摘  要

中西方因深受不同的社会文化、历史文化和各种社会背景的影响，从而导致两种不同文化的产生，餐桌礼仪文化业因此应运而生，餐桌礼仪文化是文化的一部分，中西饮食文化的不同是中西民族文化差异的重要组成部分。每个国家、每个地区的每种民族都在饮食中自觉不自觉地透露出自己深刻的文化背景。从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方面来看跨文化交际中的文化差异，旨在说明坚持自己的优秀文化传统的同时，要用一个客观、宽容、尊重的心态对待异国文化以便能在跨文化交际中能更加得体。

关键词：餐桌礼仪；文化；差异

Abstract

As China and western countries are influenced by different cultural, social and historical background, so there are many differences between Chinese and western table manners. Table manners are parts of culture, and different table manners are also very important parts of the different cultural background between China and western countries. Each family or group sets its own standards for how strictly these rules are to be enforced. Each country, region and nation is unconsciously showing its own profound cultural background. Through the comparisons of the different attending time, the different seats arrangement, the different tableware, the different dining manners, the different dining atmosphere, the different dining utterance, the use of mobile phones, the drinking of liquor and the different histories on diets between Chinese and western table manners, people can understand the different culture between China and western countries more, besides, people can treat and respect other countries’ culture much more objectively and understandingly while they adhere to their own outstanding culture and traditions. The best example is that more and more Chinese people can use forks and knives well when they have dinner in steakhouses, and many western people also can use chopsticks to have Chinese food. In this paper, the author makes comparisons on these aspects of different table manners between China and western countries to show how to have dinner correctly and to know other countries’ table manners better.  

Key words: table manners; culture; differences

1 Introduction
This paper shows manners are parts of culture, and manners are also the base of culture, it is the most obvious and distinct way to show the civilization of our society. Different cultures observe different rules for table manners. Each family or group sets its own standards for how strictly these rules are to be enforced. The differences between Chinese and western table manners can be divided into the different attending time, the different seats arrangement, the different tableware, the different dining manners, the different dining atmosphere, the different dining utterance, the different diet culture and other table manners.