A Comparison Of Chinese And American Face Strategies In Chinese Political Television Interviews

This thesis uses Scollons’ face system to analyze the political television interviews of China.The face strategies of Chinese and American guests and those of Chinese hosts wheninterviewing Chinese and American guests are compared. On the basis of the previouscomparative analysis, according to the two values of power distance andindividualism-collectivism in Geert Hofstede’s Theory of Value Dimensions, the culturalroots will be further explored.This study finds that both Chinese and American guests adopt the linguistic strategies ofdeference face system and solidarity face system. However, Chinese guests adopt thelinguistic strategies of deference face system more frequently, while American guests adoptthose of solidarity face system more frequently. Moreover, only Chinese guests adopt thelinguistic strategies of hierarchical face system. Chinese hosts adopt the linguistic strategiesof deference face system and solidarity face system more frequently when interviewingAmerican guests than interviewing Chinese guests, without adopting any linguistic strategy ofhierarchical face system, which will be occasionally adopted by Chinese hosts wheninterviewing Chinese guests.Some suggestions are proposed to Chinese hosts based on data results. Chinese hosts shouldincrease the frequency of adopting linguistic strategies of solidarity face system and reducethat of employing linguistic strategies of hierarchical face system. In light of the culturaldifferences between China and USA, Chinese hosts should show their politeness and respectsby using the linguistic strategies of deference face system at the beginning of the interviewwhen interviewing Chinese guests. Meanwhile, Chinese hosts should try their best to makeinterviews more equal by avoiding using the linguistic strategies of hierarchical face systemwhen interviewing American guests.