Modern Chinese Politeness Revisited

The literature on Chinese politeness, as for that on other languages, is very large, and one has to find a cut-off point to start with. Since the present volume is mainly concerned with linguistic politeness, Gu’s paper (1990) provides an easy solution. Additionally, a good amount of research produced during the interim period is related to his research in one way or another. This chapter therefore first makes a round-up review of the existing literature. The major problem found in Gu (1990, 1992) is his view of the Chinese language, which is over-simplistic and monolithic. Consequently, his examination of Modern Chinese politeness is similarly simplistic and monolithic (see Section 3). This chapter attempts to overcome these weaknesses by examining Chinese politeness in four major modes of discourse which correspond with the view of the Chinese language as a four-dimensional city of historicity (Sections 3 and 4). Politeness will no longer be confined to linguistic politeness but also includes non-verbal politeness. Furthermore, it will be examined not in terms of verbal usage but as lived experience. Some theoretical implications are examined in the final section.