【導讀】本文從文化層面比較了。中美兩國人們在消費觀上五個方面的差異：保守主義與冒險主義，未來消費與超前消費，節(jié)儉與享受，重實用與重形式，從眾與個性。本文揭示了地理因素、社會發(fā)展、價值觀。和傳統家庭教育以及娛樂因素的影響在中美消費觀念的形成中起到了非常重要的作用，使人們進一步認識到不同文化背景下會產生不同的消費觀念。我們應該正確、理性地看。待本國文化與本國人們的消費觀念，并能樹立正確的消費觀。

　　

【正文】 ment was a history of being invaded which prevented people’ s consumption level. In such environment, they insist that conservative consumption conception is the best choice for them. America is a nation of immigrants. American society has been enriched by the unique cultural influences and traditions that immigrants bring to this land (Wang, 2021:1). It has a short history of only 300 years, so it is a relatively young country. Americans do not advocate selfsufficiency。 they dare to adventure and discover new things. The same is true in consumption. To a certain extent, the level of consumption depends on the level of development of social 9 productivity. The occurrence of the Industrial Revolution laid the foundation for the improvement of people’ s consumption level. During the First World War, American social wealth got a substantial growth in economy which laid a solid economic foundation for the improvement of people’ s consumption level. America has bee the sole superpower in the world. Under such circumstances, people do not have the conception of conservation and frugality, but the spirit to advance and adventure. The Influences of Values on Consumption Conception Cultural values are widely held beliefs that affirm what is desirable. These values affect behavior through norms, which specify an acceptable range of responses to specific situations. A useful approach to understanding cultural variations in behavior is to understand the values embraced by different cultures (Hawkins, Best, Coney, 2021:44). There are numerous values that vary across cultures and affect consumption conception. Confucianism is the core of Chinese traditional culture. It is generally accepted that the seniority should be respected, and that the respected should be treated differently from inferiors. The cultural values can be boiled down to love, kindness, respect for authority and harmony. With the impact of Confucian culture thoughts, Chinese people’ s consumption behaviors are based on conformity and seeking mon ground with others. They are trying to get others’ identity and acceptations and more receptive to mass merchandise. Besides, Confucianism emphasizes the pursuit of the spiritual realm and moderation of personal desire is seen as a virtue, so Chinese people pay more attention to the practicability and durability of the modity. To a certain extent, Confucianism restrains people’ s ideology of egoism and hedonism, and emphasizes restraining one’ s own greed and selfish desires, so Chinese are more collective in their orientation, and advocate collectivism. If the society values collective activity, consumers will turn to others for guidance in purchase decisions and will not respond favorably to individual desires. The United States is the epitome of Western culture, especially the ancient Greek and Roman culture, which regards humanism as the main spirit itself including the spirit of personal liberation, personal freedom, personal autonomy and selfindependence. And unlike most other countries, America is primarily a nation of immigrants. The citizens or their ancestors immigrated from many parts of the globe。 some are refugees, some adventurers and some captives (Wang, Zhu, 2021:156). Compared with blood relationship, they focus on their individual 10 efforts。 in addition, they desire for personal freedom and personal interest which makes Americans develop a selfcentered value, individualism (Wang, 2021:75). It emphasizes personal independence, creativity and personal freedom. Besides, the Protestantism encouraged people to do their best to achieve the idea of selfimprovement. Pursuit of material fort is a classic example of American cultural values. Therefore, on consumption, unlike Chinese conform and conservative conceptions, Americans like buying novel and distinctive goods and having no sense of conformity. The Influences of Traditional Family Education on Consumption Conception Family education is the process of family interaction in parental education, growth and development and is the important part of education. It is of great importance to the formation of children’ s thought patterns and world outlook. For this reason, there exist differences in Chinese and American customers’ behaviors or consumption conceptions because of the different family education. Under the influence of traditional values, in Chinese family education, parents always act as the authority and the ruler at the heart of family. In the eyes of parents, children will never grow up。 parents can continue to teach children until many years after they grow up. Since childhood, Chinese people are educated that thrifty is honorable, waste is shameful and this concept is still in people’ s mind. In addition, due to the impact of implicit Chinese traditional culture, Chinese families have difficulty in expressing love. Parents always ask their children to do or not to do something。 this is the embodiment of parents’ authority. Traditional Chinese family education regards docility and obedience as the criteria to evaluate a child’ s stand or fall, which limits children’ s creativity deeply. Therefore, people’ s consumption conceptions are often closely related to the whole family’ s activities, not just personal and isolated ones. American family is the primary laboratory for the forming of American personality. American family’ s flux and transformations therefore reflect American people’ s basic attitudes about authority, freedom, and individual expressiveness (Wang, 2021:189). In an American family, individual is the foundation and has higher value. Parents pay more attention to the freedom and equality of their children. They respect children and their personal autonomy, giving them chances to make decisions b