A Comparative Study Of Facework Between Chinese And American Cultures

The Joy Luck Club is generally considered as one of the famous Chinese American classic novels, which typically reflects cultural conflicts and integration between the Chinese and the American. Although many scholars have studied the novel from the comparative perspective, few of them did it from the perspective of face-negotiation theory that addresses intercultural facework. The characters in The Joy Luck Club use different language structures, topics, and strategies to perform the appropriate facework. By analyzing the utterances and conversations of the characters in the novel, we can thoroughly grasp the differences in Chinese and American concepts of face and facework, and the cultural values embodied in them.The present thesis positions on the theoretical framework of the face-negotiation theory. It first analyzes face concepts in the collectivist Chinese culture and individual-oriented American culture respectively, then compares Chinese and American face concerns and their corresponding facework styles, and finally employs FNT and incorporates Hofstede’s value dimensions to compare and analyze the typical styles and facework strategies in reaction to intercultural conflicts. Secondly,this thesis takes The Joy Luck Club as the example to do case study. It demonstrates that Chinese face involves the level of collectivism, such as one’s success or honor being related to others, showing off in the presence of others, gaining or giving others’ compliments, etc. Chinese collectivism largely determines their tendency of relational/group-face maintenance. And they tend to use more avoiding and integrating conflict management styles in face-threatening situations. Giving in,pretending, third-party help, and aggressive avoidance(in contrast to peaceful avoidance) are specific facework strategies involved in avoiding conflict style. And compromising, considering the other, private discussion and remaining calm are specific facework strategies involved in integrating conflict style. On the other hand,American face embodies the level of a person’s desire to be recognized or not to be interfered with. However, Chinese and American face concepts are all linked to thedesire to gain compliments and project good self-image to others. American individualism accounts for the emphasis on self-face maintenance. They would mostly use dominating conflict style when their face is being threatened. Aggression,defending and expressing emotion are specific facework strategies involved in dominating conflict style.