There is another celebrated Chinese scholar named Jia Yuxin。 Jia Yuxin also has made a profound comparison and contrast about “face” between China and America。 In 1997, he raised that in American culture, the notion of “Li” in Chinese culture cannot be found, and the nature of “Li” is that superordinate have precedence over subordinates, and it is based on traditional vertical human relations and other-oriented society。 Everybody has his own identity, power, obligation and honor。 Everyone should know his identity well, therefore, he knows how to behave correctly in social contact, such as what can be done and what cannot。 If not, the contradiction between behaviors and identities might give rise to “face” losing。文献综述

However, Chinese politeness principle must be not accepted by westerners because of western horizontal human relations (Jia 290)。 In the west, inpiduals’ power and privacy is crucial and everyone is equal so people can do whatever they would like to do and express their point of view freely。 Brown and Levinson proposed that American negative “face” and Chinese positive “face” share nothing in common。 Jia Yuxin agrees to the point of view of Brown and Levinson, and adds that, there is too much protection of others “positive face” and less protection of others “negative face” in China。 Speech is like a method to protect “positive face” to the greatest extent while silence is a way to maintain “negative face”。 In the west, the two sides are keeping silence, mostly symbolized independence。 For example, if the listener keeps silence, it may means that he is not interested in the speaker’s topic and thus both of them are indifferent to each other。 On the contrary, if the listener shows his enthusiasm about the topic, it indicates that he is fond of the speaker’s talk and thus they are friendly to each other (304-305)。 

III。 The Causes on Different Concepts of “Face” between China and America

    Each country’s culture is shaped in their historical process, including the concept of “face”。 The cause of “face” is different from country to country, Chinese “face” culture is a product of the long history of China, and their “face” culture focuses on collectivism, while the “face” culture of America is mainly focusing on inpidualism。

3。1Collectivism in China

    In more than 2000 years of feudal system, the Confucian and the Taoist’s thoughts make the collectivism deeply ingrained in China, collectivism is mainly manifested in two aspects: group orientation and others orientation。 That is to say, inpiduals belong to the society, personal interests should be submit to the group, nationality and national interest, all behaviors and speech out of consideration of collectivism is not inpidual。 And collectivism emphasizes the spirit of cooperation, when a person makes achievements, the first thing the person has to do is to thank all the people who have support him and he will say all his achievements are due to collective attribution。 Differing from American, Chinese people strongly opposed to inpidualism, they regard inpidualism as egoism。

The Chinese concept of “face” is deeply influenced by collectivism, one of the characteristics is that Chinese focus on “positive face”。 While “negative face” in Chinese culture does not exist, the Chinese people's standard of conduct is whether the behavior is helpful and useful to others。 Chinese people want their behavior to be praised by others and recognized by society, and hope that the value of the inpidual is reflected in the dedication。 By way of compliments or modesty in communication, people give each other enough “face” to achieve harmonious communication。  In most cases, in order to get others’ praise and earn enough “face”, Chinese people will consider others’ views before doing anything, even the suggestions are from strangers。 Most Chinese workers have no courage to point out their leader’s errors, for fear of losing their jobs。 Buying expensive gifts to friends and leaders are very common in China, to most Chinese people it is a mark that means rich and “face”, and even they will buy the gifts that will cost half of their earnings, which are actually contrary to their own mind。 On the contrary, when contacting with colleagues, most people will say something bad about the colleague who is not on the spot, but face to face they behave like they have no secrets, and often claw each other, which is not out of their real intention。 Chinese people like to raise the other side, and lower himself。 The Chinese regards collectivism as their first choice, for Chinese people considered the person who is only care about the benefit of his own is selfish, people should put others’ interests in the first place。 This thought is very conducive to harmony between man and man。 In addition, Chinese people often care about other people’s affairs, they often get involved in the affairs and deal with as their own affairs。 They often help each other in many areas in life, for example on career or marriage, they will also give their opinions, and the other side is also willing to regard their opinions or different views as their reference。 In general, Chinese collectivism on the concept of “face” is mainly manifested by “positive face”。  来:自[优E尔L论W文W网www.chuibin.com +QQ752018766-