Negotiating Interpersonal Relations in 21St Century China

Negotiating Interpersonal Relations in 21st Century China: The Practices of China’s Post-90s Generation and Their Implications to Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By Emily Larson, B.A. Graduate Program in East Asian Languages and Literatures The Ohio State University 2020

Thesis Committee: Xiaobin Jian, Advisor Marjorie K.M. Chan

ABSTRACT

What does the Chinese post-90s generation do (and say) in negotiating relationships in today’s continuously changing and increasingly complex Chinese cultural scene? To what degree do their practices still follow the established traditional norms and expectations, and to what extent are these practices altered or transformed by the globalization process that they are experiencing? Having a clear, research-based understanding of these questions will have significant impacts on the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language for decades to come.

This study researches practices by members of the post-90s generation in their negotiating relationship and networking and it focuses on the stages after making initial contact and before becoming “friends” or “partners.” Specifically, it examines and analyses these four types of behaviors/strategies: (1) greeting to create familiarity between acquaintances; (2) extending and responding invitations to create social situations for further interactions; (3) complimenting and responding to compliment to create social assets for desirable engagements; and (4) negotiating differences and reconciling after a misunderstanding to work productively in diverse and dynamic contexts.

The data for this study comes from an online questionnaire survey with a total 151 participants from all around China. Participants range in age from 18 to 57 years old. The goal was to gain a diverse age range. Participants filled out an online survey which request them to imagine a number of social situations in which they needed to interact with a new acquaintance.

Each social situation contained a task, be it responding to a compliment or extending an invitation. Participants were asked to select either the response that best-described how they would approach the situation.

ii The data reveals many important strategies that Chinese people use in order to interaction and network with their new acquaintances. Some of these strategies represent a generation shift wherein members of the post-90s generation employ different methods then their elders. Some strategies seem equally popular among the young and older and represent a cultural trend that seems to have been passed down and maintained among the younger generations. For example, preferred greetings in Chinese vary by age and members of the post-90s generation are favoring simpler, more casual greetings that do not reference a specific time of day. Strategies for reconciling after a misunderstanding, however, did not vary as much by age.

These behaviors use in networking and negotiating are of vital importance to Chinese- language learners. The Performed Culture Approach details the ways in which behavioral culture learned through the compilation of sagas which are then incorporated into the Chinese language curriculum. The final chapter of this thesis demonstrates how necessary cultural information can be adapted for use in a language classroom. Data gathered in this study, along with other relevant cultural artifacts, are combined to create a Relationship-Building saga. Accompanying notes detail how the saga can be used to teach Chinese language students how to build relationships and network in Chinese culture.

iii

Dedicated to my parents

Acknowledgments

This thesis would not have been possible without the constant support and encouragement I received from my thesis advisor, Dr. Xiaobin Jian. His academic guidance and gentle encouragement provided the support needed to complete my research.

I am also grateful to Dr. Marjorie Chan for her willingness to provide advice despite her busy schedule. It was through discussions with her that I was able to more fully develop the ideas presented in this thesis.

My gratitude also goes to Debbie Knicely for her kindness and support throughout my time at the Ohio State University. She is a person who is not only very organized and methodical but also genuinely cares for the department and all the faculty and students within. Our department is blessed by her presence.

Special thanks to my classmates and friends who helped me with this topic when I needed advice and went out to eat with me when I needed a distraction. Thanks to Yiting for spending so much time helping me even though she had her own work to attend to. Additional thanks and love to Alyssa, Amanda, Jim and Peter, for the bonfires, the long talks and the good food. Last, but not least, I would like to thank my parents and siblings. I consider myself very lucky to have been born into such a family.

Vita

2008-2013...... B.A Calvin University

2018-2020...... M.A., Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures

The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Fields of Study

Major Field: Chinese Pedagogy

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………….………...ii

DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………….…….….……iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………….…………..….….…………v

VITA………………………………………………………………………….…….….…………vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS…………….……………...…………………………….….…………vii

LIST OF TABLES………………………….………………………………………….….………x

LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………….….…..……xi

CHAPTER ONE. Culture and Language Learning…………...…..……………….……………..1

1.1 Language as Speech Act…………………….………………………………...1

1.2 Language as Cultural Performance……………………………………………2

1.3 Behavioral Culture…………………………………………………………….3

1.4 The Performed Culture Approach…………………………………………….5

CHAPTER TWO. China’s Post-90s Generation……….….……………….………………….…8

2.1 The Changing World of China’s Post-90s Generation……………………….8

2.1.1 Social-Cultural Changes…………..………………………………....8

2.1.2 Political Changes. ………………………………...………………..10

2.1.3 Economic Changes..………………………….…………...…….….12

2.2 The Changes of China’s Post-90s Generation…………………………….…13

2.2.1 Changing Dynamics Between the Individual and the Collective....13

2.2.2 Changing 三观 sānguān Three Outlooks—World, Life, Value..…14

CHAPTER THREE. Surveying Four Types of Negotiating Behaviors ………….……….…....16

vii 3.1 Introduction…………………….…………………………….….……….….16

3.2 Methodology …………………………………………………...….….….…16

3.2.1 Rationale ……………………………………….……...…….….…16

3.2.2 Design ………………………………………………...... …...….…17

3.2.3 The Pilot Study…………………………………….………...….…18

3.3 Subjects…………………………...……………….….….………………….19

3.4 Results………………………..…………………………….………...…...….22

3.4.1 Question 1. Greeting an Acquaintance……..……….………...….…22

3.4.1.1 Results……………………………………………………23

3.4.2 Question 2. Invitation and responding to an invitation …….……….25

3.4.2.1 Results………………………………………………....…28

3.4.3 Question 3. Receiving Compliments …………….…………………32

3.4.3.1 Results……………………………………………………33

3.4.4 Question 4. Negotiating differences and reconciling after a

Misunderstanding………………………….….…………….…...33

3.4.4.1 Results. …………………………….….…………….…...35

CHAPTER FOUR. Four Types of Negotiating Strategies……………………….....…………...38

4.1 Differences Among Age Groups………………………………………….…38

4.2 Greeting—Creating Familiarity between Acquaintances……………...……38

4.3 Extending and Responding to Invitations—Creating Social Situations for

Further Interactions……………………………………………………….….41

4.4 Complimenting and Responding to Compliments—Creating Social Assets for

Desirable Engagements…………………………………………….……...…43

viii 4.5 Negotiating Differences and Reconciling after a Misunderstanding—

Working Productively in Diverse and Dynamic Contexts…………….…….47

4.6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………49

CHAPTER FIVE. Implications to the Pedagogy of CFL……………………………………….52

5.1 The Relationship-Building Saga……………………………………………………...52

5.1.1 The Importance of the Relationship-Building Saga………………52

5.1.2 Current Practice in Relationship-Building in China……....………52

5.2 Constructing the Relationship-Building Saga……………………………….53

5.2.1 Model Performance Script……………………………………………….53

5.2.1.1 Selecting and Arranging of the Model Performance…….53

5.2.1.2 Employing a Narrative as a Model Performance Script…54

5.2.2 Scaffolding Drills………………………………………….………..……….59

5.2.3 Contextualized Exercises………………………….……………………….65

5.3 Further Cultural Research……………………………………………………65

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………...………………….….66

APPENDIX: THE QUESTIONNAIRE……………………………………………….………………………….69

List of Tables

Table 1 Scenarios from questionnaires that are discussed in this thesis…………………..………18

Table 2 Breakdown of ages in Group A……………..……..…..……..…..……..……..…………21

Table 3 Breakdown of ages in Group B…………..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………………21

Table 4 Breakdown of ages in Group C…………..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………………21

Table 5 Gender breakdown of participants…………..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…………21

Table 6 Question 1. Greeting an Acquaintance…………………..…..…..…..…..……….….…24

Table 7 Question 2-1. Extending a drink invitation ………………………..………..……………29

Table 8 Question 2-1. Preference for the second person pronoun 2-1…………...….…………….30

Table 9 Question 2-2. Extending a meal invitation……………..…..…..…...………….…...….31

Table 10 Question 2-3. Refusing an Invitation…………….……..…..…..…..………….….……31

Table 11 Question 3. Responding to a Compliment……..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…...…....….33

Table 12 Question 4-1. Handling a misunderstanding…………….……………….….….………36

Table 13 Question 4-2. Addressing conflict with a meal invitation……………………..………36

Table 14 Politeness Scores of Specified Chinese Greeting Expression from Liu (2016:2344)…...40

Table 15 CR Strategies in Chinese (retyped from Chen and Yang (2010))…...………..…………44

Table 16 Comparison of two CR studies (reproduced from Chen and Yang (2010))……………..45

Table 17 Chinese CR strategies (reproduced from Chen and Yang (2010))……………….…… 46

x List of Figures

Figure 1 Educational attainment of participants by group…………..…....…..…..…..….……..22

Figure 2 Question 1. Popularity of “Hello” as a greeting by age ………..…..…..…..……………25

xi Chapter 1 Culture and Language Learning

1.1 Language as Speech Act

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world” Wittgenstein (1921: 74).

Ludwig Wittgenstein was a 20th century philosopher known for his work in many fields particularly linguistics. Rather than limiting the meaning of an utterance to its individual parts, he popularized the idea of exploring the use or intention of said utterance. This concept is referred to as Speech Act Theory, or the idea that the meaning of linguistic expressions can be explained in relation to the rules governing their use in performing various speech acts. Under this theory, language becomes acts of speech whose meaning is understood by their intention, whether that is to assert, command, admonish, question, or perform other specific functions in a social environment. When we consider that culture determines and (at times) limits which intentions can be expressed and how they are expressed (Goffman 1967), Wittgenstein’s profession of the limits of his language rings all the more true. If language can be considered speech acts of intention and the intention is shaped by culture, then a limit in language means a limit in the types of intention that can be expressed. Goffman goes further to discuss the importance of not just the intention of the speaker but the perception by the listener. He argues that if culture influences how and what types of intentions a listener is capable of perceiving, then it is quite easy for a listener to come away from a speech act assuming things about a speaker’s intentions that are contrary to the speaker’s desires. If speakers are using a second language in a new cultural context, their lack of cultural fluency might lead to their being unable to convey their intentions into a form that can be perceived and understood.

