Abstract：

Body language is widely used in both verbal and non-verbal communication. With the increasing communication between China and the western countries, body language plays an important role. However, in different cultural backgrounds, body language may have different meanings. This paper discusses the significance of body language in the intercultural communication and analyses the similarities and differences of its indifferent cultural backgrounds between china and the West. Only if we pay attention to it can we achieve effective intercultural communication.

Key words: body language; comparison between Chinese and western; communication

摘要：

身势语是指一种无论在有声交流还是无声交流中都会使用到的一种交流方式。随着中西方紧急技术的日益发展，交流日益紧密，身势语在中西方文化的交流中扮演了重要的角色。然而，众所周知，文化背景的不同会导致身势语概念的不同。本篇论文旨在和读者探讨身势语在跨文化交流中的重要性以及各个文化背景下，身势语的异同点。只有我们花时间去探讨解决这些问题，我们才能在跨文化交际中取得进步。

关键词：身势语；中西方对比；交流

1. Introduction
As we know, communication involves the use of both verbal symbols and nonverbal symbols. Body language is an important part of national culture as well as a significant behavior in non-verbal communication. As an important replenishment of the verbal signals, body language has its own unique functions in interpersonal communication. It uses gestures, postures, facial expressions to make up for the shortage of vocal communication. Birdwhistell, a famous America psychologist, first put forward the concept of body language as “The process of communicating what you are feeling or thinking by the way you place and move your body rather than by words.” [1]