Abstract:
“Body language”, like our verbal language, is also a part of our culture. Since language appeared, body language plays a commanding role as a means of communication, but it is not the only means of it. Nonverbal communication occurs together with verbal one at the same time in communication. However, verbal communication conveys messages in a convenient and direct way which makes people depend more on such communicative means and neglect the nonverbal ones. However, in the 21st century, as more and more frequent exchange of economy and culture occur between countries, there appear more obstacles in intercultural communication. One of the most useful ways to deal with the obstacles is to master the meaning of body language. However, even if we understand the meaning of body language, there are still some difficulties to master it because even the same body language conveys different meanings in different cultures. Using body languages wrongly will not only make you fail in interpersonal communication but also cause conflict in intercultural communication. So how to use body language properly is very important. This article devotes to a comparison and contrast of body language in different cultures in terms of facial expressions, eye contact, hand gestures, postures and the distances between people conversing. It aims to illustrate the differences and similarities of body language and puts forward the principles of reducing barriers in intercultural communication so as to achieve efficient intercultural communication and to avoid misunderstanding.

Key words: body language; intercultural communication; culture; differences and similarities

摘  要：
“身势语”同语言一样，都是文化的一部分。自从语言产生以来，言语交际便在人类交际中扮演最主要的角色，但并非是交际的唯一手段。非言语交际与言语交际是同时在交流中进行的，然而言语交际较为快捷地传递信息，因此人们较多依赖于此种交际手段而忽视了非言语表达.然而在21世纪，随着各国际之间越来越频繁的经济与文化交流，在跨文化交际中便产生了更多的障碍。而消除障碍的最有效方法就是了解身势语的含义。即使我们了解身势语的含义，我们仍然面临着一些困难，原因在于身势语含义千变万化，即使同一身势语在不同的文化背景都有不同的含义。错误地用身势语不仅会使我们在跨文化交际中失败，而且会造成和外国朋友之间的冲突，所以正确地使用肢体语言是非常重要的.本文致力于从面部表情，目光接触，手势，身体姿势以及谈话距离方面对不同文化的身势语进行对比。目的在于通过列举身势语的文化差异与共性，并提出跨文化交际中遵循的原则，从而实现有效的跨文化交流，避免误解。

关键词：身势语；跨文化交际；文化；异同

1 Introduction
Language plays an essential role in human communication, and “there are two forms of human communication: verbal communication and nonverbal communication, which supplement each other”. In the twenty-first century, though English is a universal language, nonverbal cues can still completely change the meaning of a word or phrase. Different languages, cultural background, ways of living, faith of religion, personal values and so on, have an impact on the communication of people coming from different countries.