影，寺廟寶塔隨處可見。其實，從外表上看，許多中國的城市正在和西方的城市越來越相似，當你走下飛機，除了對用中文表達的標示感到有趣之外，并不會覺得有何異樣。然而， 中西方社會的差異卻是真切地存在著，只是你初來乍到，難以體會而已，我們一起來看看中國人有著怎樣不同的生活吧。
1) No Car Culture汽車文化
Although car ownership is becoming more common in China, you are just as likely to see people walking or riding bikes as you are to see them behind the wheel. Aside from the obvious health benefits to walking and bike riding, the lack of a car culture in China has a larger effect on Chinese lifestyles than you might first realise. There are almost no drive-through fast food restaurants, for starters, which means that while fast food is popular in China it is not so convenient as to have become a daily part of most people’s routines. Because most Chinese people are not car owners, Chinese cities have extremely well developed public transportation. Lack of car ownership also means less urban sprawl, with most city dwellers concentrated in urban areas near the city center. Although these features of Chinese life are changing, we doubt that cars will completely overtake other forms of transportation anytime soon.
在中國，雖然擁有私家車的人數在不斷攀升，但是走路或騎車依然是絕大部分中國人的主要代步方式。當然，走路與騎車對身體健康的好處是顯而易見的，只是汽車文化的缺失深遠地影響著中國人的生活方式。盡管快餐文化在中國已經日益流行，但以車代步尚未成為中國人的主流意識，所以快餐就難以像它在西方社會那樣成為人們每日必吃的方便食品，你在這里也幾乎找不到“免下車快餐廳”。正因為相比而言更多的人沒有汽車，所以許多城市不遺余力地發展其公共交通設施。也正是由于這個原因，所以城市人口很難向郊區大幅遷移，人們還是愿意選擇住在出行方便的市中心。隨著中國日新月異的變化，人們的生活正在發生著巨大改變，但很難說在不久的將來，開車將完全成為中國人首選的交通工具。
2) On Being a Teen 青少年問題
Chinese culture does not indulge in the idea that kids will be kids or that teenagers are bound to get up to no good. You won’t hear tales from Chinese teenagers about the keggers they went to after homecoming or the joints they smoked under the bleachers. There is no high school football team and no cheerleaders, no yearbook, no senior prom. Instead, young Chinese people spend hours upon relentless hours prepping for their college entrance exams. They are often not allowed to date and while of course teenage puppy love exists, open displays of affection can be grounds for serious punishment or even expulsion in some Chinese high schools. In the West our stories of our wild and crazy youth are a huge part of our collective consciousness, so much so that the topic has spawned countless movies, songs, and T.V. shows, and has shaped how we ourselves view the boundaries between childhood and adulthood. In China, teenagers are still very much children and are expected to do as they are told, get good grades and not disappoint their families.
受中國傳統文化根深蒂固的影響，中國的大人普遍不相信這點：小孩就是小孩，青少年可以整天無所事事！你不可能聽到中國孩子跑來告訴你：去參加校友返校活動中的啤酒聚會是多么得有趣或在露天看臺上偷偷嘗試抽大卷煙是怎樣的感受。很多中國的高中都沒有正規的校足球隊，更別說為此助威的啦啦隊長了，學校通常也不為高中畢業生制作畢業年鑒（記錄他們的成長歷程和學校的大事記）或組織高年級的學生舞會。中國的青少年都在忙什么呢？事實上，他們把大部分時間花在了迎接高考上。父母、學校、社會輿論不允許他們出去約會，當然早戀的情況還是時有發生。僅僅是表達對某異性同學的愛慕就可能成為高中校園內的爆炸性新聞，甚至可能會招來校方的處分。而在西方，我們常能看到青少年在情竇初開的年紀，做出一些瘋狂的事情，這已成為西方社會集體意識的一大部分。青少年戀愛問題催生出了無數以此為題材的電影、歌曲和電視節目，同時也告訴了我們一個青少年從童年邁入成年的標志。這樣看來，中國的青少年更多地還是被當成小孩子在對待，只要做到聽話，成績好，不要讓父母失望就可以了！
3) Sense of Community社區意識
The local parks and neighbourhood courtyards are a cornerstone of the social network for Chinese people. After dinner and before the sun goes down, the parks start to fill up with people – older people practicing tai qi, middle aged men playing cards or chess, young people strolling in pairs, and children running around as their parents look on. This evening time is when Chinese families come out to socialize, to gossip with the neighbours, enjoy some fresh air, and get a bit of exercise. While we in the West, especially America, have become paranoid about the predator lurking around the corner, have become isolated in front of our various screens and devices, over here in China the tradition of the neighbourhood community still persists, bringing back good memories to those of us old enough to remember riding our bikes with the neighbourhood kids or sitting on the front porch and chatting with the neighbours.
