Abstract：With the advancement of economic globalization, the interactions between China and America have been increasingly intensified. People of different cultural backgrounds, world views and values may inevitably encounter diverse problems and consequently misunderstanding and conflict may arise in cross-cultural communication. This calls for our research into different cultures so that we can find out problem-solving methods and strategies. Social etiquette is one of the problems that are worth our attention because etiquette is the first step to personal intercourse; moreover, either the Chinese culture or American culture lays much stress on the significance of etiquette in communication.
China has been well known as “the land of etiquette”, and people are constantly observing some generally accepted codes of politeness. Confucianism, which has been influencing China for thousands of years, also stresses etiquettes, so Chinese codes of conduct are naturally under the influence of the ancient culture. Despite the different cultures and values, America unexceptionally emphasizes etiquettes in interpersonal intercourse. Therefore, both cultures have something in common as well as different.
From a cross-cultural perspective, based on a comparative and analytical method, this thesis conducts a comparative study of social etiquettes in five aspects: forms of addressing, types of greeting, conducting introductions, dressing and visiting. Through the analysis, it is pointed out that three factors underlie the differences: sense of time, hierarchy and communication style. After that, some solutions are produced: thinking globally and culturally; increasing cultural awareness; learning behavioral skills; developing strategic competence and appreciating the differences. In the end, the thesis concludes that in the context of cultural diversity we should face the reality and overcome communicative obstacles to achieve fluent and effective intercultural communication.
Key Words: social etiquettes cultural differences intercultural communication
摘要：随着经济全球化的发展，不同文化间的交往也不断加强。不同文化背景、不同世界观和价值观的人们在交往过程中不免会发生各种各样的问题，误解和冲突就会产生。这就要求我们对不同文化进行研究，从而找到解决问题的方法和策略。交往礼仪就是值得我们关注的问题之一，因为礼仪是人们交际的第一步，而且无论中国文化还是美国文化都强调礼仪在交际当中的重要性。
中国素有“礼仪之邦”之称，人们在交往过程中一直遵循着一些约定俗成的礼貌准则。影响中国几千年的儒家思想也把“礼”放在重要的地位，因而这些准则不免要受到几千年的文化积淀的影响。美国虽然同我们相比具有不同的价值观和文化观，但在人际交往中也毫不例外地强调以礼待人。因此，在中美文化中，社交礼仪既有一些共同之处，也有许多差异。
本文主要从跨文化角度，以对比分析的方法，从五个方面对社交礼仪进行比较研究，即称谓、问候语、介绍、穿衣和拜访，指出影响中美文化交际礼仪差别的主要原因有:时间观、等级观、交流方式的差异等。同时提出了解决问题的办法:要从全球及文化的角度思考问题;增强文化意识;学习交际行为技能;培养交际策略;欣赏差异。本文最后指出，在文化多样性的背景下，我们应该面对现实，克服交际障碍，实现通畅而又有效的跨文化沟通。
关键词: 社交礼仪；文化差异 ；跨文化交际
