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Considering from the aspect of intercultural communication, although there’re a lot of differences between Chinese and western culture, they are equal after all. There is no chance for one culture to replace another, or one culture is superior to another and forces others to draw close. Therefore, intercultural communication must be based on the principle of equality, i.e. speakers must try to understand others in others’ shoes (Gu Jiazu, 2000).
4 Contrastive Studies on High-Context and Low-Context Cultures between Chinese and Americans
4.1 Case One
People from American always complain about not knowing how to communicate with Chinese people and difficult to understand the deep meanings beyond Chinese people’s words. The case below is about a business talk between an American trade agent, George, and a Chinese trade manager, Mr. Li who makes George confused.
Finding an Interested Buyer
George Hall was in Beijing attending a trade fair and looking for an opportunity to do business in China. He had been very successful in his business dealings in the US and prided himself on his ability “to get things moving.” His first day was going well. He looked around at the displays of sporting equipment to get some idea of whom he might approach. He was sure that his products, tennis rackets with an unusual new design, would arouse some interest. On the second day he approached the company which he felt would be most responsive to his products. He introduced himself to the general manager, a Mr. Li. Since he had read that Chinese find getting down to business immediately too abrupt and rude, he began a casual conversation, eventually leading up to the topic of his products and suggesting how Mr. Li’s company might benefit from using them. George then suggested that he could arrange to get together with Mr. Li and provide more specifics and documentation on his products. Mr. Li responded in fairly good English, “That would be interesting.”
Knowing that he had only a few days left in Beijing, George wanted to nail down a time. “When can we meet?” asked George.
“Ah. This week is very busy,” replied Mr. Li.
“It sure is,” said George, “How about 10 o’clock? Meet you here.”
“Tomorrow at 10 o’clock?” asked Mr. Li thoughtfully.
“Right,” said George, “I’ll see you then?”
“Hmm, yes; why don’t you come by tomorrow,” was the reply.
“OK,” responded George, “It was nice meeting you.”
The nest day at 10 o’clock he approached Mr. Li’s company’s exhibit only to find that Mr. Li had some important business and was not able to meet with George. He called back later in the day and was told that Mr. Li was not available.
(From Linell Davis, 1999: 167)
From this case we can see clear differences in rhetoric styles between these two cultures. Chinese people, as people of high-context culture, seldom make clear refuse, when they suddenly talk about something that is unrelated to the topic they usually mean that they don’t want to go on with the topic. For example, when Mr. Li is asked when to meet again, he replies “Ah. This week is very busy”, he implies that he is not available at least for a week; when George go to see Mr. Li on the second day, Mr. Li still doesn’t refuse to meet him clearly, only giving him excuses that he’s busy.
Another rhetoric style feature of Chinese people is that they usually talk vaguely and seldom state clearly their stand or make something extremely certain. For example, when Mr. Li says “That would be interesting”, he doesn’t give idea whether he is going to buy George’s product or not; when George wants to set the meeting time exactly at 10 o’clock, Mr. Li says “why don’t you come by tomorrow”, again he doesn’t mention the exact time and doesn’t make clear whether he is available or not.