A Comparative Study Of Body Language In China And The Western Countries From The Perspective Of Cultural Vacancy

When people communicate with others with verbal language,they will also use facial expressions,gestures,postures or some physical movements.These physical movements are called body language.As one of the main parts of non-verbal communication,body language has the functions of complement,emphasis and replacement to verbal language.For people from different languages and cultural backgrounds,the role of body language in the process of interpersonal communication is particularly important,which has a significant impact on ensuring successful intercultural communication.In recent years,with the development of economic globalization and cultural diversification,the contacts between China and western countries have become increasingly closer.However,due to the difference in cultural background between China and foreign countries,sometimes the interpretation of body language has some misunderstandings by people.In today's era,this question about how to use the advantages of body language to avoid conflicts is worthy of exploration.The academic research on body language mainly focuses on English teaching,teaching Chinese as a foreign language,or intercultural communication.Sometimes it analyzes body language from the perspective of culture dimension theory and face theory and so forth.However,there are not many systematic studies on the differences of body language between China and western countries from the theory of cultural vacancy.Therefore,this paper attempts to make a comparison between the Chinese and western body language based on the theory of cultural vacancy in order to help people who are from different cultural backgrounds communicate effectively and improve their competence of intercultural communication.In this thesis,the division of the East and the West is neither in accordance with the geographical location nor political system,but from the cultural concept,that is,the western countries refer specifically to the Christian-dominated countries such as the United States,Western Europe,Canada,and Australia and New Zealand.This thesis analyzes gesture,facial expression,posture,proxemics,eye contact and touch of Chinese and western body language based on Russian scholar Sorokin's cultural vacancy theory.The thesis lists a large number of cases to describe the differences between Chinese and western body language in interpersonal communication.At the same time,it analyzes the causes of differences by combining communicative activity vacancy,cultural space vacancy,and national mentality vacancy.Finally,some suggestions are provided so as to promote effective communication and avoid communicative bias.Through case analysis,it can be concluded that body language is an important part of communication and is closely related to culture.That communicative activity vacancy,cultural space vacancy and national mentality vacancy has caused obstacles in the exchange of Chinese and western body language.Therefore,people should pay attention to the phenomenon of cultural vacancy and master the body language of western countries that are commonly used in daily life.On the one hand,it helps us to better grasp the other's nonverbal behavior,eliminate interference caused by cultural differences and achieve effective communication between language and non-verbal communication.On the other hand,it will help westerners understand the profound Chinese culture and further promote the bilateral exchanges and cooperation in economy,politics and culture.