Cultural Differences in Etiquette between Westerners and Chinese
中西方在礼仪文化上的差异
As we all know, cultural differences exist between one nation and another. And it’s just the cultural differences that make the world colorful and delightful. Cultural differences include the way of thinking, living, behaving and so on. Today I’d like to talk about some cultural differences on etiquette between western and Chinese.
First of all, let’s see the daily communication. When Chinese meet acquaintances or friends, we usually greet each other like “have you eaten?”or “where are you going?” these expressions show our consideration and care. Instead, the westerners always say “it’s a fine day today! “or “good morning/afternoon/night!” And they may consider the greetings “where are you going” as a real question so that they may feel unhappy because they think you’re trying to know their privacy .When it comes to addressing, we Chinese always use “uncle, aunt, brother or sister” to call a stranger, which is considered as a courtesy. But the westerners use sir or madam to speak to a stranger and they always address their relatives directly by their given name except for their father and mother.
Then let’s talk about the manners when we eat. As to every dish, Chinese people pay more attention to their color, smell, taste and shape, and at the same time, wine is counted as the necessity. To the contrary, westerners prefer diet balance and they don’t seek much for its taste. Of course, westerners don’t advocate drinking, either. When it mentions the atmosphere, we Chinese prefer a get-together while westerners incline to hold a party. On the other hand, we’d like the atmosphere to be lively while westerners like it neat and quiet. And they’ll try their best to behave correctly. By the way, the dinnerware we use is also different. Chinese use chopsticks instead of knives and forks which are used in western countries.
At last, let’s discuss etiquette when we dress. I’d like to begin with the west. In formal occasion, men are supposed to wear business suit with a white shirt inside. Always a proper tie is indispensable. And women usually wear formal dresses as well as earrings. But in daily life, say, informal situation, people always dress much casually. Then how do we Chinese dress in different occasions? It’s obvious that as the development of globalization, the way of our dressing is more and more similar to that in west. So here I’ll not describe it any more.
All right, above is all I want to say. It’s certain that I have left out many other differences and we can hardly count it clearly and completely in this short passage. But I believe that both the differences will help enrich the civilization of mankind! We should be more and more tolerant towards other cultures!
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