English Language-culture and the Lifestyle of Urban Women in Contemporary China

Abstract: The purpose of this research paper was study to what extent English language-culture has impacted the lifestyle of contemporary Chinese women in urban area. To be more elaborate, this research aimed at finding out how deep English and Western culture behind the language (as perceived by Chinese people) has filtered into the women's life, how large it has immersed, and how far and to which direction it is leading the women's lifestyle. In addition, this paper also tried to make clear in what way Chinese women have accepted and interpreted Western lifestyles and how the values behind lifestyles have affected the building and rebuilding of Chinese women's discourse and values of the world in a global era. Thus I focused my research questions on three aspects of Chinese women: dressing, eating and housing. Namely, I tried to answer how deep English language and Western culture has gone into Chinese women's life in the aspects of dressing culture, eating/food culture and housing culture, and what are Chinese women's versions and acceptances of English language-culture. Mainly based on some theories of language and culture, sociology and globalization, I worked out my research chiefly in a qualitative way with the help of some quantitative data. The main conclusions are: English language-culture or Western culture do have influences on the lifestyles of Chinese women; the interactions of English language-culture with Chinese women culture have resulted in different forms such as acculturation, localization/assimilation and symbiosis.