(3) Nowadays, there are not enough studies that can be used as references in our country。 Although there are some studies about proxemics, the only research on interpersonal distance in China is comparison of China and Japan, China and Germany, and China and America。 There is no study involving such comparison of China and Britain。   

2 Literature Review

2。1 Hall’s Theory of Interpersonal Distance

2。1。1 Definition of Interpersonal Distance

The concept of interpersonal distance was first proposed by Hall, an American anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher, and he created a theory about interpersonal distance。 Interpersonal distance (Hall, 1996) is the distance that people choose to keep between themselves and other people。 

From his theory, interpersonal distance is more like spatial distance or proxemics。 It is common sense that the distance is smaller for friends and relatives than it is for strangers。 And the closeness of people’s relationship mainly determines that of psychological distance which an animal can stand  to be away from its group before beginning to feel anxious (Hall, 1982, p。 14)。

2。1。2 Hall’s Theory of Interpersonal Distance

In 1996, Hall’s book The Hidden Dimension was published 。 In this book, four distance zones were distinguished but these four distance zones are typical for Americans。 These four distance zones are based on and also specially refer to the white Americans living in the northeastern part of the United States。 But nowadays, his theory can apply to all the space cultures of the world。 These classifications of the four distance zones are typical in normal situations。 But there are exceptions。 In some situations, for example, if people were angry or excited, or if there were a high noise level or very little light, the space distances would change。 

Hall’s theory mainly deals with the American culture, but it can also be employed to analyze other countries space culture, such as Great Britain and German which will be taken as the representatives of western cultures。

    Hall’s most famous innovation has to do with the definition of the informal, or personal spaces that surround inpiduals:

Intimate space: the closest “bubble” of space surrounding a person。 Entry into this space is acceptable only for the closest friends and intimates。

Social and conservative spaces: the spaces in which people feel comfortable conducting routine social interactions with acquaintances as well as strangers。

Public space: the area of space beyond which people will perceive interactions as impersonal and relatively anonymous。

2。2 Previous Research of Interpersonal Distance文献综述

2。2。1 Previous Research Aboard

    A large amount of research has been conducted to let people learn more about cross-cultural communication; however, only a few of them are about interpersonal distance。

    Within the scholastic circles, interpersonal distance is viewed as human space behavior。 However, there was little research on human space behavior until 1930s。 And human space behavior, as an independent research field, derives from research on animal behavior, which was first started by Hediger, a Germany ethologist。 In 1930s, he observed that some animals kept a fixed distance from other animals of their kind, which was called personal distance。 And according to the size of this distance, he pided the animals into two kinds: Kontakttiere and Distanztiere, and established theories of personal distance and social distance of animals。

In 1937, after comparing animal space behavior and human space behavior, Katz raised the concept of personal space, turning to human distance behavior for the first time。 From then on, his research triggered scholars’ academic interest in human distance behavior。 Nevertheless, there were still few researchers researching on this field。