How do Mandarin Speakers get Others to do Things?---The Directive System in Mandarin Interaction

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Author(s) / Creator(s)
- Li, Xiaoting
SSRHC IG awarded 2022: "Why are Chinese tourists so rude?" This question, posted by an American retail worker on Reddit, has received over 2,000 replies. It reveals a widely held stereotype about Chinese people. With 169.2 million Chinese traveling overseas and spending $254.6 billion in 2019 (according to China's National Bureau of Statistics), interactions between Chinese and people in other countries are copious, and stereotypes like this may arise. But where does this stereotype come from? Meaning is conveyed not only through language but also in the ways language is used and accompanied by nonverbal behaviors. For example, people in the West who make requests indirectly by asking for assistance---as in, "Can you pass the salt?"---are perceived as more polite than Chinese people who allegedly make requests impolitely by demanding assistance---as in, "Pass the salt!" People in the West may also be annoyed by Chinese people's physical contact when they ask them to do things. These kinds of differences in language use and nonverbal behaviors are difficult to detect. The proposed research will use state-of-the-art technologies to document and examine how Mandarin speakers use language and nonverbal behaviors to perform directives to get others to do things in everyday interaction.
Date created

09/28/2021
Subjects / Keywords
Type of Item

Research Material
DOI

https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-ce0z-6431