Abstract: The dining table, as a miniature of social life, is of great importance in displaying good manners. Elegant table manners are beneficial to making friends and even leading to success. Obviously, eating has infiltrated into every aspect of social life, showing cultural advantages of a country. The booming restaurants, the maverick dishes, exotic restaurants are illustrative of the fact that every day more and more people gather at the table, delightfully drinking, laughing. Table manners as a social custom are majorly decided by a nation’s culture. There are some differences in table manners around the world. China, as one of the oldest civilization, has a long history of table manners. Western countries have also developed their own table manners during the process of national amalgamation and urbanization. There are many differences in table manners between China and the west. Researching into it will help people to learn the western culture and improve the ability of communication in cross-culture practice. This thesis attempts to analyze these differences from the perspectives of tableware, seating arrangements, dinner atmosphere, and table conversation.
Key words: table manners; Chinese; Western; differences

摘要：餐桌是展示优良礼仪的一个重要地方，是生活的缩影，优雅的餐桌礼仪能带来友谊甚至成功。显然，吃已经渗透到人们社会生活的方方面面，点点滴滴中流露出一个国家和民族的文化底蕴。看看现在蓬勃发展的餐馆,特立独行的菜肴,异国情调的餐厅。每天越来越多的人聚集到餐桌旁，开怀畅饮，谈笑风生。餐桌礼仪作为一种社会习俗，由民族文化决定，在世界各地存在着一定的差异。中国作为文明古国自然有着深邃久远的餐桌礼仪，西方国家也在民族融合和现代化进程中形成了自己的餐桌礼仪。中国和西方的餐桌礼仪上存在着很多差异，研究它有意于帮助人们学习语言文化同时改善跨文化的沟通能力。本文分析比较中西餐桌礼仪的餐具使用差异、座次安排差异、就餐氛围差异及餐桌话语差异等。
关键词：餐桌礼仪；中国的；西方的；差异

Etiquette is ubiquitous in modern society, eating can not only meet the basic physiological needs, but also is very important social experience, understanding Chinese and western table manners appears more important. This thesis discusses the differences between Chinese and Western table manners.