Abstract With the globalization and the rapid development of Chinese economic development, cultural interaction between Chinese and Western cultural becomes wider and wider. Western festivals, especially the Christmas and Saint Valentine's Day, are more and more popular among young people in China. This results in a heavy shock on traditional Chinese festivals. Our traditional festivals are suffering a cold and even decline. The purpose of this thesis is exploring the causes of major western festivals’ shock on traditional Chinese festivals, from the perspectives of Sino-western cultural exchange under globalization, Chinese economic development and the personalities of young people; external factors include the deficiency of contemporary education, the publicity of mass media and the speculation of businessmen. Finally, I hope we work together to preserve our traditional festivals.55816

Keywords: Chinese festivals; western festivals; shock; causes

摘要随着全球化和中国经济的快速发展，中国与西方国家之间的文化交流日渐广泛。西方节日，主要是圣诞节和情人节，在中国越来越受年轻人的欢迎。中国传统节日受到强烈的冲击，渐渐遭受冷落甚至走向衰落。本课题的目的在于探究西方的主要节日对传统的中国节日造成冲击的原因，如中西方之间的文化交流，中国经济的发展和年轻人的性格特点；外在因素包括当代教育的缺失，媒体的宣传和商家的炒作。最后，希望大家共同努力保护我国的传统节日。

毕业论文关键词：中国节日；西方节日；冲击；原因

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. The Causes of Major Western Festival’s Shock on Chinese Festivals 3

3.1 The Result of Sino-Western Cultural Exchange under Globalization 3

3.2 Chinese Economic Development 4

3.3 Personalities of Young People 6

3.4 Deficiency of Chinese Contemporary Education 8

3.5 The Publicity of Mass Media 9

3.6 The Speculation of Businessmen 9

4. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 12

 1. Introduction 

During long history of 5000 years, our intellectual ancestors created lots of festival, including the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Double Seventh Day, the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Double Ninth Day. Traditional festival culture is the most universal, significant and richest element in the constitution of national culture. “Festivals are precious culture heritage of different countries.”(Zhu Yan, 2003: 182) Both Chinese and western festivals are a window into their different cultures, including their tradition, belief and value. Chinese festivals consist of three functions: eat, play and union. Since China launched the reform and open-up policy, national economy fast boosts. With more frequent interaction between China and western countries, fresh western culture is introduced into China. Due to the popularization of network, Chinese have greater access to know foreign culture and follow the fashion of celebrating western festivals. According to statistics, the most popular western festivals are Christmas, the Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Easter and April Fool’s Day. Now research shows that Chinese people, especially the college students and young office staffs, are crazy for celebrating these major western festivals. Christmas in western countries is to commemorate the birth of Jesus. It is funny that some people who do not believe in domestic Christ also go to the church to pray. Valentine's Day marked by Cupid shooting two hearts is also to commemorate a Christian believer. Those who celebrate Christmas or Saint Valentine’s Day actually do not know its origin and cultural connotation. At the advent of big western festivals, businessmen are going crazy. They hype and speculate to compete for market and profits. “Festival, as an important carrier of a national culture, it will inevitably be the main aspect of the Western culture shock.”(Wang Jinyue, 2012: 281) Chinese festivals have been despised and neglected intentionally or unintentionally, though it has a long history and profound cultural connotation. The functions of traditional festivals begin to dilute. The most important is that some Chinese festivals has lost it original meanings and are rarely known to enormous people. It is not realistic to forbid Chinese people to celebrate western festivals in modern society. We cannot leave this situation alone but to solve this urgent problem. 浅谈西方的主要节日对中国传统节日的冲击:http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_60181.html