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汪丹丹 丰县初级中学
一、 Introduction
Face is an important Chinese cultural concept that has penetrated every aspect of the Chinese life. As David Yau-fai Ho says “face is a concept of central importance because of its pervasiveness with which it asserts its influence in social intercourse; as a result, it is virtually impossible to think of a facet of social life to which the question of face is irrelevant” (qtd. in Dong 401).
Nowadays, cross-cultural communication is becoming more and more important. As a member of the society, we not only learn to exchange our thoughts and emotions with our natives, but also learn to exchange ideas and experience with foreigners. As the World Exposition Shanghai China 2010 comes, it is inevitable to communicate with foreigners. However, Chinese pay much attention to “face”.
These few words reflect most Chinese’s face psychology. Another example is that few people who suffer mental disease go to psychologist because they are worried that colleagues or classmates may discriminate against them, as the narrow-minded still tend to label those in need of psychiatric treatment as insane and it is also widely held that it’s a sign of weakness to seek psychiatric help. This phenomenon shows that Chinese love “face”.
Due to different cultural backgrounds, values, thinking patterns and national psychology, there exist distinctions of face perception between Eastern and Western countries. If we ignore them, unexpected conflicts and even irreversible consequences will appear. Therefore, knowing differences of face culture between Eastern and Western countries is attributed to arriving at successful cross-cultural communication. Only through unimpeded cross-cultural communication, can we get mutual understanding, appreciation and trust—the aim of communication.
This thesis aims at appealing for people’s attention toward the fact of frequent cross-cultural communication and cultural conflicts, and seeking practical strategies to avoid failure in cross-cultural communication.
二、 Literature Review
In the past more than half century, many scholars at home and abroad have studied “face”. Lin Yutang considered the psychology of “face” in 1935. “Interesting as the Chinese physiological face is, the psychological face makes a still more fascinating study. It is not a face that can be washed or shaved, but a face that can be ‘granted’ and ‘lost’ and ‘fought for’ and ‘presented as a gift’. Here we reach the most curious point of Chinese social psychology. Abstract and intangible, it is yet the most delicate standard by which Chinese social intercourse is regulated ... it is prized above all earthly possessions. It is more powerful than fate and favor and more respected than the constitution.” (Wikipedia)
British scholars Brown and Levinson, in their work Universals in Language Usage: Politeness Phenomenon,propose that “face is the key motivating force for politeness, and they maintain that it consists of two related aspects, negative face and positive face. In their model, negative face is a person’s want to be unimpeded by others, the desire to be free to act as she/he chooses and not be imposed upon; and positive face is a person’s want to be appreciated and approved of by selected others，in terms of personality, desires, behavior, values, and so on. In other words, negative face represents a desire for autonomy, and positive face represents a desire for approval” (qtd. in Fu 74).
Today, “face” is used to explain kinds of social phenomena by different fields of scholars including socialists, psychologists, anthropologists and linguists.
三、 Differences of Face Perception in Eastern and Western Cultures
Due to different cultural backgrounds, there exist different face perceptions in Eastern and Western cultures. Generally speaking, Chinese try their best to save face and are afraid of losing face. It is not rare that many students commit suicide because of failure in college entrance examination. They prefer death to dishonor for fear that they may disgrace the family’s good name. They feel faceless for their inability to meet their parents’ expectations or to fulfill their dreams. Thus, failure to meet the family’s expectations and failure to confirm to social requirements or ethical codes are considered a loss-of-face which in turn results in suicide. Therefore, Chinese face perception is community-oriented. In contrast, Western face perception is self-oriented. It stresses that individual freedom and satisfaction, and individual need, lifestyle, privacy, etc. receive respect and protection.
四、 Causes of Different Face Perceptions in Eastern and Western Cultures
Undoubtedly, there are lots of reasons for different face perceptions. We will discuss the causes from the viewpoint of different cultural backgrounds, values, communication styles and national psychology.
五、 Different Face Cultures and Cross-cultural Communication
“Cross-cultural communication means that people with different cultural backgrounds exchange information with each other”, according to Jia (23). Frequent cross-cultural communication is an obvious feature of the present world. Cultural differences play a very important role in carrying on successful cross-cultural communication. And face culture is part of culture and its differences have a great effect on cross-cultural communication.
六、 Conclusion
From the comparative analysis of different face perceptions in Eastern and Western cultures, we can see that there exist distinctions between them. In this thesis, the reasons for different face perceptions have been analyzed from the four aspects of cultures, values, communication styles and national psychology. Meanwhile, three ways to avoid communication failure caused by different face perception have been discussed as well. However, there are many reasons for different face perceptions and this thesis cannot cover every reason. In order to achieve successful communication, having a general knowledge of different face cultures in Eastern and Western countries is helpful, which helps us to understand westerners’ words and deeds better and respect their communicating habits. It is necessary for us to absorb Western culture to make ours prosperous. The World Exposition Shanghai China 2010 is around the corner, and this paper aims at helping Chinese have a good communication with foreigners.
论文作者:汪丹丹
论文发表刊物:《校园英语(教研版)》2017年第6期
论文发表时间:2018/3/2
标签：丰县论文; 期刊论文; 中西方论文; 初级中学论文; 尽在论文; 文章分类论文; 跨文化论文; 《校园英语(教研版)》2017年第6期论文;