Abstract

With the development of science and technology, ways of transportation and the prevalence of Internet have connected the whole world into a global village, and we are now in the age of globalization. China, as one of the world powers, has been well known by people all over the world for its long history and abundant cultures. And in the past two decades, Chinese culture has been widely spread throughout the world. In the meantime Chinese cultural elements have been widely adopted by many cultural works abroad. And all these have caused great influences on people’s life all over the world.
 Chinese culture and Chinese cultural elements are a broad concept, which can be classified into many categories and details. In this thesis, I will mainly devote to the introduction of Chinese culture and Chinese cultural elements, and relate them to the American drama, Friends, to make people understand the Chinese culture and Chinese cultural elements further, and try to talk about the influences of the spread of Chinese culture on both China and America. 

Keywords: Chinese culture; Chinese cultural elements; American dramas

摘要

随着科技的发展，交通和互联网将整个地球连成了一个地球村，我们已经进入了全球化的时代。中国，作为世界强国之一，有着悠久的历史和丰富的文化，被世界各地人民所熟知。在过去的20年里，中国文化在全球广泛传播，并对各国人民们的生活产生着巨大的影响，同时，中国文化元素也被国外的文化作品广泛应用。
    但是中国文化和中国文化元素是很大的概念，可以被详细地阐述为许多小的种类。在这篇论文中，我将致力于详细介绍中国文化和中国文化元素，并将它们和美剧《老友记》联系起来讲述，让人们更进一步地了解中国文化和中国文化元素并尝试探讨中国文化的传播对中美两国的影响。

关键词：中国文化；中国文化元素；美剧

1 Introduction
1.1 Research Background
With the development of science and technology, the world has been more closely into a global village, and we are now in the age of globalization. China, as one of the world powers, has been well known by people all over the world for its long history and abundant and profound culture. In the past two decades, Chinese culture and Chinese cultural elements have been widely spread throughout the world, especially in America. American dramas, which have a variety of forms and a long history, have been introduced to China, and are becoming popular among people in China. When Chinese people watch the American dramas, they can always find Chinese cultural elements. That is, Chinese cultural elements have been adopted and Chinese culture has been widely spread in American dramas. In this thesis, I will devote to the study of the Chinese cultural elements and the spread of the Chinese culture in American dramas, through studying Friends, a well-known and widely-watched American comedy show.