III. Different Action on Chinese and Western Privacy
    Someone says that there is no privacy notion in traditional Chinese culture, so Chinese do not sensitive to privacy, while American pay more attention to their privacy, just like an old saying goes: a man’s home is his castle. In fact, it is wrong. Chinese privacy tended to be a group privacy, while the West prefer the personal privacy. The differences can be showed in the following aspects:
3.1 Privacy in Personal Information
    The relationship between courtesy and privacy in Chinese-English speaking is quiet different. As for Chinese, some questions about a person’s age, marriage, income. etc. are showed solicitude for people. However, in Western, it means the violation of the privacy. Because they put more importance on inpidual rights, personal privacy, emphasize the development of talent. As for age, In China, “older” means experienced and knowledgeable. On the contrary, it is not always in the West. Western country is a competitive and struggling society. For men, “older” indicates one are useless and have to back from the stage of social competition; for women, it means the loss of the charm. So people are not willing to admit they are “older”. It’s common in West that the old have a strong sense of independence, then“age”is increasingly become a personal privacy. 浅析中西方隐私观的差异(4):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_6376.html