【正文】 Key words: marriage。所以相對的，中美之間的婚姻文化也會有所不同。人類是情感的動物，其情感的表達(dá)方式與其生活的文化環(huán)境密切相關(guān)?；橐鲫P(guān)系是人際關(guān)系中最密切最長久的一種。二．第一章主要介紹中美婚姻觀的三個不同之處，即結(jié)婚目的不同，擇偶方式不同和夫妻關(guān)系的不同。 husbandwife relationship。 have the professional skill, accounting for 7% and own a house, accounting for 6%. From the survey we can see that no matter men or women, they all cared about their partner’s appearence and besides, men paid more attention to women’s characters and women emphasized the importance of financial status. How the American People Select SpouseBeing free to choose a spouse is the most important thing in marriage for American people, who are wellknown throughout the world for their “individualism”. The Americans pay great attentions to the development of personal independence, their children have more freedom and equality. They can disscuss questions with their parents, and choose school and job freely. They will leave home to work or take parttime jobs when they are 18. If they still live with their parents when they are twenties, they will be looked down upon by other people. American people have their own standards to select mates, the most important thing is patibility, and other elements like family background and education level may probably not be taken into consideration (郁龍余,1992). So it is not rare to see a girl born with a silver spoon will probably choose a boy whose class background is significantly different from hers in the process of looking for her , and the reason can be simple as she is just attracted by his humor. The Differences in the Relationship between Husband and Wife in MarriageHusbandwife relationship is the most important relationships in all the family relationship as all the others derive from it. It is the key link in the family chain, closely related to the family structure and family function. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the husbandwife relationship, discussing the division of family responsibility, the distribution of the household work and the changing of gender roles in both the mordern Chinese families and American families.At the present time, traditonal families are disintegrating, and family structure and family values are changing, too, which, doubtlessly, is the unavoidable result of the scientifictechnical revolution and the social development. Meanwhile, change in family structure and family values’ are greatly influencing the economic and social development. What is more, family problems differ due to the different social systems and traditional ideas in different countries.The husbandwife relationship in both Chinese and American marriage and families has their profound cultural roots. Feudal ethics with Confucianism as its core are the main cultural roots of husbandwife relationship in Chinese family, while diversity as a result of foreign influence is the cultural root of husbandwife relationship in modern American family.The husbandwife relationship in the two nations will be more egalitarian in the future along with the social development and the international munication despite their differences. The Chinese HusbandWife Relationship.In Chinese traditonal marriage, the husband is always in a dominant position, while his wife is in a subordinate status. This kind of marriage structure is due to the traditional family division of responsibility, according to which, it is usually the husband who works and the wife stay at home. Husband is the head of family, and undertakes the major economic responsibility for the whole family. And the wife’s main job at home is doing housework, serving her inlaws and teaching her children. In modern Chinese society, the status gap between men and women in mariage does not seem so wide as before. Today, many women go outside to participate in the social work. Even so, most wives still need to or are willing to depend on their husbands. After the implementation of reform and openingup policy, people’s economic condition have improved greatly than before, some wives choose to e back home to be fulltime housewives, and supported entirely by their husbands. Many people envy those fulltime houswives。 and (d) great readiness to cooperate with ingroup members” (H. C. Triandis, 1990). Chinese people will receive a kind of education when they are just little children, which is the collectivism spirit. Under this kind of education, child is taught that all matters should take the collective benefit as first, and you have to learn to care for and get along well with others. Chinese tend to be more aware of the connections they have as members of their social groups. In munication behavior, Chinese are likely to show traits such as indirectness, explicitness, saving face, concern for others, group cooperation, group decisionmaking, etc. Marriage is under the great influence of collectivism in China, under the premise of the interests of the family, love and personality may have to make concessions. When a marriage relationship has broken up actually, the couples maybe will maintain the relationship reluctantly just because they have to consider the family interest, their child’s future and parents’ feelings. Because Chinese couples cencern too much for other things, like the families and the other people, they will easily ignore their own feelings. Differences in ReligionDifferent religious beliefs can be a cause of conflict in marriage, not only because the partners may not be in agreement on where and how to worship as a family, but because so much of what people do and believe, their attitudes about what is right and wrong, and their philosophy of life stem from their religious background.In any marriage, problems can arise when religious beliefs differ or when one partner’s behavior conflicts with the other’s beliefs. Mutual respect for each other’s religion is a must for a patible marriage, but often it is not enough.For those couples who encounter religious conflict there are three possibilities: