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riting  in  China and to redesign a new teaching method on the basis of memetics theory. Such method is  intended  to  help  the  students  improve  not  only  their  English  writing  competence, but enhance their motivation in English writing.  
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Chapter Two   Literature Review 

2.1 Introduction to Memetics Theory 
The  word  “meme”  firstly  appeared  in  Richard  Dawkins’s  famous  book  The Selfish Gene in 1976. Dawkins parodied the word “gene” inventing the term “meme” from the Greek word “mimeme” meaning “imitation”. He defined “meme” as “a unit of cultural transmission” (Dawkins, 1976:192). In Dawkins’ view, “meme is a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena.” The Oxford English Dictionary gives a meme such a definition: “meme (mi:m),  n.  Biol.  (shortened  from  mimeme  ...  which  is  imitated,  after  GENE  n.).  An element  of  a  culture  that  may  be  considered  to  be  passed  on  by  non-genetic  means, esp. imitation”(Clarendon Press,1933:1087). Richard  Dawkins  argues  in  his  book  that  a  successful  meme  mainly  has  three characteristics: copying-fidelity, the fecundity and the longevity (Dawkins, 1976). The replication process must be highly accurate, which means the meme cannot change even after a series of replication. The retention of one nationality’s language, religion,  custom  and  tradition  counts  on  its  high  fidelity.  After  countless  imitation, these memes are still handed down in a different way. Fidelity refers to the ability that a meme can accurately copy and transfer the information of itself. He Ziran points out that “the fidelity is a matter of degree”, but different people have different standard of the  “degree”  (何自然,  2004:2-6).  The  important  point  is  whether  the  essence  of  the meme has been kept during the process of transmission. 
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2.2 Meme Research at Home and Abroad 
Memetics has a long history based on Darwin’s theory of biological evolution for illustrating the law of cultural evolution. At its earlier times, memetics theory served as  a  big  frame.  Before  memetics  was  introduced  into  the  contemporary  China, scholars in the West had made in-depth research in this theory from different aspects and achieved impressive results. The  philosopher  and  psychologist  Daniel  Dennett  was  the  first  to  show  his support  to  Darwin’s  idea  of  memetics.  In  his  two  books,  Consciousness  Explained (1993) and Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (1996), Dennett remarks that meme exists in the human  brain  as  a  kind  of  information  model  and  the  human  brain  is  composed  of many memes. He also explains from the view of memeti本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。