Abstract:

As a common social phenomena, gift giving reflects the essence of a culture.  This paper first describes briefly the definitions of gift, gift giving and culture value. Through the analysis of some aspects of gift giving, the author compares gift giving behaviors in China and America from the perspective of cultural value, aiming to help readers to comprehend the differences of gift giving behaviors between the two cultures, hence avoiding cultural misunderstandings and raising the possibility of successful and efficient cross-cultural communications between the two countries.  

Key words: gift giving; cultural value;cross-cultural communication

摘要：

送礼行为这一普遍的社会现象反映了一种文化本质。本文首先概要阐述       了礼物，送礼行为以及文化价值观的概念，继而通过分析社会学、人类       学在送礼文化方面的各项研究，对中美的送礼行为差异从几个方面进行       比较，并从文化价值观的角度入手，分析其对送礼行为的影响，促进人       们对不同的送礼文化进行深入理解，避免在跨文化交际中的误解，为中       美两国进行更深层次、更有效率的文化交流做出自己的努力。

关键词：送礼文化；文化价值观；跨文化交际

1. Introduction
    People often exchange objects in the manner of gifting each other, which is a kind of exchange manner that is different from the manners of market and redistribution. These objects that people exchange are called gifts. Gift has been defined as “generally given to others in order to symbolize and celebrate important life events, religious history, and family relationships”. People always give gifts to other people and receive gifts from them. Gift giving is a central aspect of human behavior and culture. Gifts not only have economic values but also have social values which can connect different people from different societies. The gifts floating among people serve as the social links and reflect the social interpersonal relationship among people. Hence gift giving is a usual and important behavior in social life. Giving gifts, as a manner of exchange just as the first sentence in the paper mentioned, has not only the economic function but the social function, moral function and cultural function in our social life. Therefore, gift giving serves as a part of social culture and according to different manners or habits of people giving gifts in certain societies, we can see different opinions on one behavior or phenomena in these societies.