Abstract: Diet has a close relation with cultures. Different cultures create different dietary cultures, so dietary cultures have features of diversity and ethnicity. Food cultures between China and western countries have evident differences, which result from cultural differences including different thinking patterns, and philosophy of life. This paper formulates the differences of Chinese and western food cultures in terms of dietary structure, concept of diet, cooking techniques, dishware and table manners. This paper also studies the reasons of these differences and illustrates the significance of studying the differences between Chinese and western food cultures. Studying food cultural differences will remove the barriers of intercultural communication and avoid awkward situations when they dine together. And this paper will help readers have a better knowledge of Chinese and western food cultures and reduces the misunderstanding caused by differences of food cultures.
Key Words: intercultural communication; food cultures; differences; cultural differences

摘要：饮食与文化密切相关,不同的民族缔造了不同的饮食文化，所以饮食文化具有多样性和民族性。中西方在饮食文化上就存在着明显的差异，而这些差异来自中西方的思维方式，处世哲学等文化差异。本文研究了中西方饮食文化在饮食结构，饮食观念，烹饪方法，餐具及餐桌礼仪的差异,揭示了形成这些差异的原因，并阐明了研究中西方饮食文化差异的意义。研究饮食文化差异可以减少跨文化交际中的障碍，避免共餐时的尴尬情境。本文将会帮助读者更好的了解中西方饮食文化,减少饮食文化差异带来的误解。
关键词：跨文化交际；饮食文化；差异；文化差异

Culture is broadly defined as the values, beliefs, and practices accepted by a community of individuals. Different cultures have their own features, such as food culture. As a part of culture, food culture is created by certain communities when they exploit, make and consume foods, which reflects the nation’s customs, living habits, and philosophy of life. Food culture is more than food. It can extend to the fields of artistic aesthetics, ideology and morals. Influenced by natural and social environment, food cultures of different countries have their own features. These features became cultural identity of different countries.