论文总字数：30435字

摘 要

随着中美两国的建交，两国人民的交往越来越频繁。然而，由于文化的差异，在跨文化交际中经常会出现很多问题。隐私就是其中之一。迄今为止，已有许多学者从不同角度研究了中美隐私观的差异。在他们研究的基础上，本篇论文首先将中美隐私观差异归为语言方面和非语言方面，然后分析了差异的原因。语言方面的差异包括三个方面：传统的谚语；形容经济地位、年老、结婚、离婚等方面的委婉语；交谈的话题。而非语言方面的差异则表现空间方面。接着，文章又尝试着分析两国差异的历史根源，发现价值观差异，即中国的集体主义和美国的个人主义是主要原因。另外，早先经济形态、国家制度以及法律保护程度也是不可忽视的重要因素。

关键词：中美隐私观；语言方面；非语言方面

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

3. The Differences in Sino-US Concepts of Privacy 3

3.1Verbal Aspect 3

3.2 Nonverbal Aspect 6

4.The Reasons for the Differences in Sino-US Concepts of Privacy 8

4.1Values 8

4.2 Earlier Economic Forms 10

4.3 Nation’s Institutions and the Degree of Legal Protection 10

5. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 13

1. Introduction

Influenced by the development of modern technology and advanced transportation, the world changing, the global village has come into a reality. People in different cultures come across each other more frequently in business, travel, study exchange, etc. It is highly significant for us to cultivate and improve intercultural communication abilities in that being aware of privacy is imperative when the exchange between China and America is more and more frequent. To a certain degree, privacy always affects the communication in direct or indirect ways so that we cannot ignore its significance. To explore the differences of privacy of two countries can help people in two countries to communicate with each other more deeply and to promote international communication.

The concept of privacy was originated from the West. It was a regulatory mechanism used by individuals or groups to control the communication with others. It was also an existing characteristic of humans. Privacy covers what areas affect daily communication activities in many ways. Lacking of understanding in this aspect will cause great misunderstanding in the process of communication．This area involves two aspects: first, what aspects and topics are inappropriate on social occasions; second, in non-verbal communication, what behavior violates the rule of privacy (Hou Caihong, 2008: 1).

2. Literature Review

Privacy, in Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, means “the state of being alone and not watched or disturbed by other people; the state of being free from the attention of the public.”

Privacy issue is inevitable in international communication. Many articles at home and abroad talk about the conflicts of privacy between China and the West. There are two main trends in recent researches. One is that English-speaking people’s privacy is regarded as the only standard of value judgment. What’ more, it thinks that Chinese people pay little attention to privacy. While the other maintains the Western people focus on privacy too much (Cheng Hongbo, 2008: 237). There were also many scholars studying the privacy concepts. Hall (1969) classifies distance into fixed-feature space, semi-feature space and informal space, which were marked particularly by shifts in vocal volume that Americans (middle class adults, mainly natives of the northern seaboard) use in the structuring of informal space. I.Altman also thought that there was more than one kind of privacy. He regarded privacy as selective control used by individuals or groups when they came across others. In other words, privacy was a kind of protection idea and mechanism to avoid contact and disturbance. He also classified the privacy into individual privacy and collective privacy. Individual privacy was a kind of personal privacy, while collective privacy was a kind of group privacy (Quoted in He Daokuan, 1996:82).

Shang Yunhe (2007) also defined the privacy concepts of Chinese and Americans. From the English definition of privacy in the dictionary, we can know that American people regard privacy as a human right, which can not be violated optionally. Generally speaking, Americans think that privacy has four functions for individuals. The first is individual autonomy to prevent oneself from being controlled or governed. Then it is emotion relaxing that one has the chance to adjust self emotional structure and express own emotions selectively without restriction from outside. The next is self-assessment. That is to say, one can discover and assess one’s own mind and behavior sufficiently so that he can make a new decision. The final is limited protection communication, which means one can decide the definition about thinking between the family group and formal occasions so that one can make different social choices on different occasions, keeping the harmony and balance between the individual and the society.

