2。 Literature Review

     Privacy issue has been an important culture differences and main obstacle in communication between China and America, which people have to face in intercultural communication。 Thus, the topic of privacy has no longer a new one, and since 1960s, a lot of scholars both at home and abroad have provided a great variety of interpretations or description of privacy from different angles and aspects。 Most people can agree that privacy is restricted by society, culture and so on。 Those relatively early studies tried to find out the reason why the differences can exist and what the privacy really means。 Just as Zhou Hui (2009) considers, who used examples to make a contrastive study, privacy reflected in personal information, territory, distance and space。 Personal information includes the earnings, age and marriage, etc。 The territory involves the home, and office territory。 In addition, the difference in Chinese and Western privacy is manifested in distance and space by Jia Yuxin (1997)。 As a matter of fact, the discussion of privacy can be dated back to the definition of this word。 In 1890, two American scholars, Warren and Brandeis, defined the privacy in the book The Right to Privacy as “solitude rights”, that is free from interference and free from violations。 来*自~优|尔^论:文+网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766*

     Customarily, it is acknowledged that people are lacking privacy awareness in Chinese culture。 So there are hardly any words can correspond to that meaning exactly。 However, we can not infer that Chinese people have no privacy。 It is a universal phenomenon, which exist in every culture, while in different ways and degrees。 There are lots of examples used in this paper to prove that。 In fact, in the research of Li Jing(2009) it is found that with the globalization speeding up, Chinese privacy awareness gets reinforced, especially for middle-aged and young ones。 

     This thesis will not only compare the differences and similarities between Chinese and American attitudes of privacy but also analyze the causes of the privacy differences in some detail aspects。 It aims to enlarge the cross-cultural background of English learners and develop their cross-cultural awareness。 A better understanding of Chinese privacy awareness and its reason for existence will not only deepen the theory of privacy study but also provides certain reference value to effective communication。 In this case, we can reduce unnecessary communication failures。

 3。 The History of Privacy 

     Marx said that people create their own history, but they are not free to create, not in the selected conditions, but to create under the conditions inherited from the past。 Chinese and western concept of privacy has such a big difference。 It is because different life values, which cultivated in different culture。 Discussion on privacy issues is as old as mankind。 When in Ape period, human picked leaves to hush up a scandal, firstly, privacy have appeared。 Starting with the protection of one’s body and home, it soon evolved in the direction of controlling one’s personal information。 As a universal phenomenon, privacy not only indicate elegance and civilization, but also has its binding effect on every member of the society, which plays a crucial role in helping to establish and maintain friendly interpersonal relationship。 As a society lubricant, privacy plays an important role in daily communication。 What’s more, with the development of Internet, privacy is becoming a topic not only about one’s right, but also about one’s economical safe。 For the generation who live in the social networking sites, which is playing a vital role in people’s daily life and considered as a effective measure to contact with each other and do shopping。 In this case, privacy need to be protected more。 Of course laws should be made。 At the same time, the awareness of privacy is the most effective and fundamental mean to protect ourselves。