A Comparison of Taboos Between Chinese Culture and American Culture

外 国 语 学 院

学年论文

题        目:   A comparison of taboos between Chinese

culture and American culture                                      

中文并列题目：  中美文化禁忌的比较                                        

专业：    英语（经贸）   班级：     经英14-2          

学生：    黎桂英         指导老师：   柯蓝            

完成时间：  2016 年  5 月  7 日 2016 年  5  月  13  日

学年论文成绩评定表

A comparison of taboos between Chinese culture and American culture

Abstract

Today we are in a world different from that of the past, which is referred to as a “global village.” The rapid development of science and technology has brought about the economic globalization in a fast way. Therefore more and more people from different cultural background get involved in international activities. In the process of international communication, people from diverse cultural background will be unfit at first when meet a different culture. In cross-cultural communication, offending the taboo often leads to more serious consequence, such as friendship frequently break and transaction defeat, the race conflict and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to compare the taboos between China and other countries to avoid unnecessary cultural conflict and promote harmonious development of mankind.

Knowing the taboos between China and other countries is benefit to cross-cultural communication. The aim to study the international communication is to improve our sensitivity to cultural difference and enhance the understanding among people from different culture. When we get into a total different culture environment, we have to not only learn the basic etiquette but also we need to know the taboos of the country.

Key words: taboos; cross-culture; comparison

摘要

随着人类全球化、信息化的进程不断加快，不同地域、不同历史文化背景的人们在经济、政治、文化、科技等诸多领域的交流日益频繁。跨文化交际已经成为了当今世界的一个重要特征。在跨文化交际中，禁忌文化习俗是一个敏感问题，世界各国所忌讳的言语、行为或习俗存在诸多不同，了解本国与其他国家的禁忌习俗有助于跨文化交际的顺利进行，加深各个国家及人民之间的相互理解。而跨文化交际的目的正是在此—提高人们对文化差异的敏感性，增进不同文化间的交流与理解。

    关键词：禁忌；跨文化；比较

Contents

Introduction …….……………………………………………………………………………………..4

1.Literature review4

1.1 The definition of taboo5

2.The comparison of taboos on social interaction6

2.1 Taboos on appellation6

2.2 Taboos on time arrangement6

3. The comparison of taboos on language……………….…………………..……………….…7

3.1Llanguage taboo on misfortune topic.………………………………………………………7

3.2Language taboo on privacy………………………………………………………………….8

3.3 Language taboo on sensitive topics…………………………………………………….......8

4. Taboos on festival……………………………………………………………………………...9

5.Taboos on religious…………………………………………………………………………...10

6.Taboos on diet…………………………………………………………………………………10

Conclusion……………………………………...……………………………………………….11

Reference…………………………………………………………………………………….….12

Introduction

As a member of the global village, we need to take action to have a better understanding of the worldview and the communication style of other cultures. As Barnlund said, communication is successful when the communicators reach some kind of understanding, which is measure of communicative success. It’s a fact that people across nations and cultures behave and believe differently. The difference in language, food, dress, attitudes toward time ,work habits, social behavior and the like can cause many of our communication to be frustrating or even unsuccessful .In this process, we will often meet a sensitive issue which is taboo. Taboo restraints our language and behaviors as an invisible discipline and make us dare not to transgress the bounds in the forbidden ground In the different culture, there are different taboos. Because of this, taboo sets a barrier in our communication, especially in the cross-culture communication. Thus people should pay attention to and avoid to offend the taboos. In Chinese, there are many taboos in our daily lives. With the long history and the profound culture of China, many taboos has become a part of social customs. For many western people, they think Chinese people are too modest but they don’t know in Chinese culture people who behave too pride will not be welcomed. In the same way, there are many taboos in American as well. In daily communication , if anyone violates the taboo, he will suffer the hostility from others and even make him in a unsafe condition. Therefore, understanding the taboos between other countries can be a benefit for the international communication.