Abstract：The movie Crash which is shot in Los Angeles，is a typical work of cultural communication，it reveals lots of intercultural problems between people of different background.And this paper is going to individually analyze three cultural concepts-stereotype，prejudice and ethnocentrism based on the plots of Crash.
　　Key words：Cultural Communication；Stereotype；Prejudice；Ethnocentrism
　　1 Introduction
　　American society has long been a mixture of people of diverse cultural backgrounds and ethnic origins.“Culture melting pot”is the name used to describe America.And Los Angeles，where the movie Crash was shot，is a typical city of that kind.Its plot was designated with meticulous care while seemed to be uelated.The story demonstrated the social reality.Just as a detective said in the beginning of the movie，“In L.A.，nobody touches you.We are always behind this metal and glass.I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel something”，Crash shows cultural conflicts among different people through these three cultural concepts：stereotype，prejudice and ethnocentrism.
　　2 Cultural Concepts with Corresponding Plots
　　2.1 Stereotype
　　Stereotype refers to a fixed impression about certain population which is socially categorized by gender，race，age or occupation.Usually，stereotype aims to the impressions about strangers，which unavoidably will bring misunderstandings.In Crash，in one filming site，the white assistant Fred questioned about the lines of the black actor Jamal，“This is weird for a white guy to say，but have you noticed he’s talking a lot less black lately？Like in this scene，he was supposed to say ‘Don’t be talking about that’ and he changed it to‘Don’t talk to me about that’”.Fred’s words show that it is normal for the black to speak ill-formed English because of their lack of education，which shows negative effect of stereotype.It easily misleads us to prejudice.
　　2.2 Prejudice
　　Prejudice is based on wrong judgment of negative attitudes toward other group or individuals，which is unhealthy and ueasonable（Jia Yuxin，1997）.In this film，prejudices are everywhere.A white young policeman gave a free ride to a black guy，the black man’s worn shoes and dusty clothes made the policeman suspicious.When the black man wanted to take out his icon from his pocket，the policeman thought it was gun，shooting him without thinking twice.This scene reveals the white policeman’s prejudice though he was nice to the black.However，among people of color，prejudices exist as well.In the beginning of the film，the car crash involving Mexican American woman detective and a Korean woman，they are both people of color，but they called each other’s name without rationality.

相關(guān)熱詞搜索：Communication Cultural Crash Reflected