摘　 要

在中美文化交流过程中，由于中美双方有不同的价值观，所以时常会感受到一些文化冲突。在价值观方面，中国追求的是集体主义，而美国更推崇个人主义。简单来说集体主义从属于社会集体，其形式不一。美国的个人主义思想是社会界定的一种个人价值的体现形式,它注重的是：凡事要依靠自己，不要过分依赖他人，要有个人的独立性。纵观历史，中美文化之间的冲突，归根到底是由于中国文化的群体本位意识与美国文化的个体本位意识的异质相斥。对比中美价值取向，了解中美价值观念差异是中国社会主义精神文明建设的需要，也是促进两国间交流的需要。本文旨在对这两种价值观作探讨，并分析它们之间的文化差异，以在跨文化的交际和沟通过程中有助于减少和避免误解和冲突。人们在承认和坚持各自价值观的同时，还应该了解和尊重对方的价值观，并努力使自己适应两种价值观之间的差异,加深感情，促进中美两国之间的文化交流，这将有利于中美之间的共同发展与繁荣。

关键词：文化差异；集体主义；个人主义
 
Abstract

In the process of cultural exchanges between China and the United States, since the two sides have different values, so people often feel some cultural conflicts. In the view of value, China is in pursuit of collectivism, while the United States focuses more on individualism. Simply speaking, the collectivism subordinates to the social collective, it has different forms. American individualism is a personal manifestation of the value of the social defined form, it pays attention to is: everything must depend on oneself, don’t rely too much on others, want to have personal independence.Throughout history, the conflicts between the Sino-US is due to the heterogeneity repulsion of group-based awareness of Chinese culture and individual standard awareness of American culture. Compared to the value orientation of China and the United States, to understand value differences of China and the United States is the need of China's socialist spiritual civilization construction, also is the need of promoting exchanges between the two countries. This paper aims to explore these two values, and analyzes the cultural differences between them, to help reduce and avoid misunderstandings and conflict in cross-cultural communication. People recognize and adhere to their respective values at the same time, should also understand and respect each other’s values, and try hard to adapt himself to the differences between the two values, to deepen the feelings and promote cultural exchanges between China and the United States, which will be conducive to the common development and prosperity between China and the United States.

Key words: cultural differences; collectivism; individualism

1 Introduction
    With the globalization of economy and politics, intercultural communication is necessary in modern society. The world is shrinking with the development of science and technology. The contact between people and countries has greatly increased communication. However, cultural differences in religion, ethnic, economy and politics have become great obstacles to intercultural communication. Misunderstandings among people from different cultures are inevitable since the different cultural values design different characteristics of a culture. In light of the condition stated above, it is necessary to make a comparative study of the differences of Sino-US cultural values in order to improve intercultural competence for Chinese English learners and diminish misunderstanding between people of the two countries.