Spencer-Oatey, Helen, 1952- and Ng, Patrick. (2002) Reconsidering Chinese modesty: Hong Kong and mainland Chinese evaluative judgements of compliment responses. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, Vol.11 (No.2). pp. 181-201. ISSN 0957-6851

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Abstract

Compliments are usually intended to have a positive effect on interpersonal relations, yet for the outcome actually to be positive, both the compliment and the compliment response need to be handled appropriately. This paper focuses on different types of compliment responses, and explores Chinese people’s evaluative judgements of these different types. Gao and Ting-Toomey (1998) argue that modesty is an important component of Chinese politeness, and that to blatantly accept a compliment is considered impolite. Several studies (e.g. Chen 1993, Yuan 1996 and Loh 1993) have indeed found that compliments are rejected more frequently in Chinese than in English, yet other evidence suggests that acceptance responses are also relatively common in Chinese. This paper explores a number of hypotheses associated with these issues. It reports a study carried out in Mainland China and Hong Kong, and discusses the notion of Chinese modesty in relation to the findings.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Applied Linguistics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Compliments, Politeness (Linguistics), Courtesy -- China, Interpersonal relations -- China, Intercultural communication
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Asian Pacific Communication
Publisher:	John Benjamins Publishing Co.
ISSN:	0957-6851
Date:	2002
Volume:	Vol.11
Number:	No.2
Page Range:	pp. 181-201
Identification Number:	10.1075/japc.11.2.05spe
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
References:	Chen, R. (1993) Responding to compliments. A contrastive study of politeness strategies between American English and Chinese speakers. Journal of Pragmatics, 20: 49-75. Chen, R. (1996) Food-plying and Chinese politeness. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 7(3&4):143-155. Gao, G. & Ting-Toomey, S. (1998) Communicating Effectively with the Chinese. London: Sage. Gu, Y. (1990) Politeness phenomena in modern Chinese. Journal of Pragmatics, 14: 237-257. Holmes, J. (1995) Women, Men and Politeness. London: Longman. Leech, G. N. (1983) Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman. Loh, W. C. T. (1993) Responses to Compliments across Languages and Cultures: a Comparative Study of British and Hong Kong Chinese (Department of English, Research Report Series No. 30 pp.1-89). City University of Hong Kong. Ma, E.K.W. and Fung, A.Y.H. (1999) Re-sinicization, nationalism and the Hong Kong identity. In: C. So and J.Chan (ed) Press and Politics in Hong Kong: Case Studies from 1967 to 1997. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 497-528. Pomerantz, A. (1978) Compliment responses. Notes on the co-operation of multiple constraints. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, New York: Academic Press, 79-112. Rose, K. & Ng, C. K. F. (1999) Inductive and deductive approaches to teaching compliments and compliment responses. Perspectives, 11(2), 124-169. (Department of English, City University of Hong Kong.) Spencer-Oatey, H., Ng, P. and Dong, L. (2000) Responding to compliments: British and Chinese evaluative judgements. In: H. Spencer-Oatey (ed) Culturally Speaking. Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures. London: Continuum, 98-120. Ye, L. (1995) Complimenting in Mandarin Chinese. In G. Kasper (ed.) Pragmatics of Chinese as Native and Target Language, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 207-295. Yuan, Y. (1996) Responding to compliments: a contrastive study on the English pragmatics of advanced speakers of English. BUILD 20 Proceedings: 861-872.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/2686

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