Chinese and American friendship values may have many similarities. Friend and friendship are eternal themes talked by people all over the world since ancient times. Both Chinese and Western people value friendship. Friendship is an important part of people’s daily life. If a person does not have friends, he will feel lonely and his life seems flat to him. Accordingly, there are some proverbs about friendship. For example, there is a Chinese proverb going like this “Friends are just like two brothers”. However, different countries hold different ideas about friendship which are called different friendship values. So many pergences appear in the process of communicating with foreigners. Nowadays, more and more students choose to go abroad for further study. Some people even choose to work abroad. They cannot avoid making friends with foreigners. They may discover that the way of making friends with foreigners, to some degree, is different from the way they once used in their hometown. In order to improve the efficiency of study and their work, it is necessary for them to know the differences of friendship values before they get in touch with foreigners.

2. Literature Review

     Friendship values is not a new concept. It can date back to ancient times. Many people have had researches on friendship values. Researchers can be a novelist or a scholar and they are not only Chinese people but also some foreigners. 源`自,优尔`.论"文'网[www.youerw.com

     China is a state of ceremonies from ancient times. They pay much attention to their friends. One of the four classical novels—Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the writer Luo Guanzhong described a famous story called Oath of the Peach Garden. (Luo Guanzhong 2008: 1) Liu, Zhang and Guan became sworn brothers and helped each other to defend their territory. The writer shew friendship values in the form of novels by writing historical stories. This kind of friendship is very sincere. They are willing to do anything for their friends at all costs.

     Published in 1936, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie's book is full of advice for people to achieve success in business and personal lives. On the cover of his book, he told that after reading this book, you can improve your personal character and morals, win your own happiness, broaden your future and increase your income. In this book, Dale Carnegie taught readers how to win other people’s affection and support and change other people’s mind without arousing discontent. (Carnegie, 2010: 189) Readers can get a lot of advice after reading this book. This book is one of the best-selling self-help books. In a word, his book is from the perspective of education, which helps improve people themselves. 

     Li Qingli, one of the current scholars, analyzed the differences of friendship values from the perspective of American campus films. Most scriptwriters and directors of American campus films are young people. Love, friendship, study and career of young people are often the themes of this kind of films. She cited two American campus films. One is Mean Girls and the other is The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. She took the plots in the films as examples and accordingly stated the differences of friendship values. One of her opinions is that ways of treating friends are different. She approved her idea by analyzing the plots of the film—The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. (Li Qingli, 2013: 29)