Chinese people’s sense of individual privacy is relatively weak. They believe that individuals should be subject to groups. Chinese ignore individual privacy. Personal rights will be regarded as private interests. There are few concepts of privacy in Chinese’s minds. Thus there is no Chinese character matching with “privacy” in English, which aims to show the difference in treating individual in Chinese and American cultures because of different values, different traditions and different social structures. Society is the foundation of culture producing and production. Four fifth Chinese had been living in the countryside for thousands of years. Families for generations often breed in the villages. They are all familiar with and care for each other. Therefore, people like to ask “where are you going” and so on until now when they meet. What they talk about is private questions concerning families and wages, etc.

They all emphasized that Chinese focused on group’s privacy while Americans focused on individual’s privacy. Based on previous scholars’ studies, the thesis discusses the differences of privacy concept by exploring the differences from verbal and nonverbal aspects and studying the reasons. It also points out the recent development of Chinese’s privacy concept in the process of communicating with people in different cultures.

3. The Differences in Sino-US Concepts of Privacy

Our communication is made up of verbal and nonverbal activities, especially in international communication (Wang Haiyan, 2012: 284).

3.1Verbal Aspect

“Language, which is one of culture’s important parts, is shaped and conditioned by culture; on the other hand, language is more than a vehicle of communication and an embodiment of culture; it affects culture by changing perception and thought patterns. Different cultures tend to have their own languages. (Hou Caihong, 2008:27)” According to Hou Caihong (2008), privacy reflected in language is mainly about conventional sayings, euphemisms and conversation topics.

As one part of a culture, privacy is firstly reflected in the Chinese and English conventional sayings. Showing too much interest to others’ affairs is usually regarded as invasion of privacy and is very hated in America. In English there are many words and sayings describing the tendency toward privacy in American culture. For example, Americans describe the people who always concern others’ business as “poke into others’ business, meddle in others’ affairs, nosy and gossip” to show their dislike of the invasion of privacy. And there are also many warnings describing these kinds of people or behaviors, such as “keep your nose out of our business, put not your hand between the bark and the tree, mind your own ps and qs. (Li Hongtao, 2006: 82)” Such words or sayings are uncountable and from them we can easily feel the importance of privacy in American culture. However, we can’t find a word in Chinese that means exactly the same as the English word “privacy”. Confucius advocates that “a true gentleman is calm and at ease, without any secret; while the mean man is fretful and ill at ease.（Qianmu, 2005: 67）” From this we can see that Chinese ignore their own privacy in interaction and show no respect for that of others. Seemingly, the term “privacy” has been strange to Chinese for thousands of years. In Chinese culture people think a lot of collective privacy and regard individual privacy unimportant and sometimes a kind of disgrace, which is reflected in the old sayings and some words. Just name a few here:大公无私,明人不做暗事, 肚里没邪事, 不怕冷风吹（Wang Jinglan, 2008: 46）.

Privacy is also reflected in the Chinese and English euphemisms concerning economic status, old age, marriage and divorce, etc.

As we all know, in American culture economic status such as one’s savings, budget, assets, and incomes all belongs to privacy area thus people are very sensitive to this topic. All questions about their economic status will make them uneasy, unhappy or even angry. Because in American society, wealth represents wisdom, power and social status（Zhouhui, 2009: 65）. It is one’s debts or the poor status that is always a kind of shame for American people. Neither individuals nor nations would admit that they haven’t enough money and cannot supply themselves, and a range of alternative ways has been used to avoid the dreaded word “poor”. There is an example in American society: I used to think I was poor．And they told me I was not poor and it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy. In American vocabulary there are abundant euphemisms for the word “poor”, such as “badly off”, “less well off”, “indigent” and “negative privileged”. The poor are called “have-nots” or “men of modest means”（Hou Caihong, 2008: 28）. While in Chinese culture, the economic status is not so much regarded as privacy as in American culture. In traditional Chinese culture, people thought that man of great virtue would not have too much connection with money. For the Chinese people, being poor is neither a shame nor privacy. There are just a few euphemisms for the word “poor” in Chinese vocabulary such as “拮据”, “手头紧”, “银根紧”and “囊中羞涩”etc. Especially in the three decades after the Foundation of People’s Republic of China, people felt proud because of being classified as “贫农”class and being poor was not privacy（Hou Caihong,2008: 28）.

