2。 Literature Review

2。1 Intercultural communication

What is culture? There are hundreds of definitions of culture。 It is mostly agreed that culture can be summarized as the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial, relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through inpidual and group striving (Liao 3)。

Culture is such a complicated and comprehensive phenomenon that it has drawn many scholars to make great efforts to study it from various perspectives。 In particular, as the core of culture, values have been explored by scholars extensively, and thus many intercultural theories have been established。论文网

Edward T。 Hall, an American anthropologist, is known as the first person to systematically study cross-cultural communication activities。 Intercultural communication is the term first used by Hall in 1959 and is simply defined as interpersonal communication between members of different cultures。 He identified two classic dimensions of culture。 First, he identified high-context and low-context cultures, where the high and low context concept is primarily concerned with the way in which information is transmitted, or communicated。 His second concept, monochromic versus polychromic orientation, deals with the consideration of time in business life (Liu 33)。

Context plays an important role in communication。 High context cultures can be found in Japan and in most Arabic countries, Southern and Eastern European countries。 High-context communication relies heavily on nonverbal, contextual and shared cultural meanings。 Sometimes the speaker’s meanings are not fully expressed, but a tacit link between the speaker and the hearer facilitates the comprehension and communication of both sides concerned。 Low-context communication is observable in the United States, Germany and Scandinavia。 In these cultures, the information is always transmitted in explicit verbal codes rather than the information implied in the context。 In other words, people in the low-context culture primarily rely on spoken words and written communication for gathering information and clues。 These cultures prefer clear, straight and to-the-point communication style。 The differences between high-context and low-context cultures are most likely to influence communication。 Westerners always feel uncomfortable with the vagueness and ambiguity conveyed by easterners (Liu 34)。 That is why Hall holds that high-context people are apt to be impatient and irritated when low-context people insist on some information。

Hall’s second concept, monochronic versus polychronic time orientation, deals with the ways in which cultures structure their time (Liu 35)。 Monochronic time regards that time is experienced and used in a linear way。 People with this view in mind always adopt a future-focused approach with a tangible outcome orientation。 On the other hand, polychronic time is featured with “the simultaneous occurrence of many things and by a great involvement with people” (Hall and Hall 14)。 

Americans are typically monochronic。 They focus on the efficiency and have a strong sense of competition in the negotiations。 Before negotiating, they plan ahead of every link and pursue every detail。 During negotiations language is straightforward and they do not talk about the irrelevant topic。 They are not too interested in the past but pay attention to the immediate situation。 They pay attention to the final result and aren’t concerned about the process。 While Chinese tend to be polychronic。 In negotiations, they pay more attention to the process and collaboration with others and they are not very concerned about the length of time。

Unlike the Americans, the Chinese are more nostalgic and pay more attention to the future, and they will do long-term plans for the next cooperation in the negotiations, hoping to establish long-term cooperative relations。 Thus in the negotiations when the Chinese negotiators will spend more time to understand each other, pay attention to cultivate friendship, and then lay the foundation for long-term cooperation。