中美跨文化交际中的高低语境文化对比研究(6)
The reason that Chinese people talk vaguely and not refuse clearly is a matter of saving face. Chinese people, as people of high-context culture, take it for granted that everyone shares high intelligence and good logicality, so that others can understand their aims through their unfinished sentences or get some deep meanings of sentences that seems not related to the topic.
The concept of saving face is a matter of cultural psychology. It comes out of the concept of a Confucian doctrine: moderation, which instructs people not to make things extreme and try to keep a neutral attitude towards things happen around. Confucian doctrines teach people to think more and speak less so as to avoid making mistakes. Therefore, Chinese people are restricted with their every word and action, and use vague words when talking. However, American people, as people of low-context culture, have been respecting inpiduals who can use plain words that everyone can understand to convince others for centuries. They think that the clearer messages are delivered, the easier messages can be understood and accepted.
In conclusion, the first reason that causes difference between high-context cultures and low-context cultures is rhetoric styles and cultural psychology, which is the product of different education and worships in history. Different education and worships make different national characteristics, which lead to different ways of talking and acting.