Age is always a private topic for American people, especially for women. The old are always considered to be making no direct or valuable contribution to the society. They are often ignored and regarded as burdens to the society so that they are afraid of being old and they want to look, feel and act young (Zhouhui, 2009: 65-66). Thus “age” is always a kind of privacy and people are sensitive to the word “old”. There are so many euphemisms for the word “old” or “the old”, such as “seasoned”, “well-preserved”, “distinguished gentle men”, “golden age”, “the longer living”, and “senior citizens”. While Chinese people focus on the group interests and consider every member a necessary part of a group. Being old means being experienced, knowledgeable, mature and reliable, which is also reflected in Chinese idioms, such as “老当益壮”, “老成持重”, “老成练达”, “老马识途”, “老将出马一个顶俩”and so on (Qianmu, 2005: 68). Chinese people show a lot of respect to the old, so people are often proud of their old age and nobody thinks age is privacy or cannot be asked about.

In Chinese culture, people lay great emphasis on group interests and they always focus on the steadiness of group, family, society and nation. Accordingly, Chinese people consider marriage a mater of joy while divorces dishonorable, so a person seldom talks about his or her divorce with others especially the outsiders: divorce is a privacy topic. This phenomenon is reflected in Chinese euphemisms such as “分手了”, “离了”,etc. However, the divorce rate in America is high. Some young people think that divorce makes them free and independent again and they do not mind it very much. Divorce is usual to them．Divorce is called “break up” and “split up” (Wang Dali, 2011:1-3).

Conversation topics are also important in studying verbal aspect. Different privacy will influence the choice of conversation topic. Each society, to some extent, expresses its values by encouraging or discouraging the exploration of certain subjects. Some topics are allowed and freely discussed while others are literally forbidden. Privacy is reflected in conversation topics in that people prefer to talk about or avoid talking about some subjects (Shang Yunhe, 2007: 119). From Chinese perspective, when someone calls a person who is not at home, asking about where he/she is seems to be natural response. The caller may not necessarily be interested in finding out exactly where the person is; asking about it is just a way to show his/her concern and also an attempt to carry on the conversation before hanging up. The concept that one’s daily actions should be private and not generally shared with anyone is not familiar and accepted by many Chinese. While from the Americans’ view, questions like that are not just seen as rude but even threatening. A person’s movements and schedule, especially at home, are considered as privacy and most Americans would never share that information with an unfamiliar caller. Questions on details about someone’s personal movements are something another person, especially a stranger, can’t ask (Dolby, 2007: 210).

3.2 Nonverbal Aspect

In An Introduction to Intercultural Communication, Richard E. Porter and Larry A. Samovar(1981) says that in intercultural communication, verbal processes are the primary means for the exchange of thoughts and ideas, but nonverbal processes, which are closely related, often can overshadow them (Hou Caihong, 2008: 35). This chapter will focus on different privacy reflected in the use of space in Chinese and American cultures．

“It is Americans’ space theory that is corresponding to Chinese’s wall theory. (Jia Yuxin, 1997: 45)” Space, a kind of hidden dimension of human culture, is always culturally determined and unconsciously practiced. People from different cultures hold different associations, feelings and values towards space which determine their different needs towards the use of space as well as their relevant behavior. Privacy is clearly demonstrated in space use and space perception (Huffman, 2009: 206).

During the 1950s and 1960s, Professor Edward T. Hall classified space into three types: fixed-feature space, semi-feature space and informal space.

The fixed-feature space, as one of the basic ways in which individuals and groups organize activities, is featured in unmovable and unchangeable environmental structure. It includes material manifestations and the hidden, internalized designs that decide behavior. Buildings, layout of villages, towns, cities, and the intervening countryside are all expressions of fixed-feature patterns. Chinese traditional houses are featured by high walls and heavy gates. “The face the city or a house presents to the outside is plain, not welcoming, even forbidden. (Davis, 2001: 159)” People like to use walls to protect what is inside. “四合院”(Courtyard Dwellings) built by inward-facing houses on four sides, surrounded by enclosure walls, is just an obvious example. However, American people tend to regulate their privacy with large or small space. If you go to visit a university in America, maybe you cannot find the dividing line of the campus with ease. Actually, there is no dividing line between the university and other territories.

