Differences In Face Concept And The Impact On Sino-Us Business Negotiation

With the accelerated pace of globalization, the number of international exchanges is increasing, too. As the world’s two largest economies, China and America’s economic and trade cooperation has been gradually expanding and deepening, which indicates that the business and trade cooperation between China and America has become one of the main potencies to affect the world economic process. The achievement of business activities must rely on smooth cross-cultural communication. To realize effective cross-cultural communication, people should take appropriate means of communication to overcome the negative factors of cultural differences and strengthen the understanding and integration. Both China and America have their own unique cultural habits, while the concept of "face" is one of the important aspects of the culture. Due to different understanding, degree of concern and ways of dealing with problems on the concept of face, invalid communications in the negotiation between China and America can sometimes bring difficulties and misunderstandings, and even obstacles. How to achieve better cross-cultural business negotiation between Chinese and American negotiators has become an urgent problem. Although many scholars have done researches on face problems, only few have done researches on the impact of face concept in business negotiation.This thesis intends to do more specifically study on how differences of face concept between China and America affect business negotiation, and the main research approach is by questionnaire. By analyzing the feedback of the questionnaire, the author provides some suggestions for both Chinese and American negotiators on the frontline. Finally, the author also provides some suggestions for the improvement of cross-cultural communicative competence from the angle of acculturation. The thesis does not only conclude the former theories, but also puts forward those theories and puts them into practical use.