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A Chinese student was praised by an American student about her new dress. She looks embarrassed by her words, and this is such a typical Chinese reaction. The American however may then feel that her taste in clothing is questioned and so feel uncomfortable and displeased. However, if it happened to a western student, she may feel very happy as they all love others’ praise.
Another example can be illustrated by the American who teaches in China and invites the Chinese art teacher to give him advice about his new painting. The Chinese teacher makes some comments and then says I really don’t know much about painting. The American may interpret this as the art teacher “fishing for a compliment”, even though the teacher’s remarks may be very sincere. Then the American may respond like “Oh come on, I know you an expert on Chinese art”, which is certainly a forced compliment.
It is a normal phenomenon for westerners to praise each other, and the person praised feels good. It is a kind of custom that mothers may encourage their children to praise others. And the culture praises success as well. Whoever achieves success at work and receives promotion or honors are applauded. Westerners pursue personal success and prefer to enjoy the compliments from others. All should be attributed to their inpidualism, which determines that their negative face should be saved first.
While praise is a common practice in western countries, it would be considered mean. Influenced by the modest culture, one does not praise members in front of others even if they have achieved a great success, and never accepts praise directly. In Chinese people’s eye, it is impolite to accept compliments without showing modesty. Modesty is one of the most important elements in Chinese culture, and Chinese people value modesty highly. The quality of humility is influenced by the face view in Chinese daily life. People tend to sacrifice their positive face to reject other’s praise or express their compliment, which actually does harm to listener’s negative face in westerners’ eye. Chinese people however do not care much about their negative face, while from the westerner’s perspective, their negative face is as important as the positive face.
3.3 Mistake Admittance
In Chinese culture, the elder are always unwilling to admit their mistake, especially in front of children. They regard this kind of behavior as humiliation, which is somehow disgraceful. The elders believe they are the model examples of children, and they should protect their beautiful image. In contrast, westerners dare to admit mistake they have made, and they also like to accept criticism. There is an old saying demonstrating their opinion, “no criticism, no progress”.
Chinese people see their face more important than westerners, especially their positive face. No one including their own children or parents can not do harm to their positive face, or they will be angry. They always do not want to admit mistakes although they know they should do, since such a behavior really will threaten their positive face. On the contrary westerners always take it for granted that they are willing to admit mistakes if they believe they should do. They are not afraid of losing their positive face as their negative face is more important than positive face to some extend.
3.4 Negotiation Style
With the development of globalization, bilateral businesses have been more and more frequent. However, during business negotiation, cultural differences may lead to unavoidable conflicts. Westerners tend to see negotiation as a competitive process, while Chinese see it as a cooperative endeavor or an establishment of friendship.
Chinese negotiators often spend much of time on entertaining the counterparts who are coming from the other places. Before the real negotiation, Chinese negotiators have a slow start to warm up, instead of being in a hurry to push for an agreement. They always spend a long time taking the guests (counterparts) to go sightseeing or have dinner. They do not go directly to a main subject but talk about something less related to the subject. In Chinese opinion, chatting before negotiation urges two sides to become closer emotionally, and the atmosphere become harmonious. And then, the negotiation turns to be natural and smooth, making both sides enjoy the time, and can protect two sides’ positive face.