Semi-fixed feature space, which refers to an environmental structure that is not permanently fixed, is featured in movable boundaries. According to R.Sommer, semi-feature space can be divided into two types: sociopetal spaces and societal spaces. The former can help create a friendly atmosphere, bringing people together and stimulating involvement; the latter, on the contrary, usually keep people apart and promote withdrawal by transmitting connotative meanings such as large, cold and impersonal (Quoted in Hou Caihong, 2008: 44). Different privacy is reflected in semi-fixed feature space differently. The semi-fixed feature space in China tends to be sociopetal, while the American semi-fixed feature space has the tendency of being sociofual. For example, in America, people always use different rooms in the house for different activities，such as sleeping, eating, studying or meeting with relatives or friends. People use doors to keep others from invading. A closed door usually means “leave me alone”; while in China, especially in China’s countryside，people use different furniture to change the function of the space inside the house. The most typical object is “炕”, on which people eat, sleep, and visit others.

According to Hall(1969), informal space, as a small protective sphere or bubble that all organism maintains between itself and others, can be seen as a person’s portable territory carried along by each individual wherever he or she may go. For example, American people extend their bubble of personal space to a small space around their body, which is about inches thick and cannot be broken by any stranger. A perceived invasion of space can be regarded as the offence of one’s privacy and it often leads anxiety cues, defensive gestures, shifts in posture, attempting to move away and even violating reactions. However, Chinese, consider only their body as their personal space (Hou Caihong, 2008: 44).

4. The Reasons for the Differences in Sino-US Concepts of Privacy

4.1Values

The differences of the concepts of privacy root in different views of value (Zhou hui, 2009: 66). Hofstede(1980) held that value is the core of the international communication, is a mode composed of individuals’ or groups’ cultural communication and is of the deepest level of culture. It governs and decides people’s attitudes, beliefs even movements. And it has certain stability and durability.

Americans’ civilization was originated from Europe, whose civilization’s origin was the ancient Greek civilization, whose center was Mediterranean region in the southern area of Europe（Shang Yunhe, 2007: 119）. The natural conditions led to the underdevelopment agricultural economy, at the same time the convenience of water transportation gave rise to the development of industry and commerce. With the rising of business classes, the business principles based on equal exchanging facilitated the awakening and maturity of Greeks’ individual awareness, from which the individual-based cultural spirits of western people were bred. Christian culture taught people to abandon their families and emphasized religious obligation was prior to family obligation. People’s belief was subject to spiritual authority and religious force which was beyond the families due to lack of dependence based on blood relationship and responsibility for families. Hence the idea that everyone was equal before God came into being. It was subsequent Renaissance and Reformation that affirmed further the individual values and personal dignity. And the Enlightenment in 18^th century gave man’s natural right with a legal form. The existential philosophy in 20^th century paid attention to existence and life and underlined that everyone should be responsible for themselves, which developed individualism worldview. Westerners think that their own lifestyles should be decided by themselves, either the meaning of some thing to themselves. Everyone exists meaningfully. The strong individualism makes Westerners especially Americans concentrate highly on privacy, aware of boundary clearly (Cui Suhua, 2009: 28).

With China’s vast territory and abundant resources, Chinese people were conditioned to the earth by agricultural economy. They were kept together or to say locked up at home when the mind of being attached to one’s native land and unwilling to leave it took shape. According to Mengzi, family was a basic unit constituting nation. Individual could survive only when attached to collective and country. The relationships of blood, clan, and townsman were such existence that Chinese had to attach importance to. One’s value lied in that he was a member of collective, which could decide his destiny and interest definitely. “In China there is no personal value. People’s existence is a kind of responsibility. Now China is full of obligations concept.（Liang Shuming, 2005:70）” “Individual value is ignored by Chinese traditional culture, whose nature is to restrict and sacrifice people’s personal need and characteristic to maintain group interests.(Xu Xingyan, 2008: 83)” Chinese culture is a kind of obligation culture. Chinese who have collective awareness should behavior conforming to their roles and status in their family networks and society structures. What’s more, they are restrained by moral codes. Otherwise, they will be regarded as people who ignore the groups’ interest. Ancient people were required to be absolutely subject to nation or the monarch rather than to the society. People became an accessory, existing in the form of category merely. As a main body, individual lost the independent personality and status entirely. Individual’s success was to maintain collective’s interest, which made people think about others’ minds firstly when they performed something (Cui Suhua, 2009: 28). Group orientation required people to pay attention to the interpersonal relationships. Individual is not the first place everywhere. In consequence, Chinese usually spent their time on protecting collective privacy on account of living in the collective (Shang Yunhe, 2007: 119). What’s more, China’s Confucianism, whose core was ethics and morals, had a great impact on Chinese’s collectivism. China’s Confucianism focused on the family and the group, regarding the individual as a member of the society and emphasizing the responsibilities of the individual to other people and the society. It required people to take care of with each other. Thus it was natural that people care for with each other and ask others’ affairs (Yuan Zicong, 2004: 31).