1.2 Language as Cultural Performance

Acquiring fluency in a new behavioral culture is more than just learning how much to tip the wait staff. Goffman writes that something so small as an “An unguarded glance, a momentary change in tone of voice” can “drench a talk with judgmental significance” (Goffman

1967: 33). There is no occasion to talk in which “improper impressions could not intentionally or unintentionally arise” (Goffman 1967: 33). This means that every part of our social life in a new culture is a time when our intentions are being studied and observed by others. Our social life can be thought of as a sequence of performances, “discrete frames of specified times, places, roles, scripts, and audiences” (Walker 2000: 24) These performances are defined by their intentions and the intentions can be understood because our cultures provide possible frames of reference in which to situation the behavior (Walker and Noda 2000). If one is learning a new language, the goal is to learn to participate in ways in which one’s performance will lead to one’s intentions being understood in this new cultural landscape (Walker and Noda 2000).

When exploring a new culture, one is rarely coming in with a tabula rasa. In discussing

Chinese culture, it is important to discuss some erroneous assumptions that have been made about Chinese culture in the past in order to move past them and no longer be tied down by stereotypes and generalizations. In Edward Said’s Orientalism, he describes how any discussion of Asian countries is colored by the concept of ‘the Orient’; this is, the idea of Western countries as contrasted to Eastern countries and all the cultural comparisons and concepts of cultural superiority that come with it. Said (1978) explains, “The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring

2 images of the other. In addition, the Orient has helped to define Europe (or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience” (Said 1978: 9). The concept of ‘The Orient’ arose originally from how the West viewed these Asians countries as different, even backward and used this assumption as justification for conquering them. They needed to distinguish themselves from this ‘other’ and so created a dichotomy of “us” vs “them”, where “Western” countries are all grouped together as being similar (and to many, better), whereas a convenient concept of a lesser “Orient” was created to suit their purpose. In order to avoid generalizing about Chinese culture and thereby creating more erroneous depictions, it is important to create studies that approach a different culture and appropriately gather data without allowing the researchers to press their own stereotypes and assumptions into the data. Especially when observing an area of the world whose culture has historically been victim of gross misrepresentations and generalizations, prudence and care when researching are of the utmost importance. Orientalism takes vast and diverse culture groups and paints them as identical.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

1.3 Behavioral Culture

Culture is about as complex a phenomenon as humans are capable of contemplating

(Walker and Noda 2000). Language teachers cannot begin to represent cultures in their entirety in a language classroom. Rather, the goal should be to identify and stage performable ‘chunks’ of the culture that can be rationalized within a coherent concept of culture (Walker and Noda 2000).

Culture is divided by Hammerly (1982) into three categories: achievement culture, informational culture and behavioral culture. Of these three, he considers behavioral culture, or the knowledge that helps a person to navigate through daily life, to be very important to foreign language programs, because a mastery of it helps with successful completion of tasks. In addition, the

3 consequences of failing to learn what behavior is expected in a target culture can result in misunderstanding, embarrassment, and personal frustration that can hinder basic communication in the target culture (Zheng 2011). To avoid this, foreign language teachers must look at their work not as ‘teaching a language’ but, rather, as that of teaching how to ‘do particular things in a foreign language’ (Walker and Noda 2000: 190).

However, it is not that the entirety of behavioral culture is useful for language learners.

Consider the length of Chinese history, rich with different traditions and customs, some of which remain, many of which have died out. Walker (2000: 232) recommends focusing on the

“knowledge that enables the learner to create sufficient comfort to encourage natives to maintain the long-term relations necessary for accumulating experience in the culture.” This means that only the behaviors and customs which enable students to maintain long-term relations have the most immediate utility for students. These behaviors include, for example, greeting peers, extending invitations, complimenting and receiving compliments. It is important for teachers to consider what types of situations their students will find themselves in and with whom they will often interact. Current university-level students of Chinese are either Millennials (those born roughly between 1981 and 1996) or Gen Z (those born after 1996). In the current year (2020),

Millennials are between the ages of 24 and 39 while members of Gen Z are 23 years old or younger. In China, the generations split somewhat differently. Those born between 1990 and

2000 are part what is called the post-90s generation or jiǔ líng hòu (九零后). Members of this generation in China are between the ages of 20 and 30 in the year 2020. This means the members of the post-90s generation the same age as current students of Chinese in American universities.

When students of Chinese travel to China, they will spend the greater part of their time

4 interacting with members of this generation. Thus, teachers need to give learners an understanding of the behavioral culture of China’s post-90s generation.

1.4 Performed Culture Approach

In order for teachers to equip Chinese-language learners with the behavioral culture knowledge needed to interact with their Chinese peers, they need textbooks that accurately reflect the culture of this group. Chinese: Communicating in the Culture (hereafter, CCC) is the textbook used at the Ohio State University for students just beginning to learn Mandarin Chinese. The text’s pedagogical strategy follows the Performed Culture Approach, stating that it is designed for the learner who “understands that learning a language entails not only what to say but also how to say it and when to say it” (Walker and Lang 2006: iv). The text focuses on exposing students to behavioral culture by making sure that students learn to perform the language within the context of a situation where that particular type of language is used (Walker and Lang 2006: v). This idea is tied into the theory of the Performed Culture Approach, wherein learning a language is equated to learning to perform a foreign culture by constructing a memory of that culture

(Walker 2000). This means that in order to function while in a foreign culture, students must gain memories of how to complete specific tasks in different cultural circumstances. These memories of that culture will aid them when they enter the foreign culture outside the classroom and are faced with circumstances similar to those already practiced. If they have learned to perform the foreign culture with their instructor, then they should have no trouble recognizing what situation they are in, and perform the behavior that correctly conveys their intention. In order to make sure students are learning to perform in ways that are accurate and authentic, the performances and language drills used for CCC are taken from actual conversational exchanges that were

5 observed or recorded. This ensures that the learner gains a “better capacity to deal with the

Mandarin Chinese he or she will encounter in China or in a Chinese community outside China”

(Walker and Lang 2006: v.).

While CCC’s reasoning and pedagogy are sound, one question arises: can a book whose dialogue is taken from the 1980’s still accurately represent the Mandarin Chinese that one will encounter in 2020 China? Chinese society has diversified and become much more complex since that time. There are numerous examples of tasks the textbook requires students to complete which seem almost obsolete in modern China, including asking for a fax machine number as well as discussing how many commemorative stamps one has in the office. In addition, there is vocabulary that students are unlikely to encounter among their peer group as well as vocabulary used in an outdated fashion, such as tóngzhì (同志). There are a few drills regarding monetary exchange which all depict people paying with cash. While this does still happen in parts of

China, paying through an app is also an important part of the culture that students will be expected to perform when they have entered the target culture. These are just a few of numerous examples that indicate a need to reconsider how accurately the current textbook reflects daily life in China today. The fact is that China has undergone rapid and transformational changes in the last few decades. Chinese natives themselves often remark on this fact, marveling that the areas where they grew up no longer exist, replaced with vast skyscrapers or shopping complexes. With these rapid technological and economic developments come changes in the behavioral culture as well as in the lexicon and speaking style of all Chinese, particularly those who are coming of age in this new China: the post-90s generation. Teaching materials need to be revised and updated to reflect this generation, as they are the group with whom current Chinese learners are most likely to interact. Editing and updating curriculum materials is no easy feat. The first requirement is for

6 more research to be done on how and where this millennial generation differs from the preceding generation. This paper will examine a study of the behavioral culture of China’s younger generations, with the goal of determining which new trends have become so pervasive as to necessitate their inclusion in Chinese language materials.

7 Chapter 2 China’s Post-90s Generation

2.1 The Changing World of China’s Post-90s Generation

The Chinese post-90s generation are the children of the Cultural Revolution1 generation

(born 1966-1976). The extreme changes that have reshaped and remolded China since then have resulted in a huge divide between their viewpoints and attitudes and those held by their parents

(Moore 2005). These changes, though interlaced at many points, will be teased apart for the purpose of analysis into socio-cultural, political and economic changes2.

2.1.1 Socio-cultural changes

Socio-cultural changes that China has undergone from the 1970s onward have led to some of the largest differences between the post-90s generation and previous generations. In the area of education, their experience differs quite markedly from their parents, whose educations and occupations were much more directly tied to, or influenced by, opportunities provided by the state (Marr and Stanley 1998). Starting in 1978, China’s official stance on education changed.

Young people began to be taught that education for the purpose of self-improvement was not, in fact, selfish and immoral, and education with the goal of promoting one’s career became widespread (Moore 2005). Later in the 1980s, China took further measures to reduce the

“political” function of education and worked to increase its capacity to serve new goals: modernization and industrialization. In addition, China moved away from its desire to provide

1 The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was initiated by Chairman Mao with the goal of purging any persons believed to be a threat to his communist regime. During this period, the communist party instigated and encouraged attacks on old Chinese culture and customs as well as anything viewed as capitalist or western. Schools and universities were closed, and students were forced into the countryside to perform manual labor and farming. This tumultuous upheaval had deep and lasting effects on every aspect of Chinese society.

2 It should be noted that these changes described in this chapter pertain to the years 1990-2010 approximately. These were the years when China’s post-90s generation was growing up. Therefore, these descriptions are not necessarily reflective of the China in the year 2020, when this thesis was written.

8 free or low-cost education, passing more of the costs to families (Marr and Stanley 1998). Such education policies overtly allowed for the creation of a bifurcated educational system, wherein a smaller "elite" sector trains the scientists and engineers necessary to meet China’s ambitious modernization goals, while a "mass" sector is expected to provide basic educational skills. This bifurcated system offers different kinds of rewards for Chinese youth; those accepted into the elite sector are offered the chance at upward mobility; for those who are not, their education often lasts only to the end of junior high school (Marr and Stanley 1998).

