Abstract: The rapid development of globalization promotes intercultural communication a necessity. It has made people from different places become near-door neighbors. In the current social environment, people are placing more emphasis on privacy, and going to greater lengths to have their privacy protected and respected. Due to the different backgrounds of Western and Chinese cultures, Westerners and Chinese hold varied values resulting in different understandings of the meaning and scope of privacy. This paper makes a comparison of the concepts on privacy between Chinese and Western cultures and then explores the hidden causes. This paper is composed of six parts. The first part is the introduction. The second part summarizes the related researches at home and abroad. The third part analyses key elements of privacy. The fourth part discusses the cultural differences of privacy concepts between Chinese and Western cultures from aspects of age, wages, space and hospital. The fifth part explores the causes of these differences and the last part is the conclusion. It’s hoped that through the comparison between Chinese and Western privacy concepts, this paper can make some contributions to intercultural communication.
Key Words: privacy; intercultural communication; cultural differences; causes

摘  要：全球化的迅速发展促使跨文化交际成为必然。它使得来自不同地方的人们成为近邻。在当今的社会环境下，人们越发地注重隐私问题，更大范围地希望他们的隐私被保护与尊重。然而由于中西方不同的文化背景，中西方人们持有不同的价值观念,因此对于隐私的含义、范畴的理解均不相同。本文比较了中西方隐私观念差异并探讨了造成这些差异的原因。这篇论文分为六个部分。第一部分是绪论，第二部分总结了国内外与此有关的研究。第三部分分析了隐私的基本要素。第四部分从年龄、工资、空间及看病等方面探讨了中西方隐私观念的差异。第五部分探寻了造成这些差异的原因。最后一部分是本文的结论。通过对中西方文化中隐私观的对比研究，希望对跨文化交际作出贡献。
关键词：隐私观；跨文化交际；文化差异；原因

technology, in the form of transportation and communication systems, has also accelerated intercultural contact. All of above have made intercultural communication a necessity. Although intercultural communication has a long history, today’s intercultural encounters are far more numerous and of greater importance than those in the past. In the current social environment, people are placing more emphasis on privacy, and going to greater lengths to have their privacy protected and respected.