Literature Review

In the past years, many studies have been done and published on the reasons of table manners’ differences between China and the West. From the past literature reviews, we may see that this field of study has become more and more important and many people, not only diplomatists, but also some foreign trade clerks, have been involved in the study. Manners in every country are different. What is polite in China may not be polite in other countries. Knowing this will help you enjoy western food with your foreign friends. My research will focus on this topic and analyze the reasons of the differences.

In accordance with the former researchers' studies, there are three reasons that caused the differences. They are cultural background, historical background and customs.

Different nations or regions have different culture. In terms of the different cultural background, we will mainly discuss two aspects. They are religious beliefs and values. Most Chinese believe in Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. The Buddhist advocates “merciful Purdue beings” and “harmony”. Westerners mostly believe in Catholicism or Christianity, and believe that God created man (Zhang Wenjuan, 2009) and the western culture is self-centered, the boundary between people is clear. And also Zhang Wenjuan pointed out in her paper that “thousand of years of Chinese traditional culture in the Chinese Buddhism makes Chinese table manners modest.” (2009) Different table manners reflect different national heart in different culture, such as, chopsticks in China, knives and forks in West. So the table manner is the reflection of national cultural identification. (Dong Baojun, 2005)

Likewise, different values can cause the difference of table manners. In cross-cultural communication, value is the core of culture. As a result, every country or society has their own value. To some extent, table manners are an epitome of a country’s value. Clyde Kluckhohn thought, value is “a concept of individual or collective possess which is dominant or recessive, it has national characters. The concepts affect people’s choices among the various behavior patterns, methods and goals.”(2005) In China, collectivism is the guiding value. But in western countries, they emphasize on individualism, self-worth and respect. The sharp contrast values also give expression to the table manners. (2005)Just as Chinese often share a plate of food together, while westerners often eat food in their own plate.

As to the historical background, China and the West obviously have their different history. In China, the table manners could date back to Zhou Dynasty; table manners have shaped quite complete system. After being highly praised by Confucius, table etiquette became the important part of powerful country. From Qing Dynasty, the modern table manners gradually shaped. (Dong Baojun, 2005) What’s more, the western etiquette also has a long history. The western table manners originated from Merovingian Dynasty in France. It is developed from the spirit of knight during the 11th century to 12th century; banquet became the center of western feudalism. In 13th century, it gradually had access to family and friendship. (Margaret Visser, 2007)

With respect to the custom, the eating process usually consists of three parts. They are before dinner, in the dinner, after dinner. There are some etiquettes which should be observed during the whole process. Before dinner, we need to notice the arrival time, seating arrangement, order dishes and so on. In the dinner, we also need to know usage of napkin, usage of tableware, special tips and some drinking etiquette. After dinner, Chinese and westerners also have different ways of paying the bill. The westerners usually give tip to server. The usual amount to tip is between 15% and 20% of the total amount of the bill. (Hao Han, 2007) But Chinese usually don’t give tip to server.

Based on all the above discussion, I have chosen “an analysis on the reason of table manners’ differences between China and the West” for my research, and as the topic of my thesis. And it is believed that, from what has been discussed, it is still developing on the etiquette. Learning and using the right etiquette will not only step up our impression, but also promote the communication between people who come from different countries and have different cultural background.

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