ABriefingtheCross-CulturalLinguisticStudies.ppt

“Cultural Diversity and Social Harmony”  By Xiaodong Bai Outline Introduction of the Coursefor Elective Courses of ES) (. Introduction: The course “Cultural Diversity and Social Harmony” is a bilingual class taught both Chinese and English. It is designed best as an on-going open research in the form of a tutorial for students, the aim of which is to provide relevant information about the rationale behind the EU’s effort to preserve cultural diversity as compared with that of China’s attempt to build a “Harmonious society” and stimulate critical thinking and meaningful discussions on pertinent issues. At the same time, basic differences resulted from deep cultural reasons between the European ideal of “unity within diversity” and that of China’s “harmony with differences”. The starting point, which serves as a focus of the relevant research is the different concepts of “man” as an entity in Europe and China, which results in different ideas about human obligations and privileges. The course then moves to a look at the different ways to achieve unity and harmony as rooted in the two traditions that proposed different goals for life. The Chinese tradition, which started with the “teaching through music”, emphasizes “happiness and harmony” while the European tradition, with Plato as the father of philosophy, argues for “Reason” and “Truth”, or the world of “Ideas” as the ultimate purpose of existence. After inviting the students to do research in the above mentioned areas on their own, the course then moves to the concrete policies regarding the “preservation of cultural diversity” in Europe and the “building of social harmony” in China. Discussions and papers on relevant issues existing in current society as the natural cultural outcomes of the different cultural traditions are then carried out and collected as new starting points and materials for f