Exploring Gender-related Communication Styles In Chinese

This paper is concerned with the relationship between gender and communication style. Many of previous researches have established that there are differences in communication style between men and women. Generally speaking, two perspectives are proposed on the relationship between gender and communication style: power-related and intercultural. Since almost all previous researches are conducted using data in English, this paper endeavors to draw some conclusions from Chinese in order to enrich the theories and findings in this field. A survey is conducted in the form of questionnaire to find out what beliefs Chinese people have about gender-linked communication style, i.e. stereotype of gender differences in Chinese communication. The second part of research is an analysis of TV talk shows in Chinese, which examines properties of language different people display to find if there are differences in language use between men and women in this particular context. Results from the stereotype-questionnaire confirm the different gender styles in communication, whereas the talk show analysis presents little significant evidence to show the close correlation between gender and communication style. Subsequently, theoretical implications of these results are discussed with reference to the two perspectives mentioned earlier.