Abstract University mottos reflect the campus cultures and education orientations. The university mottos in different countries will reflect their own peculiar characteristics as they are cultivated in different national cultures. Therefore, university mottos of Chinese and American universities will definitely show their own cultural features. By comparing Chinese and American university mottos through the evolution and development of history, composition and source of words and cultural connotation and stability, the thesis finds out that most Chinese and American universities attach great importance to summarizing a special and vivid precept, and they also make full use of the mottos in terms of school running. Also, the thesis analyzes the cultural differences between China and America from the following aspects: morality tendency and knowledge tendency; collectivism and inpidualism; indirect thinking mode and direct thinking mode; past-orientation and future-orientation. This thesis is aimed to find a new way for university motto to play its function in education, and to find a new point of view to understand the cultures profoundly and to promote cultural interactions.56196

Keywords: university mottos; cultural backgrounds; Sino-American cultural  differences

摘要校训代表着校园文化和教育理念，其形成受到传统文化的影响。所以，中美文化差异的客观存在必然会在大学校训中有所体现。本文将通过比较研究校训历史的发展、文字的构成与来源和文化内涵与稳定性，分析其中中美文化差异的具体原因：伦理和认知倾向、集体和个人主义、曲线性和直线性思维、后馈性和超前性倾。本文旨在更好地发挥校训的教育作用，以及促进中美文化的交流。

毕业论文关键词：大学校训；文化背景；中美文化差异

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 The Definition of University Motto 1

1.2 The Objectives of This Study 2

2. Literature Review 2

3. Comparisons of Sino-American University Mottos 4

3.1 Differences in the Historical Developments 4

3.2 Differences in the Composition and Sources of Words 5

4. Factors Leading to Sino-American Cultural Differences in University Mottos 6

4.1 Morality Tendency vs Knowledge Tendency 7

4.2 Collectivism vs Inpidualism 8

4.3 Indirect Thinking Mode vs Direct Thinking Mode 10

4.4 Past-orientation vs Future-orientation 11

5. Conclusion 13

Works Cited 14

1. Introduction 

1.1 The Definition of the University Motto

     The word “university” has its broad sense and its narrow sense. Generalized university including private university, college, higher vocational technology school, higher adult school and so on, refers to all kinds of properties, levels, types of colleges and universities, and it is the floorboard of the institutions of higher learning. University of narrow sense refers to the full-time ordinary college which can impart bachelor degree and others higher than bachelor and which consists of different subjects and professional classes. “University” in this thesis refers to the narrow sense. (Shi Tingting, 2009:1)

     As for the university motto, Modern Chinese Dictionary defines it as “the words that school provides have a guiding significance for the students”, and Ci Hai pressed by Zhong Hua Book Company in 1999 defines it as “in order to educate the students conveniently, school leaders pick up some boards with some guided and meaningful words on it and hang them in the public places in the school.” Correspondingly, there are some demands for making university mottos: first, university motto should reflect some significant thoughts of university operations; second, the words should be easy to understand and remember; last, university mottos should represent some characteristics of universities.