【正文】 ome spouseseeking advertisments in Tanjin and Boston’s local mainstream newspapers to study the differences of selecting a spouse in these two cities. The survey showed that the words and sentences often appeared in men’s advertisments in Tianjin newspaper were “have a stable job”, “no bad habbits” and “responsible”。 while in Boston, both men and women would indicate their races, religious beliefs and hobbies, they would say they loved sports, they were smart and had a sense of humor. According to the analysis of the samples of the spouseseeking advertisments, a psychology professor in Nankai University concluded that Chinese marriage seekers paid more attention to the economic condition and responsibility, while Americans were more concerned about the congeniality in life and spirit. How Chinese People Choose a SpouseChina has a feudal history of more than 2000 years。s Day in 2009, which was about Chinese people’s standards of selecting a spouse (NetEase, 2009). There were 38 options designed for the participants. According to the survey, the top three options chosen by males were good looking, accounting for 15%。 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。] their own property before marriage. For example, in 2005, in Zhifu District, Yantai City, Shandong Province there were over 5,000 couples got married, while only about 20 couples notarized their property. The ratio is % (Online news, , ). In Xining City, the capital of Qinghai province, during the first nine months of 2007 no couple notarized heir property before marriage (Xihai Metropolis Daily, ). While in the West it is normal to notarize their own property before marriage.2. The Factors contribute to these Differences in the Concepts of Marriage between Chinese Culture and American CultureThere exist many differences in the concept of marriage in China and America, which is underlined by the cultural differences between these two nations, and such differences are mainly reflected in values, cultural patterns, individualism and collectivism, religion a