Just adding on to the points above: * Education: American education focused on creativity and critical thinking. How to come up with a new idea, and how to debate an idea that someone else has. Chinese education focuses on memorization o accepted fact. * Familial: American parents often do not pay for their children's college because the believe their children need to learn to make their own money. This is how they teach them to be adults. Chinese parents believe they should pay for everything they can to make their children well educated. * Taking care of parents: American adults often do not offer to let their aging parents move into the house with them. Instead they help them rent an apartment in a building that has facilities to take care of old people. Chinese adults often let their aging parents move in with then. * Government: Americans are intensely critical of their own government, to such an extent that is often hard for the government to get anything done. This is seen as both a valuable feature of the society (we say and think what we want; the government can't control us) but it is also sometime a problem: for example, we still do not have a modern train system or universal health care system because nobody can agree. Chinese government allows such practices to occur at the local level, but does not allow meaningful debate or dispute at the national level. * Sex: I think Americans are much more casual toward sex and dating than Chinese. ... just a few. Reading the other answers was very interesting. I hope this is a useful addition.

Hello lily, * What concerns the conception of the self, the Chinese adapt a collectivist ideology where higher value is placed on group cooperation and individual modesty,while the Americans as individualists place higher value placed on self-reliance. Self-promotion is more accepted. * Social relationships in China are formal, hierarchical. People most comfortable in the presence of a hierarchy in which they know their position and the customs/rules for behavior in the situation,whereas Americans are informal, egalitarian. People most comfortable with their social equals and the importance of social rankings minimized. * The Chinese avoid direct confrontation, open criticism, and controversial topics. Concern maintaining harmony and with "face." Americans on the contrary are willing to confront directly, criticize, discuss controversial topics, press personal opinions about what they consider "the truth. Little concern with "face." * What concerns time consciousness Chinese give relatively more attention to the past and to the longer-term future,while Americans are less interested in the past; eye on near-term future. * Traditionally, a person's status in the Chinese society was based importantly on inherited characteristics such as age, gender, and family. This is changing now though. In the States people's status is based mainly on their own achievements, including education obtained and level of success realized in their line of work.

American culture vs. Chinese culture American culture: Men can hug the women in social greetings. Men may kiss women on special occations, such as birthday, Christmas, and new year. Chinese culture: limited only to the married couples, and no hug in social greetings. American culture: Where Americans were the minority in the Asian community or work. They get together, help each other. Chinese Culture: Where Chinese were the minority in the English speaking community or work, they ignore their own identity, tell bad words against each other. Chinese in the lower position always attempt to talk to the other Chinese in the higher position. But, the Chinese in the higher position always ignore the other Chinese who is in the lower position. American culture ( the use of diction): When the boss go out with the janitor, the boss introduce to others " He/She is our janitoral clerk, he/she manage all the janitoral works". Chinese culture (the use of diction): When the boss go out with the janitor, the boss introduce to others " He/she is our cleaning worker, he/she clean all the bathrooms. Where I was an Engineer for Northrop Corp. At open house, the General Manager cook the meat and his wife prepare the Hamburger to serve us. I think, in Chinese culture, it is the other way around. Here are only some examples of the differences between two cultures that I personally involved in the last 30 years.

I wrote a program interface on this site. The data indicates that the Chinese who signed up on this site with fake identity. Most of them likely to be claimed as American, and Japanese, where as, there are no data indicates that Americans and/or Japanese with fake identity that claims to be Chinese. I think, that is the difference in culture. Note: All data are collected from the public, it is not subject to be protected under the privacy rule.

Hi Lily, this site explains the differences in an excellent diagram. http://www.china-nafsa.aief-usa.org/culture/differences.htm