2. Literature Review

In recent years, the Eastern and Western catering culture have caused a heat debate. Because of the globalization academic communication, many scholars around the world have done a lot of researches on this. Some articles deal with the diet cultures in Eastern countries and Western countries. For example, Bian Haoyu (2004) introduced the Chinese food and western food. Xu Xianlin and Li Zuzhuang (2005) dealt with the diet culture in China. Some articles discussed the influence of diet culture on Chinese and western people. For example, Larry A. Sanovar (2003) analyzed the cultures between the Eastern and Western. Zeng Lijuan (2001) concluded the influence of cross-culture communication. 文献综述

After carefully comparing and analyzing these papers, the author finds out that in spite of the great amount of study on catering culture, there are still some vacancies. There is a lack of integration of dining culture and table manners. Therefore, in this thesis, the author aims at integrate the dining culture and table manners, and the reasons for differences between Chinese and western cultures.

3. The Differences between Chinese Catering Culture and Western Catering Culture

3.1 Pre-dinner etiquette

3.1.1 Arrival of time

The Chinese is persity for time, and willing to do anything to comply with the schedule. So this difference is particularly prominent at the banquet. In general, the Chinese is more inclined to be late. The guests tend to arrive in half an hour later, and the master usually will arrange other programs during this period, such as playing card, drinking tea, chatting, etc., so that some of the guests who arrived in advance could kill time. For these phenomena, both the host and guest are accustomed to, and it is not an impolite behavior to the host.

 The westerner is single for time. In the western countries, all kinds of activities start in accordance with the provisions of the time, being late is very impolite, the formal banquet request guests arriving on time. If you are late for ten minutes, you will be seen as improper to the host and the other guests may think you don’t respect people.

3.1.2 Table and seating arrangement

In China, a round table was often being used to array the dishes and drinks. There are two types of situation to arrange the order of the inferiority or superiority of the round table. First situation is composed of two tables in the small banquet. This situation can be pided into two table rows and two columns in the form of a table. When the two tables were put horizontally, the table means the respect for the right while the inferior for the left. When the two tables were putted vertically, the table is the emphasis on meeting in a much more expeditious reorganized along the lines of the next. The second situation is composed of three tables (Margaret Visor 236). In general, the more you close to the table, the more status you own; if you sit far from the main table that means the less status you own. When the table is being arranged, the size and shape of the table should be the same. Besides, the host table is a little bigger than other tables. Other tables should not over-size or small than the host table.来!自~优尔论-文|网www.youerw.com

In China, there are three arranging ways, and they tend to play the same role. First, hosts should sit facing the main entrance and sit the main table. Second, when multi-table banquets are held, each table should have a master. Commonly, the location and the main table should be in the same direction of the master, and sometimes can be geared to the needs of the table master. The third is inferior or superior to the arrange of the desks, the right of the desk means the superior, the left of the desk means the inferior, which will be subject to the master for table. In addition, the number of each table should be limited within the 10 people. According to the above three arrangement ways, specific arrangement of round table can be pided into two kinds of situations. They are all related to the host. First, each table only has a master; the guest sits on the right hand while each table has a conversation center. The second situation is that each table has two main approaches to the arrangement. The advantage of this kind of arrangement is the owner and his wife is in the same table. The male host is the first master and the hostess is the second master. The guest and the guest’s wife would sit on the right of the host. Each table thus has two conversation centers.