Abstract
   
With the rapid development of industry and economy, various dietary cultures are developed in different areas. This thesis introduces Chinese and western dietary cultures and discusses the differences in food, drinks as well as table manners. Moreover, it analyzes the main causes from the aspects of lifestyle and the mode of thinking. At last, it gives suggestions on how to develop the Chinese diet culture in the progress of globalization.

Key words: dietary culture, food, drinks, table manners, lifestyle, mode of thinking

摘 要

随着经济和社会的快速发展，不同的地域形成了不同的饮食文化。本文介绍了中国和西方国家的饮食文化，讨论了食物，饮料和餐桌礼仪等方面的不同点。并从生活方式和思维方式等方面分析了不同的原因。最后指出在全球化进程中，怎样发展中国的饮食文化。

关键词：饮食文化；食物；饮料；餐桌礼仪；生活方式；思维方式

1.    Introduction
"Culture refers to the patterns of behaviour and thinking that people living in social groups learn, create, and share." (Lai Anfang, 62) Since primitive man ate the raw flesh of birds or beasts and came to a civilized age, the food and beverage we eat and drink have begun to be of cultural property. It is not a history of eating and drinking, but a history in which the human being conquers the nature, change the nature, and get adapted to nature to survive and develop. During this historic process, the human gradually developed its dietary culture which is about what human eat and drink, how to eat and why to eat a certain kind of food etc. It includes the variety of food and drink, tableware used in eating, the customs of eating, and the service of eating act. Meanwhile, as an important part of human culture, it can help us to know every area of the world, such as China and western countries.
There is no single Chinese diet but a wide variety of diets across the country owing to ethnic and geographic differences. Chinese traditional food practices are mainly the plant foods. Specifically，rice products are found to be the staple grain for the southern and eastern regions of China and wheat products for the northern areas. And food supplement is vegetables, fruits, eggs, plus a small amount of meat. Some observers characterize the traditional Chinese diet as sweet in the south, salty in the north, hot in the east, and sour in the west. In addition, hot food and cooked food are also one of the major features of the Chinese diet.