1。2 Signification of the study

In today's international trade, business communication has been playing an increasingly important role。 So how to conduct effective and successful communication among business people from different cultures has become an important issue。 In particular, the influence of face considerations has gained more and more attention。 This thesis aims to analyse face perceptions between Sino-America business people from the perspective of Ting-Toomey’s face-negotiation theory and investigate its influence on cross-cultural business communication。 This thesis mainly focuses on business people’s degree of attention on face and their ways of dealing with face in the process of communication dominated by inpidualistic and collectivistic cultures。

This thesis aims to help business people have a better understanding of face perception dominated by different cultures and different face considerations to avoid unnecessary barriers and misunderstandings brought about in the process of communication。

1。3 Overview of the thesis

This thesis consists of five chapters。 The first chapter gives some basic introduction of the thesis, including its background and significance。 In order to have a clear literature review, the concept and related theories to face as well as cross-cultural business communication are discussed in Chapter 2。 In Chapter 3, the thesis lists some cases in cross-cultural business communication and gives reasonable analysis。 Chapter 4 discusses the influence of face on communication mode and styles。

The last chapter proposes some applicable strategies to help business people better avoid barriers caused by different face perceptions from the perspectives of politeness strategies and cultural identity strategies。

2。 Literature Review

2。1 Theories related to face

2。1。1 Chinese perspective of face论文网

As Chinese people, we are all too familiar with the word “face”。 “Face” affects our life in all aspects and permeates every corner of our daily life。 It seems that we already pay attention to face issues since we grew up and try to avoid the loss of face。 In the past half century, scholars abroad and home have made great efforts to explore the issues related to face。 In China, face is psychological rather than physical and it is abstract and intangible; it is the most subtle standard of regulating social interaction for Chinese people and it touches the most subtle and singular point of Chinese people’s social psychology (Lin Yutang, 1936)。 Lu Xun (1934) used to talk about face problems and for him, “face seems to have several types, and every identity has his unique kind of ‘face’ ”。 The influence of face culture is deep and wide and its emergence and development has profound historical roots mainly originating from three aspects, namely family system, feudal hierarchy etiquette and the supremacy of ethics of ancient China。 (Zheng Xinmiao, 1996 )。 In the 1940s, anthropologist Hu Sien-chin brought the study of face into the field of social science for the first time。 In her research report, Hu Sien-chin pided Chinese people’s face considerations into two categories, namely lien and mien-tzu。 She believes that lien and mien-tzu are two different concepts。 According to Hu(1944) , mien-tzu refers to the reputation an inpidual gains from tangible achievement and approbation, while “lien” refers to the society’s confidence in a person’s moral character。 Though both the concepts represent group’s respect for an inpidual they are based on different standards (Hu Sien-chin, 1944)。 Though Hu Sien-chin’s face perception has gained great attention in the academic circle, it is not accepted without reservation by the public。

2。1。2 Western perspective of face

2。1。2。1 Brown and Levinson’s face and politeness strategies theory