It is not only the structure of China’s education system that looks different for the post-

90s generation; the structure of the family has also been transformed. Most post-90s Chinese have no siblings because of the one-child policy that was introduced in 1979. This means they have not only received the undivided attention of their parents and grandparents but were also the sole benefactors of money that could have potentially been spent raising more children (Han

2010; Wang 2015; Yi, Ribbens & Morgan 2010; Ma 2016). These parents showered their children with material goods as a form of parental love and protection, with many even continuing to provide material support after the children themselves have grown up and married, sometimes through the form of procuring houses and cars for them (Zhong and He 2014; Yan

2015). This is the first time in the history of Chinese family life when the child, rather than the elders or ancestors, is regarded as the focal point of all family relations. This historical shift can be traced back, partially, if not entirely, to the implementation of the one-child policy by the

Chinese government (Yan 2015).

A final area of change across the socio-cultural landscape comes from China opening itself to diverse foreign influences around the turn of the century. The relative easing of government control of the media has made it possible for the Chinese post-90s generation to

9 access Western popular culture through film, music, television, and the Internet (Moore 2005). In the mid-1990s the Internet café came to China, soon followed by an explosion of Western films available on DVDs. When the next generation was coming of age in the late 1990s, the People’s

Republic was completely transformed from what it had been just one decade prior (Moore 2005).

2.1.2 Political changes

Several forces are acting simultaneously on this young generation to result in a culture shift, but perhaps the most powerful one is the retreat of the state from the private lives of the

Chinese (Moore 2005). This withdrawal of the state can be clearly demonstrated when one observes the place that the Party now occupies in the minds and lives of this younger generation.

Since the late 1980s, the general attitude of young people toward most official party organizations has been one of indifference (Marr and Stanley 1998). Membership is no longer as competitive as before and is, in fact, available to almost anyone who wants to join. Now, among the youth of China, true believers in the regime are few and far between, and political activism in support of the regime is viewed as perfunctory at best (Marr and Stanley 1998). The youth of today grew up little influenced by Communist ideology and are uninterested in Maoist-style party politics. If they join the party, it is for practical, even selfish, reasons (Rosen 2009; Sima and Pugsley 2010; Yan 2015).

This withdrawal of the state is also clearly evidenced by looking at China’s population movement. Previously, in the late 1950s, the state worked to control urban growth and population movement into urban areas by implementing the hùkǒu (户口), or household registration system. The hùkǒu system instituted a legal and inherited distinction between peasants and non-peasants (Cohen 1994: 158). Historically, those born into agricultural families,

10 which constituted the majority of the population, have had great difficulty converting to non- agricultural status and have been denied advantages given to those in the urban, state-supported sector (Potter 1983; Kipnis 1997; Chen 2001). The state-owned work units, or 单位 dānwèi further maintained the hùkǒu system as the main way to control and distribute privileges and necessities, especially housing (Chen 2001). Residents lived, worked, and socialized within this work unit space. Through the urban dānwèi, the state controlled urban society and also mobilized residents into political participation (Lü and Perry 1997; Li 1993). Both the hùkǒu and the dānwèi systems were institutions that minimized the movement of Chinese citizens (Chen 2001).

However, in recent years, Chinese authorities have eased restrictions on population mobility, which has created mass migrations of between 70 and 100 million people throughout the country, leading to an acceleration in urban population growth (Solinger 1995). Increasingly,

Chinese people are moving around to look for employment prospects. Compared to the 1980s, young people, especially men, are more likely to leave home to find employment (Marr and

Stanley 1998). Moving from rural to urban is most typical, and in China this means from interior rural areas to coastal metropolitan areas, attracting jobs from either end of the educational spectrum, from students with degrees to the floating population of 80-100 million migrants from the countryside (Marr and Stanley 1998). A huge factor contributing to this population movement is the economic reforms in China that have altered not only where and how people find employment, but also what kinds of employment is available and the opportunities that come with it.

11 2.1.3 Economic changes

Marr and Stanley (1998: 145) observe that “perspectives of the Chinese…youth of today are a product of the surge towards a market economy.” In the mid-1980s, most urban dwellers still viewed the petty merchants of street stalls with more contempt than envy. Yet, by the early

1990s many people began feeling the desire to try it themselves (Chen 2001). The encouragement of profitable economic activity, together with the rapid rise in urban household incomes and the availability of consumer goods, all meant access to products, services and opportunities unheard of in their parents’ generation (Moore 2005). For many people in China, the last decade of the century was defined by increase: an increase in mobility, in access to different material goods and cultural products, and in various employment opportunities.

However, it was also marked by an increase in anxiety about massive state sector layoffs and the loss of state benefits that accompanied those jobs, in outrage over the corruption of state bureaucrats and local officials, and in uneasiness about the ideological stability of the country’s leadership (Chen 2001).

The surge toward a market economy also brings with it the influence of marketing by major corporations, whose “power and immediacy may exceed those of the various religious or political philosophies the world has seen so far” (Moore 2005: 357). New clothing styles appeared in the 1980s, replacing the virtually ubiquitous, solid blue, grey, or brown shirt and pants combination which was a staple under Chairman Mao. For the first time in decades, young women in bright, colorful dresses and men in Western-influenced sport shirts and pants began popping up in urban China (Moore 2005). This influence of the market economy, as well as withdrawal of the state and the fluctuating structure of family and education, all leave their mark on China’s post-90s generation.

2.2 The Changes of China’s Post-90s Generation

The socio-cultural, political and economic changes that have shaken Chinese society have had substantial impact on the children born during this time. This study specifically focuses on the post-90s generation, or the children born roughly between 1990 and the new millennium.

This generation is markedly different than its parents’ generation, both in terms of a transition away from collectivism and in a shifting of values.

2.2.1 Changing dynamics between the individual and the collective

Traditional China is often viewed as a “collective” culture (Hui 1988; Triandis 1995).

What this means in the case of China is that there are some groups to which individual Chinese typically belong, and to which they defer in their daily lives when it comes to decision-making

(Moore 2005). The demands made on individual Chinese by these specific groups are seen as more prevalent and powerful than those made by the same groups on Westerners. The family and, in some parts of China, the extended family or lineage make up these groups. Moore (2005:

361-2) writes:

“The People’s Republic of China in 1949 brought in the values of Marxism, Leninism, and Mao Zedong thought. Maoist China was the formative context for the parents of the millennial generation. It was deeply hostile to individualistic impulses, which were denounced as contrary to the new socialist society. For the youth of the 1960s and 1970s, everything revolved around the state and Chairman Mao. The intolerance was expressed in the traditional forms of gossip, ostracism, and in beatings and incarceration (Cheng 1986; Gao 1987). During this Maoist phase, the traditional kin-focused collectivism of old China became state- focused”.

However, the post-90s generation is moving away from state-focused collectivism to a kind of individualism. When asked in the early 1990s to evaluate the statement "Defending the

Nation is Every Person’s Sacred Duty”, 85% of respondents still generally agreed, but when the same group was asked to mark other personal sacrifices made for the benefit of the country, the

13 responses tended to be markedly less enthusiastic. Most peasant youths, for example, were only concerned about politics if it directly infringed on the personal livelihood of their families. On a survey conducted in a county in Shanxi province, only 10% of the peasant youths agreed with the famous motto of the Maoist period, that one should be a "rust-free screw" in the great machine of the state and serve the nation as needed (Marr and Stanley 1998). The ideals of

Chinese young people since the late 1980s are “less clear-cut, less altruistic and more self- centered than those of previous post- revolution generations” (Marr and Stanley 1998: 165).

However, rather than using phrases like individualism or 个人主义 gèrén zhǔyì, in a survey of students from the post-90s generation, they usually described their individualistic tendencies in terms of freedom or 自由 zìyóu (Moore 2005). Sometimes other phrasing was used, as when some participants referred to their inclination to act as they please or according to their own will or 随意 suíyì. Moore (2005: 373) writes about the survey:

“The strong focus on freedom is one measure of the individualism that this generation recognizes and appreciates. In some cases, the students’ phrasing suggests a degree of selfishness that borders on belligerence. One young woman, for example, wrote that she does everything for herself, while her parents do everything for their children. A young man wrote, “I have the spirit of rebellion”

2.2.2 Changing 三观 sānguān Three Outlooks—world, life, value

A mounting focus on the individual also denotes an overall change in values held by the post-90s generation. Moore (2005) looked at the emergence of a word kù (酷) in the 1990s and used it to explore the ways in which the values of Chinese youth have changed. In his survey of the word, he found that most respondents viewed the term as being derived from the American slang “cool,” and that, when asked about its meaning, most say that was equivalent to the

English word ‘cool’. Slang such as kù can serve as a marker for those wishing to “signal identity within a social milieu, particularly one associated with a distinct value complex” (Moore 2005:

14 359). Slang such as kù emerges when members of a new generation desire to signal their commitment to a set of values and attitudes as a means of distinguishing them from their parents’ generation. For China’s 90s generation, the value in question is the positive view toward a new kind of individualism represented by kù (Moore 2005).

Behind individualism, “run-away materialism is one of the defining features of the rapidly changing culture and society in China since the 1990s” (Yan 2015: 325). The embrace of the market economy has led an embrace of consumerism and all its promises. The government appears to have quite willingly sacrificed many of its former socialist ideals and allowed citizens to make money and enjoy life in return for their tacit acceptance of the political status quo. The get-rich-quick mentality is widespread. Public opinion polls in China demonstrate that one of the most popular slogans among the younger generation is “Money isn’t everything, but without money you can’t do anything” or qián bùshì wànnéng de, méiyǒu qián shì wàn wàn bùnéng de

(钱不是万能的，没有钱是万万不能的) (Marr and Stanley 1998). This consumerism refigures relationships and self-identities from the ground up (Chen 2001).

It is just such a reconfiguration of relationships that this thesis intends to examine. The socio-cultural, political and economic changes in China since the 1980s have transformed the behaviors and attitudes of this post-90s generation. The central aim here is to look at how the post-90s generation differs from previous generations in terms of its social interactions, specifically those related to establishing and maintaining new relationships. Chapter 3 will analyze a study done to determine what differences have arisen between the post-90s generation and previous ones.

15 Chapter 3 Surveying Four Types of Negotiating Behaviors

3.1 Introduction

The goal of this study is two-pronged. Firstly, to explore behaviors Chinese people undertake to establish guanxi with their acquaintances. Secondly, to explore the implication this behavior has for Chinese Pedagogical practices. To that end, a survey consisting of a questionnaire was made available online to speakers of Chinese from Mainland China. This survey was designed to study the ways in which the participants would choose to undertake various tasks in order to build guanxi. Methods and procedure are discussed below in Section

3.2. Subject information is in Section 3.3, results are in section 3.4 and major findings are explored in section 3.5.

3.2 Methodology

3.2.1 Rationale

In order to look at how Chinese guanxi culture is evolving on the Mainland, it is necessary to have a comparison between the younger generation and the generations preceding it.

