Abstract: Throughout human history, alcoholic beverage is not only a fabulous drink, but also a special cultural symbol, and plays an important role in people’s daily life. Nowadays,  alcoholic beverage is closely related to political, economic and cultural activities. However, different countries have different alcoholic beverage cultures, which may lead to misunderstanding if we don’t have a minute study about it. So in this thesis, Chinese and western alcoholic beverage cultures will be compared on their histories, functions, characteristics, etc., in order to find out the culture factors that are contributing to these difference. 

  Key words: Chinese alcoholic beverage culture; western alcoholic beverage culture; comparison; cross-culture communication

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction and Previous Studies-1

1.1 Previous Studies on Western Alcoholic Beverage Culture-1

1.2 Previous Studies on Chinese Alcoholic Beverage Culture-2

1.3 Deficiencies of Previous Studies-3

2.General Comparison on Chinese and Western Alcoholic Beverage Culture-3

2.1 History of Alcoholic Beverage-3

2.2 Roles of Alcoholic Beverage-4

2.3 Etiquette of Drinking-5

2.4 Purpose of Drinking-6

3. Analysis of Cultural Factors Contributing to These Differences-7

3.1 Natural Environment-7

  3.1.1 The Characteristic of Chinese Natural Environment-8

  3.1.2 The Characteristics of Western Natural Environment-8

3.2 Religion-9

  3.2.1 Humanity-Orientation in China-9

  3.2.2 God-Orientation in the West-10

3.3 Different Cultural Values-12

  3.3.1 Chinese Culture Value-12

  3.3.2 Western Cultural Value-13

3.4 Different Thinking Patterns-15

  3.4.1 Integral Thinking Pattern-15

  3.4.2 Analytical Thinking Pattern-16

4. Conclusion-17

References-21