4.2 Earlier Economic Forms

The small-scale peasant economy, whose characteristics were family working and small-scale operation, was China’s traditional economic form. It was a natural economy. A self-sufficient natural economy combined the farming with cottage industry within the family and made producers and consumers isolated with the outside world. However, due to the weakness of the small-scale peasant economy, farmers had to draw together in opposition to the damage of natural disasters and human power. Only when individuals joined groups could they survive. We could say that the small-scale peasant economy formed Chinese’s group consciousness, which required them to give top priority to the overall situation and care about the groups. The group consciousness had been deep into life and had great impacts on Chinese culture. From this we could understand why Chinese focus on groups’ minds and ignore individual privacy (Zhang Yue’e, 2010: 143).

Americans’ civilization was originated from Europe. The Island Crete of Greece Aegean Sea was the cradle of western civilization. Cretans got material living conditions in commercial communication. At the same time, they discovered individuals’ values and meanings within the process. Individuals’ strength and wisdom were highlighted in ocean trades and struggles against the sea. It formed westerner’s individual consciousness. So from this we could understand why the westerners focus on individual privacy so much (Zhang Yue’e, 2010: 143).

4.3 Nation’s Institutions and the Degree of Legal Protection

Nation’s institutions and the degree of legal protection were also important reasons which couldn’t be ignored. The long term feudal system of China bound the liberation of humanity and the natural development of individuals’ minds. After the founding of new China, it was the behavior of indulging letting out personal privacy and lag of legal protection for privacy right within ten years of the Cultural Revolution that hindered the development of China’s concept of privacy. While America, where capitalism of emphasizing freedom and fairness was established early, focused on the government’s respect for citizens’ privacy very early. Robert Smith said that Americans’ focusing on privacy was because they didn’t trust the government, especially the powerful government (Yuan Zicong, 2004: 31). Because the government could damage the citizens heavily by mastering a lot of information and state apparatus, the laws were made to restrict the government’s right of taking advantage of citizens’ privacy. American laws protected citizens’ privacy rights very well and it promoted the development of Americans’ concept of privacy greatly.

5. Conclusion

The concept of privacy reflects the restriction and impacts, which social culture and context have on working language, and different requirements of different nations to communication patterns (Shang Yunhe, 2007:120). Due to the unintended effects of domestic culture, it is still possible that cultural conflicts still take place in cross-cultural communication. With wider and wider cultural communication exchanging, we are more supposed to increase our cognition of American concept of privacy and the differences between China and American cultures. Thereby we can smooth the international communication.

At present, China’s spiritual civilization has developed constantly. Our countrymen are gradually accepting the concept of privacy. And with China’s increasingly joining the international community, universal values also gradually take root in Chinese. Banks and stations quietly draw a one-meter line. What’s more, businesses no longer dare to randomly search a person of the body. QQ is so popular under the protection of privacy that industry peers are highly jealous. When influenced by the western culture and with the progress of Chinese society, more and more Chinese, especially the young generations begin to regard age as their privacy and it is impolite to ask others’ age. We start to protect our private information and privacy in our traditional minds consciously. At the same time, we begin to accept Americans’ concept of privacy. In the process, we should actively take in the essential parts in American culture instead of blindly accept everything. In the meantime, we have to inherit the essence in our culture with five thousand years of history rather than criticize it blindly. Hence, learning and exploring national cultural differences and privacy differences are aimed to avoid communication conflicts and absorb the advantages of other countries. What’s more, every country’s culture is broad and profound so that we need to study the privacy deeply to avoid conflicts.

Works Cited

[1] Davis, L. Doing Culture: Cross-cultural Communication in Action. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2001.

[2] Dolby, George. History of Personal Life. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2007.

[3] Hall, E.T. The Hidden Dimension. Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/Double day, 1 969.

[4] Hofstede, Geert. Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Newbury Park. CA: Sage, 1980.

[5] Huffman, M.F. Inside U.S. Culture and Life. Beijing: Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2009.

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