This paper aims to explore differences in Chinese and American time concepts and culture。 The author hopes this paper can, to a certain degree, give the readers a clear understanding about the people’s concept of time in the two regions。 Hence, we must study the differences in cultures in order to avoid misunderstanding and express ourselves properly in multitudinous occasions, and then promote the communication and consolidate friendship among our country people, foreign friends and even people that all over the world。

2。Literature Review

     As an important aspect of intercultural nonverbal communication, time concept is evolved from the process of people’s understanding and transforming the world。 

A 。L 。Kroeber and Kluckhohn give a comprehensive definition of culture in 1952。The culture definition summarizes the studies of culture, which exerted a wide influence on sociology and anthropology。

     American anthropologists E。T。 Hall claims that time can speak。 The messages passed by time are sonorous and clear。 It is neither controlled by consciousness like a sound language, nor easy to make people misunderstand。 He pides time according to different habits of culture into mono-chronic time system and poly-chronic time system(Edward 52)。 Studying different cultural concepts of time is especially important in cross-cultural communication。

     Time concept will remain relatively stable for a fairly long period。 It refers to the different awareness and understanding towards time。 It is not only a basic factor in the environment of human activity, but also a deep-seated cultural part of the social structure。 It is naturally shaped through a long period of human being’s practice and a long period of historical progress。 It reflects the attitude of people towards time。 At the same time, it also reflects the way that people deal with time and utilize time。 Everyone has his or her own concept of time。 Therefore, different people, especially the people in China and America have different concepts of time。

     As global economic integration goes on, cultural communication and integration between Chinese and American become more frequent。 Acquainted with different cultural concepts of time can improve cross-cultural awareness and reduce barriers to cross-cultural communication。 How to avoid “cultural conflict” or “time conflict” become more and more important。

     If people only recognize and adhere to their own concept of time and neglect understanding and respect to the time concept of other cultures, there would arise many misunderstandings。 We should acknowledge that people from Chinese and American cultures hold different attitudes towards time and the method of using time。 What we should do is to overcome the ethical cultural centrism and to reduce the misunderstanding as much as possible。 The time orientation under different cultures should get respect and recognition。 When there is a conflict in the time concept, we can not simply judge it as good or bad。 Cultural communication is a process of understanding from one culture to another。 Therefore, in order to deepen mutual understanding, it is necessary to adopt a liberal attitude。

3。 The Differences in Chinese and American Time Concept

3。1 The line-type time outlook and the round-type time outlook

     The concept of time is an abstract one, because time and space have a certain strange appropriation, some scholars use the round and line as space concept to describe different idea of time。 According to Guan Shijie (Guan 285) who is the famous expert in intercultural communication in China, time outlook can be pided into round-type time outlook and line-type time outlook。 Americans as the representative of westerns favor the line-type time outlook, while Chinese people as the representative of Asians hold the round-type time outlook。