Abstract:

As the globalization is rapidly developing, intercultural communication has become more and more intensified. When it comes to the case of taboo, it varies from one culture to another, thus, the violation of taboos will cause something unpleasant, like misunderstanding. Therefore understanding different taboos in different cultures is particularly important. This paper first gives a brief introduction of the definition and significance of taboos. And then from three aspects of language taboos, social courtesies, diets, the author makes a comparison between Chinese and Western taboos in etiquette to deepen mutual understanding in intercultural communication. Furthermore, the paper discusses the reasons for differences between China and Western countries. Finally, to avoid the unnecessary troubles caused by misusing taboos, several ways are put forward. It is hoped that the readers could make full use of this knowledge to communicate effectively in intercultural communication.

Key words: taboos; comparison the difference; etiquette

摘要：

随着全球化迅速发展，跨文化交流也愈演愈烈。禁忌因不同文化而异，因此违悖禁忌会引发一些不愉快，例如误解。因此，理解不同文化中不同禁忌尤为重要。本文首先对禁忌的定义和重要性作出简单阐述。然后从语言禁忌、社交礼仪、饮食三个方面，作者对中西方礼仪禁忌进行比较，来进一步加深了解跨文化交际的差异。此外通过两方面讨论中西方国家之间的差异的原因。最后，为了避免误用禁忌造成不必要的麻烦，作者提出了一些措施。希望读者能充分利用此知识在跨文化交流中更加有效地交流。

关键词：禁忌；比较差异；礼仪

In the cross-cultural contact, the taboo is the most sensitive topic. The cultural taboo's research has become an important content of cross-cultural communication. The so-called taboo is in the daily life either the work forbids or abstained from the people do the matter or said words. The taboo is the cultural phenomenon, which is shared by world various nationalities, but taboo′s tent and the form is different, taboo is ubiquitous nearly, from the daily life, to political and economic each aspect.
The early researches on taboos were relevant to anthropology, sociology, ethnography of communication and psychology, such as The Golden Bough (1890) by Sir James G Frazer, Totem and Taboo (1913) by Sigmund Freud, and Taboo, Truth and Religion (1967) by Franz Baermann Steiner, and so on (Asante, M.K. & Newmark, E.&Blake,1982). However, the most comprehensive research is made by Steiner, who not only offers the origin of taboo, but also its influence and functions, as well as the relationship between anthropology and psychology with theories.