對于中國的老百姓來說，自家附近的公園和小區的花園是鄰里交際的主要場所。每天晚飯后，在太陽落山前，人們就開始慢慢聚集到公園里，老年人打太極，中年人打牌或下棋，青年情侶攜手散步，小孩子們在父母的看護下追逐打鬧，好不開心！中國家庭往往利用傍晚的時間出來與鄰居聊天，呼吸新鮮空氣，并做一些身體鍛煉，這是一種中國式的社交方式。而在西方人，尤其是美國，只要看到有人在街角閑逛，我們就會恐懼是壞蛋潛伏在那里。只要對著各種電子屏幕和器械，我們就覺得很滿足，漸漸開始遠離真實的人際關系。而在中國，傳統的社區文化依然被保存得很好，這讓人不禁回想起我們以前的生活場景：小時候我們也喜歡與鄰居家孩子比賽騎單車，也常常坐在房前的門廊下與隔壁鄰居們聊天。這種溫馨的場面現在越來越少了！
4) Fresh Food新鮮食物
In China, frozen TV dinners are largely a foreign concept. Each morning you can see the mothers, grandmothers and ayis on their way to the market to buy the fresh produce they need for the family’s meals. Many Chinese families still do not have refrigerators, nor do they particularly see the need for them, as they buy what they need for each day’s meal every day, sometimes even making several trips to the market in one day. Although it is arguably more convenient to make weekly or bi-weekly shopping trips to the big mega-mart, shopping daily ensures less waste, as you only buy what you are sure you will use in a day. Fresh meat and produce is also healthier than processed food, which is largely why Chinese food, despite being cooked in vats of oil, has a reputation for being better for you than Western food.
在中國，購買速凍電視餐幾乎是一個全新的外來概念。每天清晨，菜場里到處都是家庭主婦們或保姆們的忙碌身影，她們正在為自家一天的飯菜采購最新鮮的食材。許多沒添置冰箱的中國家庭，并不覺得冰箱有多大的用處，因為他們已習慣每天采購當日的食物，有時一天去幾次菜市場也不覺得麻煩。要是像西方人那樣一周或兩周去大超市采購一次近期食品的話，當然更方便且省時，但是中國人這種日采購的方式卻能減少食物浪費，只要算好當天要吃的東西就好！比起西方菜肴，中國菜常以新鮮的魚肉和農產品為烹飪食材，即使在其制作過程中加入了不少的食用油，它也要顯得更美味、更健康。
5) Family First家庭第一
While Westerners certainly love and cherish their families, the traditional family is the cornerstone of the Chinese lifestyle in ways that have become nearly obsolete back home. A traditional opposite sex marriage, for example, is considered essential to happiness and in China, single mothers or unmarried men and women over the age of 30 are rare. Most Chinese families consist of a mother, a father, a child or perhaps two, and one’s elderly parents living in the home and helping the family to raise their children while mother and father work hard to support the family financially. Most Chinese families have sit down dinners each night with all of the members of the family present and the matriarch of the family usually prepares a proper meal with several courses. The loss of this 1950’s-style family model has caused much discussion back home, as politicians rally around the family as a “cause,” the Pat Robertsons of the world need not despair, for better or worse the traditional family is alive and well – in Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an.
珍愛家庭自然也是西方人所崇尚的理念，只是在西方人眼里，中國人至今堅持的傳統家庭模式早已過時。比如，中國人認為傳統的兩性婚姻是人生幸福的必要前提，所以在中國，單身媽媽或過了30歲依然未婚的男女并不多見。 絕大部分的中國家庭是這樣構成的：媽媽、爸爸、一到兩個小孩，他們一起和爺爺奶奶或外公外婆住一起，這樣的好處是老人可以幫助照看孩子，而爸爸媽媽則可以更好地外出賺錢養家。到了傍晚，一家人齊聚一堂，共同分享由長輩們準備的晚餐，這樣的晚餐通常由好幾道菜組成，頗為豐盛。我們在上世紀50年代也曾擁有過這樣的家庭模式，只是如今早已不見其蹤影，這引起了許多學者、政治家的熱烈討論。信奉傳統家庭理念的人們大可不必失望，因為至少在像北京、上海、西安這樣的中國大城市里，傳統的家庭模式依然完好地存在著。