An online survey was created with the express purpose of reaching different groups of people across Mainland China. The survey went through many drafts, adding and amending sections based on written input and suggestions coming from people from different generational groups.

After this, the research protocol was finalized and submitted to the Ohio State Institutional

Review Board, which granted an exemption. The survey was then made available online during the summer of 2019 and data was collected. After collection was complete the data compiled and analyzed. In order to examine a possible generational change in culture; where applicable, the data was analyzed by age group, with the participants being split into three different age groups,

Group A, B and C. Further information about the grouping of subjects will be detailed in Section

16 3.3.

3.2.2 Design

The online survey begins with a few questions regarding the subject’s gender, age and educational background. After this, the participants are asked to read through a total of 11 scenarios, one at a time. In each scenario they are presented with a setting as well as a social task that needs to be accomplished with another person. These tasks are mostly designed with the assumption that the other party is an acquaintance. Possible means to accomplish the task are provided below the description of the settings. A fill-in-the-blank box is also provided at the bottom if participants believe none of the choices represent the manner in which they would accomplish the stated task. Some scenarios allow for the participant to select any number of possible courses of action while some only permit one possible answer be chosen.

The scenarios were selected with the goal of choosing actions which would best demonstrate social interactions that arise often when one is just beginning to establish a relationship. These are critical moments which, if poorly handled, can lead to the dissolution of this fragile, new relationship. These scenarios included: greetings, extending invitations, complimenting and being complimented, and negotiating differences (see Table 1).

17 Question Number Scenarios

Question 1 Greeting an acquaintance

Question 2-1 Extending and turning down invitations

Question 2-2

Question 2-3

Question 3-1 Receiving compliments

Question 4-1 Negotiating differences as well as reconciling after a misunderstanding Question 4-2

Table 1 Scenarios from questionnaires that are discussed in this thesis

All scenarios set up a social interaction wherein the participant must accomplish a task.

The other participant in said social interaction is defined as a person with whom they do not have a strong relationship. These are all common social interactions that might occur during the beginning of a relationship with a new acquaintance. The possible courses of action to take in response to the required task vary according to each of the 11 scenarios. The courses of action were compiled based on the recommendations of students from Tangshan University in Northern

China as well as ideas supplied by participants during the initial run of the survey.

3.2.3 The Pilot Study

The questionnaire used in this study went through a number of revisions. The original versions were used in the pilot study and the finalized version was used in the main study. The original versions were piloted by over 50 members of the Suzhou community during the summer of 2019. In the initial versions there were a number of participants who wrote in their own answers in the fill-in-the-blank portions. If we noticed that a number of participants supplied the same original answer, we added it to the final questionnaire as a possible choice of action. For

18 example, in Question 3-1 the participant is asked how he or she would respond to receiving a compliment. A number of participants supplied some form of ‘多谢夸奖，你也很好啊’ duōxiè kuājiǎng, nǐ yě hěn hǎo a meaning ‘Thanks so much. You’re also really great.’ This answer was then added as one of the options in the final form of the survey. In addition, in the pilot study some participants experienced some confusion over which questions allowed multiple answers and which did not. After much observation and discussion, it was determined that questions involving greeting and complimenting others allow multiple answers, as it is useful to know which of the many listed courses of actions are viewed by the participants as appropriate. For the questions involving negotiating differences as well as receiving compliments and turning down initiations, only one answer was accepted, as we wanted to see which course of action participants believed would be the most suitable.

3.3 Subjects

The link for the online survey was sent to various Chinese acquaintances living in

Mainland China. They then shared the link to their own circle of friends, family and acquaintances and in this way the survey was accessed by people from all different parts of

Mainland China. The sample for this study consists of 151 participants. The ages of participants ranged from 18 to 57 years old. Throughout this study, the participants will be divided into three groups based on age. There are 58 participants in Group A (those 18 to 21), 72 participants in group B (those 22 to 29) and 21 participants in Group C (aged 30 to 57). The goal was to gather participants from across China in order to look at the behavior of Chinese people as a whole without skewing toward the behavior of one type of group.

The decision on how to divide the participants into comes after much thought and consideration about the ultimate goal of this study. This survey’s goal is to provide data

19 concerning trends in the guanxi culture of China’s post-90s generation. This requires that all participants too old to be considered part of this generation be separated and analyzed separately.

Now, this results in the ages of group C (composed of those born before 1989) spanning a range of 27 years. However, this is not problematic as the goal of this study is not to piece out behavior patterns of the generations born before 1990; rather, the aim is to study how this new post-90s generation differs from all its predecessors. Thus, there is a the separation of all those born before the generation cutoff. Group A and B, then, are both made up of participants who were born after 1989, with A taking the younger half (those aged 18 to 21) and Group B taking the older half (those aged 22 to 29). This makes them part of the post-90s generation as they were all born roughly between 1990 and the turn of the century. Despite being part of the same generation, it was decided that the trends and behavioral patterns of their generation could best be studied by separating them into an older group and a younger group. This way it is easier to observe whether patterns are consistently held throughout the generation or if it is only the older group that is exhibiting said behavior. If a trend is observed in Group B, for example, and appears even stronger in Group A, then we can assume that this behavior is growing stronger and will only continue to grow in popularity among younger Chinese people. Those are the types of enduring trends that can change the face of Chinese society. It is preciously those emerging, enduring patterns of behavior that this thesis hopes to identify. Tables 2, 3 and 4 provide further details on the breakdown of ages for the 151 participants.

20 GROUP A

AGE 18 19 20 21

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS 4 12 20 22

Table 2 Breakdown of ages in Group A

GROUP B

AGE 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

NUMBER OF 23 14 10 10 5 4 3 3 PARTICIPANTS

Table 3 Breakdown of ages in Group B

GROUP C

AGE 30 31 32 34 35 36 37 38 40 44 48 52 54 57

NUMBER OF 1 2 3 1 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 PARTICIPANTS

Table 4 Breakdown of ages in Group C

Table 5 provide the gender breakdown of the participants based on each of the three groups.

GENDER

Female Male Other

GROUP A (N= 58) 55 (95%) 3 (5%) 0 (0%)

GROUP B (N= 72) 53 (74%) 18 (25%) 1 (1%)

GROUP C (N= 21) 14 (67%) 5 (24%) 2 (9%)

TOTAL (N= 151) 122 (81%) 26 (17%) 3 (2%)

Table 5 Gender breakdown of participants

Finally, Figure 1 provides the education attainment of the participants.

Educational Attainment by group

9 POSTGRADUATE DEGREE 14 0 9 BACHELOR'S DEGREE 43 48 1 THREE-YEAR COLLEGE 8 5 0 HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA 2 5 2 LESS THAN A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA 2 0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Group C Group B Group A

Figure 1 Educational attainment of participants by group

3.4 Results

3.4.1 Question 1. Greeting an Acquaintance

Question 1 describes a scenario where the participant is heading to work and bumps into an acquaintance, named ‘Mingcong Wang’ on the way. The participant is then given a number of possible options for greeting this acquaintance and told to select all that apply. Below are the options as well as the translations:

(1) Response options for Question 1. Greeting an Acquaintance.

A. 我赶时间，先走了 (wǒ gǎn shíjiān, xiān zǒule) I’m in a bit of rush. I’m gonna head out

B. 吃了吗？（吃饭了吗？）chīle ma? (chīfànle ma?) Have you eaten?

22 C. 嘿！ hēi! Hey!

D. Hello （Hi） Hello (Hi)

E. 你好！ nǐ hǎo! Hello!

F. 干啥去？ gàn shà qù? What are you up to?

G. 你怎么样？ nǐ zěnme yàng? How’re you doing?

H. 早上好！ zǎoshang hǎo! Good morning!

I. 上班去呀？ shàngbān qù ya? You heading to work?

J. 王明聪！ wáng míngcōng! Mingcong Wang!

K. 早！ zǎo! Morning!

L. 其他： qítā: Other (participants have a blank space where they may contribute their own answer

. 3.4.1.1 Results

Table 6 shows how Groups A, B and C responded to this question. Forty-four (75.9%) of participants from Group A selected ‘Hello’ as their answer, while only 3 (5.2%) chose Option E

‘你好’ (Hello). In the next oldest group, Group B, 39 (50%) of the participants aged selected

‘Hello’ as a possible answer to this question, while only 9 (12.5%) selected ‘你好’ (Hello). Here we still see a strong preference for the English greeting, though not as strong as in the youngest age group. In Group C, the number is equal, with 8 (38%) people selecting ‘hello’ and 8 (38%) selecting ‘你好’ (Hello).

23 Responses Question 1. Greeting an Acquaintance Group A Group B Group C Response Options (N= 58) (N = 72) (N = 21) A. I’m in a bit of rush. I’m gonna head out 0 (%) 1 (1.4%) 0 (%) 我赶时间，先走了 B. Have you eaten? 4 (6.9%) 10 (13.9%) 2 (9.5%) 吃了吗？（吃饭了吗？） C. Hey!| 20 (34.5%) 24 (33.3%) 4 (19%) 嘿！ D. Hello （Hi） 44 (75.9%) 36 (50%) 8 (38%) (in English) E. Hello 3 (5.2%) 9 (12.5%) 8 (38%) 你好！ F. What are you up to? 18 (31%) 19 (26.4%) 4 (19%) 干啥去？ G. How’re you doing? 0 (0%) 5 (6.9%) 4 (19%) 你怎么样？ H. Good morning! 12 (20.7%) 8 (11.1%) 9 (42.9%) 早上好！ I. You heading to work? 8 (13.8%) 12 (16.7%) 7 (33.3%) 班去呀？ J. Mingcong Wang! 9 (15.5%) 7 (9.7%) 1 (4.8%) 王明聪！ K. Morning! 13 (22.4%) 14 (19.4%) 6 (28.6%) 早！ Table 6 Question 1. Greeting an Acquaintance

When the youngest group (Group A) is further examined, one notes a clear preference for the use of the English greeting “Hello” as age decreases from age 21 to age 18. Sixteen (69.6%) of participants aged 21 selected “Hello” as one of the greeting strategies they might employ. The percentage of participants who select “hello” continues to increase as age decreases. The group

(18-year-olds) is, unfortunately, very small. It contains a total of four members. However, all four of them did select “Hello” as a greeting. Figure 2 demonstrates how the percentage of people selecting “Hello” as a greeting increases as age decreases.

