Abstract

Shame (or face) is a common phenomenon in Chinese and American cultures, and the differences of shame culture between China and America result from the different historical evolutions and values. As the world is getting more and more integrated, the successful intercultural communication in the international cooperation is becoming increasingly important, and its success is closely related to face issues. Face culture differs greatly between China and America, in terms of the understanding of the face, degree of attention to the face and the ways of dealing with face problems. And these differences always lead to misunderstandings in communication for both sides. In order to avoid the cultural conflicts due to the face problems in the cross-cultural interactions between China and America, this thesis, tries to make a comparative analysis of the face culture between China and America, so as to explore the different face values in different cultures as well as the different strategies of maintaining face, including politeness, euphemism, and humor, to help the success in cross-cultural communication.
 This thesis is divided in to three parts. The first part expounds on different concepts of face in China and America. The second part points out that the differences of face culture between China and America lie in that Chinese mainly defend positive face, while Americans hold negative face, which results from the different values—collectivism and individualism. The third part provides suggestions for solving the face problems caused by cultural differences, so as to effectively deal with the cultural conflicts in the cross-cultural interaction.   

Key words: face; cultural conflicts; negative face; positive face

摘  要

面子文化是中国文化和美国文化中比较普遍的现象。而中美之间面子文化是由于两国不同的历史发展和价值观。随着世界一体化的不断发展，成功的跨文化交际在国际合作中变得越来越重要，同时也与面子问题息息相关。面子理论，在中美两国不同环境下存在许多差异包括：关于面子理解的差异，对面子的关注程度的差异以及处理面子问题方法的差异。而这些差异在交流过程中往往导致误解。为了避免在中美跨文化交际中由于面子问题而导致的文化冲突，本文通过比较和分析中美两国的面子问题，探讨两国在不同文化背景和价值观下的面子观差异以及中美两国不同的维护面子的方略，包括礼貌原则、委婉原则、幽默原则等，以帮助跨文化交际的成功。
本文分为三个部分。第一部分，阐述了中美两国不同的面子概念。第二部分，指出中美两国面子文化的差异在于中国人提倡积极面子，而美国人推崇消极面子，其差异原因是由于不同的价值观——集体主义和个人主义。第三部分，就中美两国所存在的由于面子文化差异导致的问题提出建议，从而有效地解决在跨文化交际中存在的文化冲突。

关键词：面子；文化差异；消极面子；积极面子