Taboo is a commonly existing phenomenon among nations,which regulates people’s verbal behavior and social communica-tion.Different countries adapt the taboo means to maintain their social orders and guide everyone’s behaviors in the cultural and social cir-cumstance.The widespread existence of taboos is a common phenomenon in Chinese and western society,so it is significant to study the ta-boo for linguistic and culturological purpose.The great difference between Chinese and western cultures has led to the disagreement be-tween Chinese and western taboos,so there must be great cultural differences in the exchanges between people from different cultural back-grounds,and it is pretty ubiquitous for them to experience the embarrassments which are caused by the exchanges under the great differ-ences of culture.With the development and propulsion of the world integration,cross-cultural exchange has become a significant part of modern communication.It is helpful to understand the cultural connotation of language,avoid communication errors and make the cross-cultural exchanges more effective by comparing the study and analysis between Chinese and western taboos.This paper aims to analyze the similarities and differences between Chinese and western taboos and then understand the differences between Chinese and western cul-tures,thereby help people perform better in the cross-cultural exchanges.Based on the brief sketch of taboos’scope,we intend to explore its enlightenment to foreign language teaching and cross-cultural communication.