24 Popularity of "Hello" as a greeting by age

72.7

83.3

100

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Percentage of Each Age Group 21 20 19 18

Figure 2 Question 1. Popularity of “Hello” as a greeting by age

3.4.2 Question 2. Invitation and responding to an invitation

The questions in this section all deal with scenarios wherein the participant is asked to extend or reject an invitation. Once again, the social interaction involves an ‘acquaintance’. In certain questions, the acquaintance is described as being ‘of the same gender’ as they are in situations where it is expected participants might act differently depending on the gender of the acquaintance. In other situations, the gender is not mentioned. Question 2-1 describes a scenario where the participant needs to invite an acquaintance out for a drink. Each participant is asked to choose the single-most suitable course of action. Options D and E, while identical in English, are different in Chinese in that D does not contain any subject pronoun. This is grammatically acceptable in Chinese but not in English. Options B and G follow the same pattern, except that B has eliminated the subject pronoun.

(2) Response options for Question 2-1. Extending a drink invitation

A. 我请你去喝饮料吧！ (wǒ qǐng nǐ qù hē yǐnliào ba!) Let me treat you to a drink!

B. 要不要一起去喝点东西？ (yào bùyào yīqǐ qù hē diǎn dōngxī?!) wanna grab something to drink together?

C. 我正好要去喝杯咖啡，你想一起去吗？ (wǒ zhènghǎo yào qù hē bēi kāfēi, nǐ xiǎng yīqǐ qù ma?) I was just going to get coffee. Would you like to come?

D. 想不想一起去喝点东西？ (xiǎng bùxiǎng yīqǐ qù hē diǎn dōngxī?) Would (you) like to get something to drink together?

E. 你想不想一起去喝点东西？ (nǐ xiǎng bùxiǎng yīqǐ qù hē diǎn dōngxī?) Would you like to get something to drink together?

F. 我正好要去喝杯咖啡，一起去吧！ (wǒ zhènghǎo yào qù hē bēi kāfēi, yīqǐ qù ba!) I was just going to get coffee. Come with me!

G. 你要不要一起去喝点东西？ (nǐ yào bùyào yīqǐ qù hē diǎn dōngxī?) You wanna grab something to drink together?

H. 其他： qítā: Other (participants have a blank space where they may contribute their own answer

Question 2-2 asks participants to choose the way in which they would invite an acquaintance of the same gender over to their house for a meal. Option F was specifically designed to be a direct English to Chinese translation of the phrase ‘You should come over’. In

English, this is considered a type of friendly invitation but in Chinese this phrase, while grammatically correct, is not typically employed as an invitation.

(3) Response options for Question 2-2. Extending a meal invitation

A. 最近你帮我太多了，我想请你到家里吃饭 (zuìjìn nǐ bāng wǒ tài duōle, wǒ xiǎng qǐng nǐ dào jiālǐ chīfàn) Recently you’ve helped me so much. I’d like to invite you over to my house for a meal

B. 周六要不来我家吃个饭? (zhōu liù yào bù lái wǒjiā chī gè fàn?)

26 How about coming to my place to eat this Saturday?

C. 周六到家里吃饭吧 (zhōu liù dào jiālǐ chīfàn ba) Come eat at my house Saturday

D. 周六要不要来我家吃饭？(zhōu liù yào bùyào lái wǒjiā chīfàn?) wanna come eat at my place this Saturday?

E. 周六晚上有空吗？要不来家里聚聚？ zhōuliù wǎnshàng yǒu kòng ma? yào bù lái jiālǐ jùjù?) You free Saturday? How about coming to hang out at my place?

F. 周六晚上你应该来我家 (Zhōuliù wǎnshàng nǐ yīnggāi lái wǒjiā) You should come to my place Saturday night

G. 其他：qítā: Other (participants have a blank space where they may contribute their own answer

Question 2-3 describes a scenario where the participant needs to reject an acquaintance’s invitation.

(4) Response options for Question 2-3. Refusing an invitation

A. 不好意思，我现在在处理一些事情，可能没有办法去 (bù hǎoyìsi, wǒ xiànzài zài chǔlǐ yīxiē shìqíng, kěnéng méiyǒu bànfǎ qù) I’m sorry, I’m taking care of a few things. I might not be able to go

B. 不好意色，我家里有一点事 (bù hǎoyì sè, wǒ jiā li yǒu yīdiǎn shì) I’m sorry, I’ve got some things going on at home

C. 我家里有一点事 (wǒ jiā li yǒu yīdiǎn shì) I’ve got some things going on at home

D. 抱歉，我最近工作太累了 (bàoqiàn, wǒ zuìjìn gōngzuò tài lèile) I’m really sorry, I’ve just been too tired from work

E. 我家里有一点事，没有办法去 (wǒ jiā li yǒu yīdiǎn shì, méiyǒu bànfǎ qù) I’ve got some things going on at home. I can’t go.

F. 我身体不舒服，可能没有办法去 (wǒ shēntǐ bú shūfú, kěnéng méiyǒu bànfǎ qù) I haven’t been feeling great. I might not be able to go

27 G. 其他: qítā: Other (participants have a blank space where they may contribute their own answer

3.4.2.1 Results

Table 7 shows how Groups A, B and C responded to Question 2-1. One trend across the age groups is that as age increases, selection of option B ‘要不要一起喝一点东西’ (wanna grab something to drink together?) decreases. In its place, option C 我正好要去喝杯咖啡，你想一

起去吗？ (I was just going to get coffee. Would you like to come?) becomes more and more popular with age. 24 (41.4%) of Group A selected B as their answer, while only 7 (12.1%) chose

Option C. In Group B, the second oldest group, 29 (40.8%) of the participants aged selected B as a possible answer to this question, while 10 or 14.1% selected Option C. Here we still see that while B is still the preferred answer, option C gains in popularity. In group C, the preference for

Option C surpasses Option B, with 4 (19%) people selecting option B and 5 (23%) selecting C.

28 Responses Question 2-1. Extending a drink invitation Group A Group B Group C Response Options (N= 58) (N = 72) (N = 21) A. Let me treat you to a drink! 5 (8.6%) 6 (8.5%) 3 (14.3%) 我请你去喝饮料吧！ B. Wanna grab something to drink together? 24 (41.4%) 29 (40.8%) 4 (19%) 要不要一起去喝点东西？ C. I was just going to get coffee. Would you 7 (12.1%) 10 (14.1%) 5 (23%) like to come? 我正好要去喝杯咖啡，你想一起去吗？ D. Would (you) like to get something to drink 6 (10.3%) 7 (9.9%) 1 (4.8%) together? 想不想一起去喝点东西？ E. Would you like to get something to drink 5 (8.6%) 4 (5.6%) 2 (9.5%) together? 你想不想一起去喝点东西？ F. I was just going to get coffee. Come with 1 (6.3%) 2 (2.8%) 4 (19%) me! 我正好要去喝杯咖啡，一起去吧！ G. You wanna grab something to drink 2 (3.4%) 7 (9.9%) 1 (4.8%) together? 你要不要一起去喝点东西？ Table 7 Question 2-1. Extending a drink invitation

Table 8 compares four options that can be considered two pairs: B and G are the same response except for G has the addition of the second person pronoun ‘你’ ‘nǐ’ (you). D and E are all identical but for the fact that E has the addition of the second person pronoun. Table 8 demonstrates that for the majority of the participants, selecting the option without the second person pronoun is more common. In the choice between option B or G, participants showed a strong preference for the option without the pronoun. In the choice between D and E, however, the option is much slighter. This will be discussed further in Section 4.3.

29 Question 2-1. Preference participants who selected participants who selected for the second person either B or G（你）要不 either D or E (你) 想不想 pronoun 要一起去喝点东西？一起去喝点东西？ (N=72) (N=25)

Including second person 15 (20.9%) 11 (44%) pronoun ‘你’ ‘nǐ’

Excluding second person 57 (79%) 14 (56%) pronoun ‘你’ ‘nǐ’

Table 8 Question 2-1. Preference for the second person pronoun

Table 9 shows the results for Question 2-2. For both the younger groups A and B, option

E is the most popular choice, followed by option B and finally option A. With the oldest age group, E is still the most popular choice with 47.6% of participants selecting it. However, option

A surpasses option B to become the second most popular choice with 23.8% of participants selecting it. Option B was only chosen by 9.5% of participants in Group C. This is a substantial difference from Groups A and B, who had 25.9% and 19.7% respectively of their participants selecting option B.

30 Responses Question 2-2. Extending a meal invitation Group A Group B Group C Response Options (N= 58) (N = 72) (N = 21) A. Recently you’ve helped me so much. I’d 12 (20.7%) 11 (15.5%) 5 (23.8%) like to invite you over to my house for a meal 最近你帮我太多了，我想请你到家里吃饭 B. How about coming to my place to eat this 15 (25.9%) 14 (19.7%) 2 (9.5%) Saturday? 周六要不来我家吃个饭? C. Come eat at my house Saturday 4 (6.9%) 8 (11.3%) 1 (4.8%) 周六到家里吃饭吧 D. Wanna come eat at my place this Saturday? 5 (8.6%) 9 (12.7%) 2 (9.5%) 周六要不要来我家吃饭？ E. You free Saturday? How about coming to 19 (32.8%) 28 (39.4%) 10 (47.6%) hang out at my place? 周六晚上有空吗？要不来家里聚聚？ F. You should come to my place Saturday 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) night 周六晚上你应该来我家 Table 9 Question 2-2. Extending a meal invitation

Table 10 analyzes what are the strategies that participants employed to refuse an invitation in

Question 2-3. The types of courses of action are divided into two types (1 and 2) based on whether the option selected includes an expression of regret. On the questionnaire, options A, B and D all include an expression of regret while options C, E and F do not.

