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e of the most important beliefs of the Chinese people is that one is a “ good” one if he can bring honor to his ancestors. Here “the ancestors” stand for the concept of “family” while family is so important to the Chinese people that in Chinese, even the term for “a nation”, literally translated, means “a national family. According to Francia L.K.Hsu’ s Concentric Circle Systems, family is something between an individual and the society. A Chinese will turn to his family when he meets with difficulty or danger in society just as a Westerner may turn to his religion in such a case. The family acts as a group of mutual aid to protect an individual against an often hostile outside world. In return, an individual Chinese owes his first loyalty to his family, and should serve his family and bring honor to his family. Here “ the honor “ is understood in a much broader sense. Anything that can add to the prestige of the family is worth doing.

So, when a member, especially a senior member of the family, dies, what else can make outsiders think more highly of the family than a grand mourning ceremony for the deceased followed by an equally grand banquet to show how prosperous and how flourishing a family the deceased used to belong to and how united and how loyal all the other members of the family still are? As a matter of fact, general opinions tend to indicate that a family will be regarded as being “unusual” if it does not hold a banquet following the mourning ceremony for its deceased member.

Moreover, a funeral followed by a decent banquet is also a good chance to demonstrate one’s filial piety. In the light of the Chinese culture, one’s loyalty to his family is not only demonstrated by his caring for the elder generation who are still living but also by his respect for the ancestors who are dead. In fact, the Chinese word for “ filial piety ” may also mean “mourning “.

III.IT REFLECTS THE IMPORTANCE OF “ RELATIONS ” IN THE CHINESE PEOPLE’S MIND

“Relations “ or “ Human Relations “, to be specific, means so much to the Chinese people that “ relying on ‘ Relations ‘ or ‘ Ownership of Property ‘ for one’s status in society has become one of the key differences between Chinese culture and Western culture “ ( Notes of A Lecture by Prof. Fang Yongde from Shanghai International Studies Uni., 2001). If we have more relations or more important relations, we can enjoy a stronger position in society. Otherwise we are in a weaker status. Naturally we are ready to do anything to strengthen our existing relations and develop new ones rather than lose them or let them estranged. Sometimes we have to readjust certain relations or even cut some undesirable off. To do all these, we need proper occasions. A funeral together with a party following it may be one of them.

Then, when one dies, all the human relations that used to be connected with him now miss a “ cruciform knot ”. We need a funeral to confirm and grieve over this missing of relation and then a different kind of ceremony such as a party following the funeral (as a matter of fact, some other way has to be found, after all, if a party is not held after the mourning ceremony) in order to re-knit well the original net of relations in a lighter atmosphere. Those who come to attend the funeral and the banquet after it mean to shift their relations from the deceased to the living and to be ready to co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。