Chinese and Western table manners 跨文化论文.doc

chinese and western table mannersthesis statement：this paper is intended to make a comparison between chinese and western table manners to see their differences and ask chinese to adjust their mistaken view on table manners of either chinese or western. outline： 1. introduction 2. differences 3.conclusion works citedchinese and western table mannersintroduction : once there is a saying that food is eating well-deserved for human life , so food is an indispensable condition for the survival and development of human beings. there are two desires in life: one is feasting them to survive; and the other is the lust of men and women ,which can help the mankind to carry on the family line. facing the two desires , china pays more attention to the former, while the west tends to the latter. such phenomenon affects the cultural trend. diet is actually the contents of our daily lifves, but why we call it culture? that is because the diet plays an important role in chinese culture .and it also has a great distinction china and the west.as one of the world ancient nations, chinas diet has a history almost as long as that of chinese civilization. but in western countries ,ancient thinkers devoted less attention to the food problem than the chinese philosophers did, and there is even no awareness of it to the heaven degree. on the contrary, they recognized and interpreted the world in the perspective of the lust or love of men and women more. whether the awareness of original sin of christianity, adam and eve legend, or ancient greek philosophers ,such as plato who considered the personal relationships love as the love of ontology of beauty , and regarded it as a reality thinking of philosophy, all these ideas become the basis of western philosophers cultural thoughts. all these had potential effects on the development of western culture and westerners characters.receiving the influence of respective cultural tradition, the chinese and western dietary culture has had different characteristic. the differences had reflected the different dietary culture in different state characteristic which has enriched the research value of dietary culture. studying these cultural differences ,we can find out a joint enhancing the communication between china and the west through a comprehensive study of the subject. differences :apparently ,the main difference is not the tool used on the table(chinese use chopsticks while the westerners use knife and fork) , thats too superficial . besides,in decent restaurants, you can always ask for a pair of knife and fork ,if you find the chopsticks not helpful enough.the real difference between chinese and western eating habits is that unlike the west ,where everyone has their own plate of food . in china the dishes are placed on the table and everyone proud of food and will do their best to give you a taste of many different types of cuisine . among friends, they will just order enough for the people there. if they are taking somebody out for dinner and the relationship is polite to semi-polite, then they will usually order one more dish than the number of guests(e.g. four people ,five dishes) if it is a business dinner or a very formal occasion, there is likely to be a huge amount of food that will be impossible to finish. a typical meal starts with a set of at least four cold dishes ,like boiled peanuts and smashed cucumber with garlic, to be followed by the main courses of hot meat and vegetable dishes. finally soup is brought out(unless in guangdong style restaurants) , which is followed by the starchy staple food ,which is usually rice or noodles or sometimes dumplings. many chinese eat rice (or noodles) last, but if you like to have your rice together with other dishes, you should say so in good time, for most of the chinese choose to have the staple food at last or have none of them at all. perhaps one of the things that surprise a western visitor most is that some of the chinese hosts like to put food into the plates of their guests. in formal dinners, there are always public chopsticks and spoons for this purpose, but some hosts may use their own chopsticks. this is a sign of genuine friendship and politeness. it is always polite to eat up the food. if you do not eat it up, just leave it in the plate. people in china tend to over-order food, for they will find it embarrassing if all the food is consumed. everything is relative, cultural difference being no exception . culture ,as the total pattern of human behavior and its products , oversteps geographical limits and historical conditions in many ways, and it is characterized by its strong attractiveness and fusibility. it is no surprise to see phenomena characteristic of one culture existing in another. as a result ,some people even fear that the world will become a dull place when all the different nationalities behave exactly alike. nevertheless, the “cultural sediment” formed through long-range accumulation is not to be easily removed ,and the cultural tradition handed down from generation to generation shows great consistency and continuity. the cultures of different regions and nations still have their own distinctive peculiarities,and therefore significance still needs to be attached to the study of different cultures against the background of their university.traditionally speaking, there are many taboos at chinese tables, but these days a few people pay their attention to them. however, there are a few things that considered impolite at chinese tables: dont stick your chopsticks upright in the rice bowl. instead, lay them on your dish. make sure the spout of the teapot is not facing anyone. the spout should always be directed to where nobody is sitting,usually just outwards from the table. dont tap on your bowl with your chopsticks. conclusion:we can easily see the differences between chinese tab