Abstract

Food plays an irreplaceable role as an essential prerequisite for existence in the process of human beings. Different people have different taste. Food is closely  connected with culture. Diet culture between the West and China varies because of their different histories and locations and so on. Therefore, only within the context of each individual culture can food and food habits be best understood.Cultural relativism believes that every kind of culture has its specialty and value, which is thought to be equal, and has its own “cultural sore” that mainly symbolizes its feature. This thesis will analyze the great differences in the diet culture between the West and China in ideas, attitudes and contents of food and their rooted causes in Chinese and Western diet cultures from the perspective of cultural relativism.

 Key words: differences, diet culture, cultural relativism

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1 Introduction 1

 1.1 Research object.1

 1.2 Significance of the thesis.1

 1.3 Methodology2

2 Theoritical foundations2

 2.1 Culture2

  2.1.1 Notions of culture2

2.1.2 Classifications of culture.3

 2.2 Cultural relativism.4

3 Differences in notions in Chinese and Western diet culture5

 3.1 Individualism vs. collectivism.5

  3.1.1 Individualism in Western diet culture.5

  3.1.2 Collectivism in Chinese diet culture.6

 3.2 Complexity vs. simplicity7

  3.2.1 Complexity in Chinese diet culture7

  3.2.2 Simplicity in Western diet culture8

4 Differences in etiquette between Chinese and Western diet culture.9

 4.1 Differences in tableware: chopsticks vs. folk and knife.10

  4.1.1 Chopsticks in Chinese diet culture.10

4.1.2 Folk and knife in Western diet culture.11

 4.2 Different time-orientation: lateness vs. punctuality.11

  4.2.1 Lateness in Chinese diet culture11

  4.2.2 Punctuality in Western diet culture.12

 4.3 Differences in seating arrangement.12

5 Conclusion13

References.15