Question 2-3. Refusing an Invitation Responses

Strategies Employed Group A Group B Group C (N= 58) (N = 72) (N = 21)

1. Using an expression of regret (不好意思 45 (77.6%) 63 (87.5%) 14 (66.6%) bùhǎoyìsi or 抱歉 bàoqiàn) 2. Not using an expression of regret 12 (20.7%) 6 (8.3%) 6 (28.6%) Table 10 Question 2-3. Refusing an Invitation

31 3.4.3 Question 3. Receiving Compliments

The question in this section deals with a scenario wherein the participant is asked to respond to a compliment. Once again, the social interaction involves an ‘acquaintance’. Question 3 describes a scenario where the participant received a compliment from said acquaintance. The participant is asked to choose the one response that is most suitable. The 8 listed options can be grouped into three basic compliment response (CR hereafter) strategies: (1) Accept the compliment, (2) evade or deflect the compliment and (3) reject the compliment. Accepting the compliment means that the participant chooses an option wherein the participant acknowledges that the contents of the compliment are true or at least does not deny them. Evading or deflecting the compliment is the course taken when there is a balance between the need to agree with the complimenter and the need to avoid self-praise. Rejecting the compliment means the participant choses a choice of action that involves denying the contents of the compliment. Options A, and

D, E, F, G and H all fall into the first category. Option G is in the second category. Options B and C make up the third.

(5) Response options for Question 3. Responding to a compliment

A. 谢谢 (xièxiè) Thank you

B. 没有，没有 (méiyǒu，méiyǒu） Oh no, no

C. 哪里，哪里 (nǎlǐ, nǎlǐ) Definitely not

D. 必须的 (bìxū de) Of course

E. 你也很好啊（nǐ yě hěn hǎo a） You’re pretty great too

F. 谢谢，你太会夸人了（xièxiè, nǐ tài huì kuā rénle） Thanks, you’re really kind

G. 托。。。的福（tuō.... de fú） It’s all thanks to…….

H. 多谢夸奖，你也很好啊（duōxiè kuājiǎng, nǐ yě hěn hǎo a） That’s so kind. You’re all pretty great too

I. 其他：qítā: Other (fill in the blank)

3.4.3.1 Results

Table 11 demonstrates the number of participants in each age group whose answers reflect one of the three different CR strategies. For all three age groups, the number of people choosing to accept the compliment, evade/deflect the compliment, or reject the compliment are grouped below. Options A, D, E, F, and H are all considered forms of acceptance, option G is an evasion strategy and options B and C is a means to reject the compliment.

Question 3. Responding to a Compliment Responses

CR strategies Group A Group B Group C (N= 58) (N = 72) (N = 21)

1. Accept 35 (60.3%) 49 (68%) 17 (81%) (Options A, D, E, F & H) 2. Evade/deflect 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) (Option G ) 2. Reject 21 (36.2%) 17 (23.6%) 3 (14%) (Options B & C) Table 11 Question 3. Responding to a Compliment

3.4.4 Question 4. Negotiating differences and reconciling after a misunderstanding

The questions in this section all deal with scenarios wherein the participant is asked to negotiate differences or to reconcile after a misunderstanding. Once again, the social interactions all involve acquaintances. Question 4-1 describes a scenario wherein the participant hears that a

33 friendly acquaintance —someone they are on good terms with—was complaining that they weren’t extended a meal invitation on a previous occasion. The participant is told they had a specific reason for not inviting said acquaintance. The participant must then decide what course of action to take in handling this new information. The different courses of action can be separated into three distinct strategies for analysis. They are 1) let the issue play out by itself, 2) discuss issue with other party and 3) extend a meal invitation and 4) address the issue and extend a meal invitation. Option A falls into the first category, option B and C are the second, option D is the third and E combines both the second and third strategy which makes it a part of the fourth strategy.

(6) Response options for Question 4-1. Handling a misunderstanding

A. 什么都不说 (shénme dōu bù shuō) don’t say anything

B. 问 ta 有没有生自己的气 (wèn ta yǒu méiyǒu shēng zìjǐ de qì) ask the acquaintance whether he or she is upset

C. 再之后的谈话中解释自己上次不请 ta 的原因 (zài zhīhòu de tánhuà zhōng jiěshì zìjǐ shàng cì bù qǐng ta de yuányīn) In a later conversation explain why the acquaintance wasn’t invited

D. 邀请 ta 吃一次饭 (yāoqǐng ta chī yīcì fàn) Ask the acquaintance out to eat

E. 再之后的谈话中解释自己上次不请 ta 的原因，然后再邀请 ta 吃一次饭 (zài zhīhòu de tánhuà zhōng jiěshì zìjǐ shàng cì bù qǐng ta de yuányīn, ránhòu zài yāoqǐng ta chī yīcì fàn) In a later conversation explain why the acquaintance wasn’t invited, then ask him or her out to eat

F. 其他：qítā: Other (fill in the blank)

Question 4-2 is meant as a follow-up question to Question 4-1. It describes a situation wherein a participant has a misunderstanding with a friend. They are told they invite the friend

34 out for a meal as a way to reconcile. The participant must decide on whether they will address the conflict during the meal and, if so, how they would do it.

(7) Response options for Question 4-2. Addressing conflict with a meal invitation

A. 在邀请的时候，说出原因 (zài yāoqǐng de shíhòu, shuō chū yuányīn) While extending the invitation, mention the reason.

B. 大家都高兴了，没必要说出原因 (dàjiā dōu gāoxìngle, méi bìyào shuō chū yuányīn) Everybody has a good time together so there’s no need to mention the reason

C. 在吃饭的过程中，双方都高兴的情况下，说出原因 (zài chīfàn de guòchéng zhōng, shuāngfāng dōu gāoxìng de qíngkuàng xià, shuō chū yuányīn) While everybody’s eating and all parties are having a good time, mention the reason

D. 饭后说出原因 (fàn hòu shuō chū yuányīn) After eating the meal mention the reason

E. 其他：qítā: Other (fill in the blank)

3.4.4.1 Results

Table 12 shows the results for Question 4-1. For all age groups, the most common course of action is to explain the reason said acquaintance wasn’t invited and then extend a meal invitation as a way to reconcile. However, both groups A and B show a slightly higher preference for a strategy that involves discussing the issue without extending a meal invitation. On the questionnaire, 17.2% of Group A and 29.2% of Group B selected this option while only 9.6% of

Group C made the same choice. For all age groups, only a single person believed the best course of action was option A: letting the situation play out without addressing it.

35 Question 4-1. Handling a misunderstanding Responses

Strategies Employed Group A Group B Group C (N= 58) (N = 72) (N = 21) 1. Let the issue play out by itself 1 (1.7%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) (Option A) 2. Discuss issue with other party 10 (17.2%) 21 (29.2%) 2 (9.6%) (Options B and C) 3. Extend a meal invitation 5 (8.6%) 4 (5.6%) 1 (4.8%) (Option D) 4. Address the issue and extend a meal 42 (72.4%) 46 (63.9%) 17 (81%) invitation. (Option E) Table 12 Question 4-1. Handling a misunderstanding

Table 13 shows the results for Question 4-2. For all three age groups, the most common course of action is to wait until both parties are enjoying the meal before addressing the reason for the meal invitation. Very few people chose the option in which everybody is having a good time eating, hence, there is no need to directly address the reason for the invitation. Four participants from the Group A, four from Group B and two from Group C selected the option that avoids mentioning the conflict directly.

Question 4-2. Addressing conflict with a meal Responses invitation Group A Group B Group C Strategies Employed (N= 58) (N = 72) (N = 21) A. While extending the invitation, mention the 12 (21.1%) 16 (22.5%) 10 (25%) reason. 在邀请的时候，说出原因 B. Everybody has a good time together so 4 (7%) 4 (5.6%) 2 (5%) there’s no need to mention the reason 大家都高兴了，没必要说出原因 C. While everybody’s eating and all parties are 33 (57.9%) 46 (64.8%) 25 (62.5%) having a good time, mention the reason 在吃饭的过程中，双方都高兴的情况下，说出原因 D. After eating the meal mention the reason 8 (14%) 4 (5.6%) 2 (5%) 饭后说出原因 Table 13 Question 4-2. Addressing conflict with a meal invitation

36 In this chapter, four scenarios are presented. These four scenarios (greeting, extending and turning down invitations, receiving compliments, and negotiating differences) all are types of interactions one would encounter when establishing guanxi with a new acquaintance.

Participants’ responses represent what they believe to be recommendable strategies for approaching the tasks outlined in each of the four scenarios. These strategies can be analyzed with the hope of better understanding the negotiating strategies employed in Chinese culture.

37 Chapter 4 Four Types of Negotiating Strategies

Negotiation in its more general form is a way in which people interact socially with the goal of reaching an understanding. While it is commonly associated with the field of business, negotiation is a part of most people’s daily lives as they go about their day and encounter many different people. This thesis explores the ways in which Chinese people negotiate with acquaintances and work to build up their relationship. There are many specific types of interactions that can all be considered opportunities to employ an effective negotiation strategy.

This chapter will deal with four major types of interactions and analyze them separately. These types of interactions, or scenarios, will be analyzed a number of different ways, either with a focus on exploring how age groups differed in their responses or with a focus on comparing recent findings to previous studies.

4.1 Differences Among Age Groups

This section explores how the three different age groups (A, B and C) responded differently in each of the four types of scenarios presented in the questionnaire: greetings, extending and turning down invitations, receiving compliments and negotiating differences and reconciling after a misunderstanding. Through a comparison of the behavior of these different groups, one can observe how the two younger groups, those born after 1990, might contrast with those born earlier, thus indicating a potentially new trend in Chinese culture.

4.2 Greetings—creating familiarity between acquaintances

Liu (2016) describes greetings as “the exchange of expressions, pleasantries or good wishes between two people interacting for the purpose of fulfilling social obligations, or for the establishment of interpersonal relationships” (Liu 2016: 1). Greetings can be thought of as an

38 essential building block of a relationship, one that must be performed to establish and strengthen the bond between people. Liu (2016) examines some basic strategies used by Chinese to greet people and finds that, compared to the English, Chinese people tend to choose greetings that are more situational and less dependent on formulaic greetings (Liu 2016). This means that rather than use the same standard greetings in any situation, Chinese people prefer to “take their subject matter from the circumstances of a particular greeting” (Liu 2016: 2343).

