Facework differences between Chinese and American

The objective of this study is to test Brown and Levinson's (1978, 1987) politeness theory and Ting-Toomey's (1988) theory on conflict face-negotiation. Specifically, the study examines the effects of relational intimacy and culture on perceived face threats and likelihood of facework strategy selection. Several hypotheses derived from the theories were tested with the subjects from the United States (N = 72) and the People's Republic of China (N = 79). The results can be summarized as follows: (1) Ting-Toomey's theory is partially supported by the results. The Chinese don't only use more positive politeness, indirect strategies, but also use more negative politeness than the Americans. (2) The direction of the effects of intimacy varied across different cultures. In general, Brown and Levinson's theory is only supported by the American group, that is, intimacy level is negatively associated with perceived face threats and facework for the U.S.A. group, while it is positively associated with perceived face threats and facework for the P.R.C. group.