How do Chinese politeness strategies differ in disagreements

Chinese politeness strategies in disagreements tend to emphasize harmony, face-saving, and indirectness to maintain social cohesion and avoid conflict. ^{1, 2}

Key Differences in Disagreement Strategies

Indirectness and Mitigation

Chinese speakers often utilize mitigated or indirect language to express disagreement, aiming to preserve the interlocutor’s face and avoid direct confrontation. Females are more inclined to use mitigated strategies, whereas males may employ more direct or aggravated strategies. ^{3, 4}

Use of Politeness Strategies

In disagreements, positive politeness strategies—such as exaggerating interest in the hearer, including both speaker and listener in the conversation, and offering collaborative solutions—are prevalent. Negative politeness, which involves respecting the addressee’s autonomy, is also employed but less frequently. ^{5, 1}

Face-Saving and Social Harmony

The emphasis on face-saving leads to polite disagreement, often avoiding outright refusal or criticism. This is aligned with Confucian cultural values emphasizing social harmony and respect for authority figures, especially in formal contexts. ^{6, 7}

Cultural Context and Variations

There are regional and gender variations. For instance, disagreements on Chinese forums tend to be less face-threatening within collectivist contexts like Hong Kong and mainland China, but there are more disagreement tokens in Hong Kong, reflecting regional differences. ^{2, 8}

Online and Formal Settings

In online communications, Chinese tend to maintain politeness by employing strategies aligned with face-saving, even when disagreeing. In formal settings, polite disagreement often involves euphemism, positive politeness, and indirect expressions. ^{9, 10}

Summary

Overall, Chinese disagreement strategies differ from Western ones by prioritizing face-saving, indirectness, and harmony, often employing polite, mitigated language to avoid conflict and maintain social order. ^{7, 1, 6}

References

• A contrastive pragmatic study of politeness strategies in disagreement between native speakers of English and Chinese EFL learners

• Disagreement Strategies on Chinese Forums: Comparing Data From Hong Kong and Mainland China

• Gender Differences in Pragmatic Strageties of Disagreement in Chinese

• Gender Differences in Realization Patterns of Disagreement in Chinese

• The Implementation of Politeness Strategies in Showing Disagreement Among the Communicative Members

• Cultural Expectations and Perceptions of Politeness: The “Rude Chinese”?

• Integration of the Confucian Culture on Cross-Cultural Conflict Management: The Role of the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Disagreement Strategies on Chinese Forums: Comparing Data From Hong Kong and Mainland China

• Web-Based Videoconferencing in Investigation in TCFL: Taking Foreign International Students in China as an Example

• A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations

• On Pragmatic Strategies of Expressing Disagreement

• A Study of Strategy Use in Showing Agreement and Disagreement to Others’ Opinions

• Cultural Differences in Responding to Reprimands in American English and Taiwanese Chinese

• Exploring politeness strategies: A comparative study of speeches of American and Chinese Presidents at UNGA 78th session

• Cultural and Social Interpretation of Chinese Addressing Strategies.

• The Translation of Address Terms in Showing Politeness from Chinese into English

• FACE AND POLITENESS PHENOMENA IN THE CHANGING CHINA

• Turn-Taking and Disagreement: A Comparison of American English and Mandarin Chinese

• On the Politeness Strategies in Chinese Internet Relay Chat Communication

• ‘You would not want to be the murderer of our dreams and options, right?’

• Politeness Principle in Cross-Culture Communication

• Introduction: Advancing linguistic politeness theory by using Chinese data

• Role of Email in Intercultural Communication of Criticism in a Chinese English Curriculum Reform Context

• Analyzing politeness and refusal speech acts in popular Chinese television drama series

• Comparing Styles across Languages: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Politeness

• Southerners Are Wiser Than Northerners Regarding Interpersonal Conflicts in China