Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: Culture is an indispensable element in China and the West. As a part of culture, dining etiquettes play an important role in people’s life. The paper overviews briefly the development of Chinese and Western dining etiquettes research. By comparison, the paper reveals the features and differences of each other’s dining etiquettes and points out the influences resulting from the differences. Based on the Iceberg Theory, the national culture bringing out the differences and influences will also be discussed. Furthermore, this paper proposes some suggestions to assure the differences can be employed in a positive way, aiming to promote a better communication between China and the West, absorb excellent culture mutually and make progress together.

Key words: culture; dining etiquette; differences; influence
 
摘要：文化是中西方各国不可或缺的元素之一。作为文化的一部分，餐桌礼仪在中西方各国人民的生活中也扮演者重要角色。本文对中西方餐桌礼仪文化的研究现状做了综述介绍，通过对比的手段揭示各自餐桌礼仪的特点和差异，并指出这些差异所带来的影响。此外，本文以冰山理论为支撑，追根溯源，探讨了产生这些差异及其影响的民族文化，并提出相应的建议，使得这些影响往积极的方向发展，以期促进中西方更好的交流，加深中西方优秀文化的相互渗透，达到互相吸收、共同进步的目的。

关键词：文化; 餐桌礼仪; 差异; 影响

1.    Introduction    
Since the 21st century, with the fusion of worlds deepening ceaselessly, cross-cultural communication has become an indispensable part in people’s life. The etiquette between people has excited more and more attention, and the importance of dining etiquettes has been highlighted gradually. Due to the regional disparity, people in different countries have formed different dining etiquettes and culture. For instance, in China, people use chopsticks instead of knifes and forks, and the dishes are placed on the table and everyone shares, while in the West, you have your own plate of food.
In recent years, a lot of scholars have done researches on cultural differences between Chinese and Western dining etiquettes. From the literature it can be found that dining etiquettes has aroused extensive concern among academic circles. The American author Pamela Goyan Kittler provided information on the health, culture, food, and nutrition habits of the most common ethnic and racial groups living in the United States in his book Food and Culture. It is designed to help health professionals, chefs, and others in the food service industry learn to work effectively with members of different ethnic and religious groups in a culturally sensitive manner.