Liu also found that questions such as “Have you eaten?”, “Where are you going?” and

“What are you busy with?” are much more frequently used by Chinese participants than English participants. Liu theorizes that these kinds of questions might be viewed as impolite according to

English cultural norms since they reflect what might be considered a certain imposition on one’s private affairs. This stems from the emphasis that Western culture places on individual rights, which leads one to view certain information as private and not something to be asked about by an acquaintance. On the other hand, collectivism, rather than individualism, is considered to be at the core of Chinese culture. Collectivism is a cultural pattern “consisting of closely linked individuals who see themselves as part of their collectives and give priority to group goals over their own personal goals” (Liu 2016: 2346). This is why questions such as ‘Have you eaten?” and ‘what are you going?’ and ‘how much money do you make?’ can be asked in China at an earlier stage in a relationship than is common in Western culture.

Liu’s study also looked at how Chinese people viewed politeness in greetings. Table 14 shows how her Chinese participants scored certain greetings, with the lowest scores representing the politest greetings. We can see a simple ‘morning’ or ‘hey!’ are viewed as far less polite than using someone’s full name in the greeting.

39 Chinese Expressions Scores

李先生，您早！ (lǐ xiānshēng, nín zǎo!) 1.25

Good morning, Mr. Li

李先生，早啊！ (lǐ xiānshēng, zǎo a!) 2.54

Mr. Li, Morning a3!

李先生，早！(lǐ xiānshēng, zǎo!) 2.82

您早！ (nín zǎo!) 2.95

早啊！ (zǎo a!) 3.43

早！ (zǎo) 3.65

嘿，李先生！ (hēi, lǐ xiānshēng! 3.70

李先生！ (Lǐ xiānshēng!) 4.83

嘿！（Hēi！） 4.98

Table 14 Politeness Scores of Specified Chinese Greeting Expression from Liu (2016: 2344)

Liu’s study presents a wonderful framework with which to study the changes in greeting styles between the older group (Group C) and the two younger ones (A and B) in this study. In this study, when selecting a manner with which to greet an acquaintance on the way to work,

42.9% of participants from Group C chose “good morning” zǎoshang hǎo (早上好). Selecting this form of greeting indicates that participants are taking the time of day into account when choosing their greeting. The two younger generational Groups A and B do not show the same preference for picking a specific morning greeting. Only 11.1% of Group B and 20.7% of group

A selected this greeting. Zǎo or simply ‘morning’, a more casual form of ‘good morning’, was also more frequently selected by Group C, the older group, with 28.6% of participants selecting it. In contrast, only 19.4% of Group B and 22.4% of Group A chose zǎo.

3 ‘a’ is a sentence-final particle used for softening

40 The second strategy Liu (2016) mentions is that of using questions such as “have you eaten?” or “where are you going?” as greetings. This study found that in all three groups there are participants that demonstrate a preference for this strategy of asking a question to greet an acquaintance. However, the preferred question changed in accordance with age. The oldest group, Group C, tended to select ‘are you going to work?” as their preferred question, with

33.3% of participants selecting this greeting. In the two younger Groups A and B, “Are you going to work?” was only selected by 13.8% and 16.7% of participants respectively. Given that members of Group A were still quite young (aged 18 to 21) this is unsurprising as perhaps most of them have not entered the workforce yet. However, the participants in Group B are aged 22 to

29 so it is noteworthy that, while they are more likely to be employed, the majority still do not choose this option. Rather, ‘What are you up to?’ was selected by at higher percentage of both groups, 31% and 26.4% respectively. The question “What are you up to?” is a slightly more informal as well as a more vague question. ‘Are you going to work?’ references the fact that the situation was described as ‘in the morning on the way to work’ whereas the younger generation’s preference for ‘where are you going?’ could be used at any time of day. Finally, and more interestingly, ‘hello’ was the number one greeting selected by both Groups A and B. This not only demonstrates a move away from both the Chinese strategies of asking questions as well as making greetings situation and time specific, but it also represents a clear foreign influence in this most basic and important cultural ritual.

4.3 Extending and responding to invitations—creating social situations for further interactions

The more interesting finding in the inviting style of our participants is related to pronoun usage. Pronoun usages in Mandarin differ notably from that in English. Seah (2013) notes

41 languages which drop pronouns are associated with cultures that are viewed as more collectivistic. This is consistent with this study, which looks at two different pairs of invitational questions. The first pair is options B and G, which read “要不要一起去喝点东西？” meaning

‘wanna grab something to drink together?’ and “你要不要一起去喝点东西？” which asks the exact same question with the addition of the second person pronoun 你 (nǐ). The second pair is options D and E, both of which are also identical using the phrase ‘想不想一起去喝点东西？’

‘Would (you) like to get something to drink together?’. The only minor difference comes in the form of the addition of the second person pronoun 你 nǐ to option E. This study found that for both types of questions, the most common form selected was the one without the second person pronoun. Of the 72 people who selected to use the phrase ‘wanna grab a drink together?’, 79% of them chose the question that does not include the second person pronoun. For the question

“would you like to get something to drink together?’, 56% of participants chose the option without the pronoun. This finding is also interesting in that it disproves the notion that xiǎng

(想) is never used in Chinese to extend an invitation to someone. Xiǎng is a verb that is often translated into English as ‘would’ as in the question ‘Would you like something to drink?’. Due to this translation, it is often used by beginning learners of Chinese to extend invitations. Some have cast doubt on its authenticity in this context, believing that perhaps English speakers are being too literal with their translations. While this study does show that the yàobùyào (要不要) or ‘do you want’ construction is more common, there were still a number of participants who chose to extend an invitation using some form of xiǎng. Thus, xiǎng is still viewed by many as an excellent strategy to invite someone out for a drink.

Yang (2014) found two different types of refusals in Chinese culture. The first is a real refusal when the addressee wants to convey the meaning of ‘no’, either directly or indirectly. The

42 other type is a ritual refusal in which, while the addressee says ‘no’, either directly or indirectly, the addressee actually wishes to accept. In this thesis, the participant is asked to choose the most appropriate ‘real refusal’, as it is stated that the participant is not able to accept the invitation.

Yang (2014) discovered that the primary strategies for refusing invitations are using specific reasons, excuses or explanations. In addition, the social status of the inviter, as well as the social distance between the inviter and invitee, can affect the form that the strategy takes. For example, when someone is refusing an invitation from an acquaintance or someone of unequal status, statements of regret or appreciation tend to be employed. Between close friends, however, these types of statements are infrequent (Yang 2014).

This study supports the finding that it is more common to use a statement of regret when speaking with an acquaintance. The statements of regret provided as options for selection in

Question 2-3 were 不好意思 bùhǎoyìsi and 抱歉 bàoqiàn. The top two options chosen by each age group without fail were expressions that included the phrase bùhǎoyìsi. For all age groups, using an expression of regret is preferable to not including one when refusing an invitation. In addition, this is a tendency that does not appear to be losing popularity in the younger age groups.

4.4 Complimenting and responding to compliments—creating social assets for desirable engagements

Chen and Yang (2010) propose the following tripartite system to categorize Compliment

Response (hereafter: CR) strategies: Acceptance, Deflection/Evasion and Rejection. Yu (2003) describes acceptance strategies as responses such as ‘Thank you! I like it, too’. Simply put, the complimentee feels a social obligation to agree with the complimenter. Rejection is the route taken when the complimentee feels the need to avoid self-praise and is thus motivated to reject

43 the compliment. Deflection/Evasion is the course taken when there is a balance between the need to agree with the complimenter and the need to avoid self-praise. Chen and Yang (2010) summarizes many different scholars’ research by summarizing where different languages tend to fall on this acceptance to rejection continuum. Arabic, German and varieties of English tend toward acceptance. Persian and Thai are in the middle, preferring deflection/evasion strategies.

Japanese, Korean and, prior to Chen and Yang (2010)’s study, Chinese, was usually placed on the ‘rejection’ side of the continuum.

Chen and Yang (2010) carefully reviews research done on CR strategies in Chinese and succinctly organizes them into the following Table (Table 15).

SUBJECTS ACCEPTING (%) DFLECTG/EVDG (%) REJECTING (%)

CHEN (1993) Xi’an Chinese 1.03 3.41% 95.73

LOH (1993) HK Chinese in UK 41 Unavailable 22

YUAN (2002) DCT Kunming Chinese 50.28% 20.79% 28.93

YUAN (2002) NATURAL Kunming Chinese 31.26 34.76 33.98

YU (2004) Taiwanese Chinese 13 63 24

TANG AND ZHANG (2009) Chinese in Australia 48.82 36.66 14.55

Table 15 CR Strategies in Chinese (retyped from Chen and Yang (2010))

Chen and Yang (2010) points out the large discrepancies found in the different studies and resolves to discover whether this is indicating a change in the culture or if it is perhaps simply a difference in preferences between diverse ranges of subjects themselves. To this end,

Chen and Yang (2010) replicated the first author’s study, (Chen 1993), using the same location, the same instrument of data collection, and the same classification system. The survey was administered to 160 undergraduate students at the same site as the original from Chen (1993),

44 Xi’an International Studies University (XISU), in June 2008. Table 16 compares the results of

Chen and Yang (2010)’s study to the original study, with students’ answers being divided between the three strategies of accepting, deflecting/evading or rejecting.

Table 16 Comparison of two CR studies (reproduced from Chen and Yang (2010))

The difference between the results in the two studies is striking. Chen and Yang (2010) also compile data from a number of previous studies on CR strategies in China to observe a change in populations over time. The oldest study is Chen (1993) after which is Loh (1993), whose participants were Hong Kong Chinese in the United Kingdom. The two following studies are both by Yuan (2002). She observed CR strategies among Chinese people in Kunming. The first study came from the results of her Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and the second come from natural conversation. The next study, Yu (2004), was performed on Taiwanese participants.

Finally, Tang and Zhang (2009), was a study which observed Chinese people in Australia.

45 Table 17 compares Chen and Yang (2010)’s research (labeled ‘the current study’) with previous studies on Chinese CR strategies.

