“Shuoshihua, …”: Chinese celebrities’ metapragmatic management of rapport and impression in an interview setting

Abstract This paper attempts to investigate Chinese celebrities’ metapragmatic management of rapport and impression, as indicated by their use of honesty markers such as shuoshihua (literally, ‘to tell the truth’) in their candid utterances in an interview setting. Based on naturally occurring data, it is found that Chinese celebrities tend to use honesty markers across various interactional contexts when they perform a number of situationally unexpected relational acts such as disclosing a bias, disagreeing with co-participants, complimenting another celebrity, conveying gratitude to one’s critic, and self-praising. As these acts of the celebrities’ risk threatening the rapport they have with others involved in or outside of the interaction, and triggering some negative impressions of themselves, this article suggests that their use of the honesty markers might reflect their metapragmatic awareness of the risks involved and hence their efforts to manage rapport and impression, by placing significant emphasis on their sincerity.