Abstract

According to Ting-Tommy, face, which can be called “mianzi” in Mandarin, is concerned with people’s sense of worth, dignity and identity, and is associated with issues such as reputation, respect, honor, status and competence[1]. In Chinese and western culture, the word “face” has different characteristics and it is also a kind of social phenomenon. It reflects differently in the cultural origin, thinking mode between Chinese and western cultures.       It is widely accepted that the Chinese culture focuses more on protecting their positive face while the western culture focuses more on protecting their negative face. Thus,conflicts may be aroused between people from Chinese and western cultures. For Chinese，it is necessary to seek common points and utilize the advantages of the western countries in face perception．After the comparative study of different “face perceptions” between Chinese and the west, this thesis attempts to uncover the inner historical and cultural causes of different “face perceptions” along with several “face-saving” strategies, and then help to reduce the contradictions and guide later stage of cross-cultural communication.
 
Keywords: face perception；difference；face-saving strategies; Chinese; western

摘要

根据语言学家Ting-Tommy的理论，脸(在中文中亦可译为面子)与人们的价值观、尊严和身份有关，并与声誉、尊重、荣誉、地位和能力密切联系[1]。在中西方文化中，“面子”具有不同的文化特征，是一种社会现象。它在中西方的文化渊源、思维模式方面有不同的体现。     有一个被普遍接受的观念，即中国文化侧重于维护积极面子的，西方文化侧重于维护消极面子。因此，来自中西方不同文化的人之间有可能会发生矛盾。对于中国人来说，从西方面子观中取长补短、求同存异是十分必要的。本论文希望通过对中西方“面子观”的对比研究，揭示出其差异的内在历史文化成因，并提出一些相关的面子维护策略，从而帮助减少中西方矛盾以及指导日后的跨文化交际。
 
关键词：面子观念；差异；面子维护策略；中方；西方

1 Introduction
1.1 A Brief Outline of the Research
This thesis is consisted of four main parts. The first part will briefly state the background and creativity of this thesis. In the second part, an in-depth study of the word “face” is developed, including the meaning of face perception and the different face concept between Chinese and western cultures. After that, the thesis will respectively explain what leads to the difference from two points of view. In the fourth part, several face saving strategies in different culture are listed. Since the literature and time is limited, there still exist many defects in this thesis. Thus, in the further research, more emphasis will be put on finding out the causes for the different face conception between Chinese and western culture as well as the strategies to deal with cultural conflicts caused by this difference.