Abstract: Food is the prerequisite for our living and development, eating habits vary between Chinese and American people. The paper, under the guidance of intercultural communication theory, conducts contrastive study between Chinese and American food cultures to probe into the determining factors of eating disparities between two nations. The author, after detailed analysis on different value and philosophy, different concepts, different etiquettes and different contents between two countries, deems that there is no essential difference between Chinese and American food culture, as a result of which, an objective attitude, that is, to seek common points while reserving differences, should be adopted to deal with discrepancies in cross-cultural communication activities.

Key words: food; culture; intercultural communication; differences

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-1

2.1 Studies Abroad-2

2.2 Studies at Home-4

3. Intercultural Communication Theory-6

3.1 The Notion of Intercultural Communication-6

3.2 Content of Intercultural Communication-7

4. Differences between Chinese and American Food Culture-8

4.1 Value and Philosophy-8

4.2 Concepts-11

4.3 Etiquettes-15

4.3.1 Dinning tools selections-15

4.3.2 Punctuality of dinning-15

4.3.3 Seat arrangement of direction-17

4.3.4 Seat arrangement between two sexes-17

4.4 Contents-18

5. Findings and Reflections-20

5.1 Findings-20

5.1.1 Characteristics of cross cultural communication-20

5.1.2 Attitudes towards alien culture-21

5.2 Reflections-22

5.2.1 Limitations-22

5.2.2 Suggestions-22

6. Conclusion-23

Reference-24