A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Taboos in Cross-cultural Communication

A commonly cultural phenomenon in the human history is taboo, which is a strong social prohibition related to any area of human society. Different social and cultural backgrounds will produce different taboos. Lacking the knowledge of social customs may cause conflicts in crosscultural communication. So it is necessary to know more about taboos. This paper analyzes the the cultural similarities and difference between Chinese and English taboos in a contrastive way in cross-cultural communication and stresses the importance of?understanding and mastering taboos, so that they can reduce the inter-communicative barriers and mistakes and improve their communicative ability.

A commonly cultural phenomenon in the human history is taboo, which is a strong social prohibition related to any area of human society. Different social and cuhural backgrounds will produce different taboos. Lacking the knowledge of social customs may cause conflicts in crosscultural communication. So it is necessary to know more about taboos. This paper analyzes the the cultural similarities and difference between Chinese and English taboos in a contrastive way in cross-cultural communication and stresses the importance of？understanding and mastering taboos, so that they can reduce the inter-communicative barriers and mistakes and improve their communicative ability.