DONT TAKE MY WORD FOR IT - UNDERSTANDING CHINESE-SPEAKING PRACTICES

The purpose of this article was to examine: (1) How do Chinese communi cate? and (2) Why no Chinese communicate the way they do Five major sp eaking practices in Chinese culture were identified and analyzed. They include: (a) han xu, or implicit communication; (b) ting hua, or list ening-centeredness; (c) ke qi or politeness; (d) zi ji ten, or a focus on insiders; and (e) mian zi, or face-directed communication strategi es. These five speaking practices are situated in the relational and o ther focus of the Chinese self, and support the deeply rooted Chinese beliefs about talk as well as role-directed relationships. (C) 1998 El sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.