Chinese categorization of interpersonal relationships and the cultural logic of Chinese social interaction: An indigenous perspective

Abstract

This paper explores the conceptual basis of Chinese social organization, and examines how the fundamental Chinese categories of interpersonal relationships a¨ect Chinese ways of speaking and social interaction. Firstly, the paper will analyze the full meanings and interrelationship of two of the most distinctive (complementary) dyads of Chinese social categories, namely, she Ångre Ân (lit.``uncooked person'',``stranger'') vs. shu  re Ân (lit.`c ooked person'',``an old acquaintance''), and zõ Ájõ AEre Ân (lit.``oneself person'',``insider'') vs. wa Áire Ân (lit.``outer/outsider person'',``outsider''). It will then put forward two master scriptsÐgeneral principles underlying norms of social interactionÐin Chinese culture that are governed by the demarcations of these fundamental categories: ne Áiwa Áiyo AE ubie  (``di¨erence between the insider and outsider'') and yo  ushu Å zhõ Áqõ Ån (``from far to close''), and illustrate aspects of Chinese language use that are guided by these principles. They include da AE zha Åohu (``greetings''), the use of to  ng X (``fellow X'') and la AEo X (``old X''), and a brief discussion of the value of not being polite in Chinese culture. On the one hand, this paper demonstrates the need for treating interpersonal relationships as a theoretical variable in the study of human interaction and shows the importance of an indigenous perspective; on the other, it relates theoretical discussion of human interaction to practical needs of understanding Chinese interactional style for the purpose of language teaching and political and commercial negotiations. Both goals can be attained by the use of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage and``cultural scripts'' theory.

Understanding the Conceptual Basis of the ‘Old Friend’ Formula in Chinese Social Interaction and Foreign Diplomacy: A Cultural Script Approach

“…Therefore, the ultimate goal of the present study is to make sense of this customary way of talking by unravelling the conceptual basis of this form of 'sociality', which is characteristic of Chinese foreign diplomacy. In particular, the paper shows that the use of péngyȏu ('friend') and lăopéngyȏu ('old friend') can be explained and, to a large extent, predicted by the 'master cultural scripts' proposed in Ye (2004) to account for the centripetal force at work in Chinese interpersonal relations.…”

“…A major advantage of using the 'cultural script' approach, therefore, is that scripts are able to make visible and transparent exactly how elements of a culture are inter-connected and related to each other, and where cultural emphases lie (see e.g. Wierzbicka 2002Wierzbicka , 2008Wierzbicka , 2010aGoddard & Wierzbicka 1997, 2004Goddard 2000Goddard , 2006Goddard , 2010Goddard , 2012a.…”

Epilogue: The first-second order distinction in face and politeness research

“…It is worth noting that not only do our views of scientific knowledge change, the key source of scientific theorizing (at least in social sciences) is in fact emic perspectives on interpersonal phenomena. While this generates challenges for face and politeness researchers as previously noted, it also suggests that extending the sources of second-order theorizing to encompass a greater range of emic/folk theorizations of interpersonal phenomena, such as the insider-outsider distinction noted by Ye (2004) among others in relation to social interaction in Chinese, for example, is likely to be very productive. While the scientific metalanguage may at present be predominantly English, this is no reason to not look beyond emic notions in English to those in other languages and cultures for productive sources of scientific theorizing.…”

“…First, the use of English as a scientific metalanguage may unduly restrict the scope of what we as analysts treat as worthy of interest, because words and concepts inevitably encapsulate a worldview, including ways of perceiving, categorizing and evaluating our social world. Ye's (2004) discussion of the "cultural logic of Chinese social interaction" from "an indigenous perspective" is instructive in that respect. She claims that while "'face' is indeed an important concept in Chinese culture", the real "key force in Chinese social interaction is along the 'outsider-insider' continuum, pulling the relationship between the interactants towards the central figure" (Ye 2004: 227), the importance of which has also been noted by others (Pan 2000;Pan and Kádár 2011).…”

What makes a good life? A cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective

“…Familiarity with the discoveries concerning universal human concepts can free discussions of human psychology from Anglocentric biases and assumptions, and this applies to positive psychology and ethics as much as it does to the psychology of emotions (Wierzbicka, 2009) and to the study of values (see e.g., Bromhead, 2009;Gladkova, 2008;Goddard, 1997Hasada, 2008;Travis, 2006;270 A. Wierzbicka Wierzbicka, 1997Wierzbicka, , 2006aWierzbicka, , 2006bWong, 2004;Ye, 2004;Yoon, 2004). As Charles Taylor (1989) says, the human agent exists in a space of questions.…”