Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: Etiquette is a kind of culture. The course of globalization has been accelerated.  Traditional Chinese etiquettes have been affected by western etiquettes constantly. People start to talk more about how to protect Chinese traditional etiquettes, and mix them with western etiquettes appropriately. More and more people realize that Chinese and western etiquettes will mix with each other and develop constantly. This paper analyzes the differences of etiquettes on dinner between China and western countries, including  time for attendance, arrangement of seats, usage of dinning tools, dinning environments as well as dinning talks, and talks about the causes for these differences in order to promote people’s awareness of the differences on Chinese and western etiquettes, enhance the traditional cultural awareness, respect different cultures, and avoid the cultural conflicts in the cross-cultural communication.

Key words: traditional etiquettes; etiquettes on dinner; dinning environment; dinning talks

摘要：礼仪是一种文化。全球化进程加快，传统的中国礼仪也已受到西方礼仪的影响。人们开始更多的讨论如何保护传统的中国礼仪，并且恰当的融合西方礼仪。越来越多的人意识到中西方礼仪将互相融合，不断发展。本文分析了中西方宴席礼仪的差异，包括出席时间、座次安排、餐具的使用、用餐环境、餐桌话语等方面的差异，以及中西方宴席礼仪差异的原因，以增长人们对中西方礼仪文化差异的认识，增强传统文化意识，尊重不同文化，避免跨文化交际中的文化冲突。

关键词：传统礼仪；宴席礼仪；就餐氛围；餐桌话语

1. Introduction
Etiquettes on dinner play an important role in making an impression of one person on others. During a formal dinner, people are expected to follow the etiquettes on dinner in order to avoid embarrassing situations.
 It is of great significance as well as importance for people to be familiar with the etiquettes on dinner between China and western countries in order to avoid the cultural conflicts that are caused by the different habits, behaviors, and manners of thoughts in the process of cross-cultural communication.
The differences of the Chinese and western etiquettes on dinner can be shown in time for attendance, arrangement of seats, usage of dinning tools, dinning environments, and the dinning talks, etc. By talking about the differences of the etiquettes on dinner between China and western countries, and the causes for these differences, this paper aims to encourage people to respect the cultural differences between different countries in cross-cultural communication.