摘要

随着世界一体化的进程，成功的跨文化交流在跨国合作中变得日趋重要，人们在交往中无时无刻不涉及“脸面问题”。面子论作为一种礼貌现象，已经渗透于人际行为之中。作为礼貌理论之一的面子论在中西方情境中存在着许多差异。本文研究的是中西方文化面子观差异及其成因，主要从面子理论、中西方面子观特点、差异及产生这些差异的原因几个方面进行分析。面子分为积极面子和消极面子。中国文化受集体主义价值观影响，更加重视积极面子，而西方文化受个人主义价值观影响，更加强调消极面子。课题的研究方法是为以英语报刊和电影素材为原材料的文献法和例案分析法。本文主要总结了东西方面子理论的发展，通过探讨东西方不同文化背景下面子观的不同特点，对比了东西方面子观在内容上的差异并分析了产生了这些差异的原因，旨在减少在不同文化背景中的人们交往的一些障碍，更有效地促进跨文化间的交际。

关键词：面子观；文化差异；对比研究；中西文化

Abstract

With the process of integration with the world, successful cross-cultural communication in multinational cooperation is more and more important. However, face become a problem that affects intercultural communication. As a courtesy phenomenon, face theory has already permeated in interpersonal behaviors. There are quit many differences of face thory between Chinese and Wedtern culture. This essay stidies this differences and the causes. Face includes positive face and negative face. Chinese culture, influenced by the values of collectivism, pay more attention to the positive face, while Western culture, influenced by the values of individualism, have a greater emphasis on the negative face. This paper uses corpus collection method and literature survey method to finish it. Some examples are from scholarly articles and literature of modern and contemporary writers from China and foreigh countries, the others come from the Internet and the TV series.This article summarize different face theories and characteristics in Chenese and western culture. It compares the defferences between Chinese and western ideas of face and analyzes the reasons. It helps better understand the status and role of positive face and negative face in China and the Western, and have a taste of their unique effects on people’s behavior and activities under different culture environment. It is helpful to reveal the factors of people’s action that may lead to misunderstanding and conflict in cross-cultural communication.

Key words: face value; culture differences; comparative study; Chinese-Western cultures

1. Introduction
As a part of ideology, face perception plays a very important role in intercultural communication. Ideas on face in China is different from it in western countries. This article summarize different face theories and characteristics in Chinese and western culture. It compares the differences between Chinese and western ideas of face and analyzes the reasons.