张雅欣：外交学院选手，第17届21世纪杯全国英语演讲比赛二等奖获得者。

演讲稿：

Globalization bridges Chinese culture and western culture. It provides a platform for more and more cultural communications. During the process, we notice various cultural differences between us. And sometimes we even encounter some cultural clashes or cultural gaps. However, more importantly, thanks to cultural communications, we understand better and learn more about each other. Only by mutual understanding can we do our best to avoid cultural clashes. Only by less and less cultural clashes can Chinese culture and western culture peacefully coexist.

The past decades witness the overall decrease of cultural clashes between Chinese and western culture. More overseas students from China pay attention to tip waiters and taxi drivers. More foreigners will be more careful when they are talking with the Hui people. As the saying goes, In Rome, do as Romans do. Out of respect, both Chinese people and the westerners bear in mind the taboos of the other and avoid offending others as much as possible. Cultural communications are enlarging, from intergovernmental meetings to people-to-people exchanges, from political issues to daily lives. Immigrants from western countries bring their cultures to China. And China Town tells our Chinese stories to the foreigners. Such better understanding about each other’s culture is the basis for further decrease of cultural clashes. And the avoidance of cultural clashes lay the foundations for cultural coexistence.

But, to realize real cultural coexistence, just show respect to other’s cultures is far from enough. The reason is, on the one hand, in some cases the happening of cultural clashes is unavoidable. If a customer brings pork sausages to a Muslim restaurant, even not deliberately, we have to ask him to throw the sausage away or let him leave. It’s impossible for us to sacrifice our own cultural identity for the sake of the avoidance of cultural clashes. Thus, sticking to one’s own cultural identity is also necessary. On the basis of self-respect of one’s culture, we can truly respect others’. On the other hand, as different cultures meet together, cultural integration often happens. In international fashion week, western fashion designers decorating their clothes with Beijing Opera Facial Masks and Chinese characters are not uncommon. Absorbing Chinese elements into western products become more and more popular. In the meantime, western styles are also integrated into Chinese arts. We are happy to see such phenomenon. But during the process of cultural integration, we have to stick to our cultural identity.

Chinese culture and western have harmoniously coexisted for several centuries. And they will continue to coexist and flourish together. Let’s make a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred cultures coexist.