Abstract

“Life is precious, love is more expensive”. There is no doubt that love and marriage is one of the most important parts in one’s whole lifetime. Many Westerners, no matter who they are, are willing to sacrifice themselves for love. Their choice of marriage is based on love, regardless of origin, parentage, age, social status and other considerations. When they are in love with each other, they cherish every minute together. But when they stop loving each other, they can extricate themselves from the relationship frankly. For Chinese people, Chinese marriage is not entirely built on the premise of love. They need a certain material basis. In Chinese People’s view of love, they advocate that the couples should love and respect each other, so that their relationship will maintain forever. And in today’s society, the attitude towards love and marriage is not only affected by Western culture, but also has the deep trace of attitude towards Chinese traditional culture. There are a lot of differences about views of love and marriage, standards of choosing spouse, marriage customs and other aspects between Chinese and Western countries due to different cultural backgrounds. By comparing the two different views of marriage and analyzing the differences between the Chinese and Western culture, the paper aims to encourage people to treat the cultural differences in the right perspective.

Keywords: culture difference; attitude toward love and marriage; Chinese and Western cultures

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1.Introduction1

2.Literature Review1

3. Differences in Love and Marriage between Chinese and Western Cultures .2

3.1 The different standards of choosing spouse..2

3.2 The different ways of the expressions.4

3.3 The different marriage bonds...5

3.4 The different views on divorce5

4. Reasons of Differences between Chinese and Western Love and Marriage ..6

4.1 National culture.6

4.2 Status of women.7

4.3 Personality.8

5. Conclusion9

Works Cited.11