Table 17 Chinese CR strategies (reproduced from Chen and Yang (2010))

Chen goes on to postulate the possible reasons for this apparent drastic change in social norms. Mainland China was a closed society from 1949 until the early 1980s. Reform, when it began, started with the southeastern coastal cities and spread outward along the coast and northwards. This means that the undergraduates of Chen’s (1993) study, living in Xi’an and having grown up in the Mao era, were still living in a relatively closed-off society. These subjects probably still represented the traditional social values such as modesty that would have been expected of them at that time. In contrast, the subjects of this most recent study by Chen

(2010) were a product of a newly developed China. Their average age was 21, meaning they were born in the late 1980s and grew up in the 1990s. This puts that group in what would, for our study, be the oldest age group. This group, as well as the other two groups, all preferred the strategy of accepting a compliment over the other two strategies. The China of those born in the late 1980s and onwards witnessed a China unlike any had seen before. Reform brought with it economic growth along with business, tourism and technology. The relaxing of government control over media brought into the city new TV shows, films and music, much of which came from outside China.

46 A comparison of Yuan (2002) with Chen (1993) shows how much change can occur over a few years. Chen’s study was in 1993 with Yuan’s in 2002. This represents a difference of only

9 years; yet, the number of participants choosing to accept compliments blossoms to over 50%.

Yuan (2002) herself argues that societal changes in Kunming are the reason for her results differing from Chen (1993). Yuan (2002: 215) quotes one of her participants, who also expresses the opinion that culture has undergone a huge transition:

Well, the influence is rather big, indeed it’s big. Like there were some expressions in the past, right, for example, from Western civilizations, through all kinds of channels, their languages, have had great influence on people like us, people everywhere. For example, our say of compliment is totally different from that of people who are a few dozens of years older than we are. Their attitudes towards people have all kinds of impact, in fact. From things like video games, in all aspects, even a popular pet phrase, things like that, right, from Hong Kong and Taiwan movies, from the West, when you hear them, you’ll learn to say them.

Chen (2010) also contends that outside culture is influencing and changing this aspect of

Chinese culture. He describes the two main social impulses one feels after a compliment: the urge to protect one’s modesty by refusing, or the desire to agree with the complimenter by accepting. This second impulse is also accompanied by the tacit acknowledgement that the positive comment is true and thus the complimentee is also ‘good’ in some way. Such acknowledgement of a positive attribute in oneself, asserts Chen (2010), reflects self-confidence.

This then indicates that the more Chinese people accept compliments, the more they begin to put a high value on self-confidence. Is this perhaps a way in which Chinese culture has been influenced by the West? More research is needed to fully answer this question.

4.5 Negotiating differences and reconciling after a misunderstanding—working productively in diverse and dynamic contexts

Gao (1998) writes that Chinese people generally tend to regard confrontation as unpleasant and undesirable. Any direct confrontation or initiation of a dispute is considered an

47 invitation to luàn (乱; “chaos”) for Chinese. This chaos is to be avoided so as to preserve the harmonious fabric of personal relationships. One study asked Chinese people what they would do if they had a quarrel with a neighbor and received verbal abuse. More than half of Gao’s

Chinese respondents said they would exercise verbal control, and one third of them indicated that they would go to a neighborhood committee for settlement. In addition, more than 50% of

Chinese participants would prefer indirect approaches, such as “not say anything,” “ask the leader to mediate,” and “ask a third person” if they experienced a difference of opinion with someone in their work unit.

This study, however, found different results. When asked how Chinese participants would respond if they had a misunderstanding only 1 of the 151 respondents said they would

‘say nothing’. There was one response that was slightly more indirect in that it did not involve directly addressing the conflict: option D, “invite the other party out to eat”. This option was selected by a total of 10 (7%) of the respondents. The overwhelming majority of the participants, however, chose to directly address the conflict. The most common method of addressing the conflict is bringing it up in a future conversation and then inviting the party out to eat. The most direct strategy is option B, wherein the participant directly asked if the other party was upset.

This was only chosen by 2 participants, both members of the post-90s generation.

Zhongtian Yi, a Chinese writer of history, spoke about the importance of blood ties in

Chinese society, in contrast with the West which creates relationships through contracts and written agreements. He explains that when Chinese people wish to create intimacy with others with whom they have no blood ties, they work to form a pseudo-familial bond. The path to create this bond begins by inviting this non-relative to share a meal. He explains the importance of shared meals by explaining that a sibling relationship is defined as a (同吃的关系) tóng chī de

48 guānxì or a relationship where one shares food. Thus when on takes an outsider and invites them to share a familial meal together, this is a way to establish a closer relationship and establish this former outsider as a pseudo-blood relative.

But the question remains, is sharing a meal enough? Or should the conflict still be addressed directly in some way? Question 4-2 describes a situation wherein a misunderstanding has occurred, and the participants invites the other party to a meal to resolve the issue.

Participants were given different actions they could take to resolve the issue during the meal. The majority of participants from all age groups agreed that the reason for the conflict should be addressed in some way during the meal. All three groups overwhelmingly selected options that attempt to address the conflict; Group A with 53 (93%), Group B with 66 (92%) Group C with

37 (92.%). This indicates a potential trend away from a completely indirect approach in which the conflict is not acknowledged.

Of course, one downside to this survey is that there was not an option provided wherein participants could invite a third person to intermediate for them. It would be interesting to see how participants would have responded if there was an option for an approach using a third party.

4.6 Conclusion

This thesis has explored what strategies Chinese people use in four different types of scenarios involving acquaintances. The first scenario involves greeting an acquaintance on the way to work. One strategy employed took the form of asking a question of the other party, although the question recommended by the participants changed slightly based on the age of the participant. In addition, referencing the time of day was fairly popular as a form of greeting, especially among Group C (thirty years and older). However, the two younger Groups (A and B)

49 demonstrated a stronger preference for the English greeting “Hello” which does not indicate the time of day. The second scenario involved extending and rejecting invitations. In this scenario, the most common strategy for inviting an acquaintance involved using the verb yào（要） for

“want’” and omitting the second person pronoun nǐ（你）. When rejecting an invitation from an acquaintance, it was most common for speakers to recommend a strategy that included a statement of regret, such as bùhǎoyìsi（不好意思）or dàoqiàn (道歉). The third scenario involves accepting a compliment. The data from this study supports findings from other studies in that Chinese people, especially younger generations, are tending toward accepting compliments rather than rejecting them. Finally, the last scenario involved strategies for resolving a conflict. The majority of participants recommending some course of action that involved directly addressing the original cause of the conflict, rather than avoiding discussing the issue, as a way to resolve the conflict. Some of these strategies, such as employing expressions of reject or the verb yào, are common methods across generations. These do not demonstrate the evolution of new trends in Chinese behavior. Nonetheless, new trends can also be seen, as in the inclination to accept compliment or the use of the English greeting ‘hello’, represent new trends in Chinese culture. These new trends are especially worth noting because they are being employed by the younger post-90s generation. If this younger generation is employing new behavioral trends, then this could indicate a lasting shift in Chinese culture. If this is the case, then it is vital that Chinese language curriculum adapts to incorporate these new trends in behavior. The next chapter’s will be to explore the implications these findings have for Chinese

Pedagogy. The chapter will delve into a method for teaching Chinese that involves the creation of various sagas that help learners to practice and perform a foreign language. Chapter 5 will also

50 model how information about newly emerging behavioral trends can be incorporated into

Chinese language curriculum.

51 Chapter 5 Implications to the Pedagogy of CFL

5.1 The Relationship-Building Saga

A “saga” is defined as “a series of stories about a specific set of people or a specific location” (Walker and Noda 2000: 40). A Relationship-Building saga means a series of stories about groups of people who began as new acquaintances and the social interactions they exchange as their relationship grows. These stories can include, but are in no way limited to, the following interactions: greetings, making invitations, making and responding to compliments, negotiating differences and asking for favors.

5.1.1 The Importance of the Relationship-Building Saga

Walker and Noda (2000: 41) stress that “the value of a particular saga can be measured by the applicability of the content to successful communication in the target culture.” For any learners of Chinese, relationship-building is an essential skill. Their best opportunity to improve upon their Chinese is to develop relationships with native speakers and learn through culture exchange. This means that an understanding of how to build up the foundation of a good relationship is indispensable. If learners are not familiar with a culturally appropriate way to grow one’s friendship, then they will never develop those close relationships that are the key to further understanding of the target culture.

5.1.2 Current Practice in Relationship-Building in China

Chapter 3 of this thesis analyzes new findings related to how the post-90s generation in

China goes about performing various tasks with acquaintances. While some of the responses given by participants do not indicate a large divergence between generational groups, there are a few areas in which Groups A and B (the two younger groups) appear to prefer different strategies

52 than previous generations. For example, there is a preference for slightly less formal greetings, as discussed in section 3.5.2. In addition, the younger generation prefers to evade or deflect compliments from their peers as discussed in section 3.5.4. These findings related to this younger generation represent new trends in Chinese culture and are thus of vital importance to learners of

Chinese. They have been incorporated into the construction of the relationship-building saga to aid learners in their understanding of Chinese culture.

5.2 Constructing the Relationship-Building Saga

Being familiar with the stories that make up a saga is not enough. It is the knowledge as well as the ability to perform the story, that permits one to participate in this event (Walker and

Noda 2000). For the performance, a model is required, which serves as a pedagogical sample to furnish the target language with an appropriate and clearly defined setting. This model serves as an example that learners can imitate. Through the process of imitating, learners are thus able to acquire the habits and behaviors necessary for performing those types of interactions in future target culture settings. For the story aspect, there are a number of ways to incorporate this element. The instructor can demonstrate the model performance and help learners recognize the elements of the performance. The instructor can also introduce various in-class activities, such as role-play, simulations or improvisations, which can help students gain a better understanding of how to perform the different elements. The following section addresses how an instructor can develop material for the construction of a relationship-building saga.

According to performance-based pedagogy, the teaching materials should “support learners’ rehearsal and performance” (Zheng 2011: 94). Zheng, when developing material for a school saga, included the following three components in pedagogical materials: model

53 performance script, scaffolding drills, and contextualized exercises. Zheng 2011’s framework for saga material development is applied here to develop a relationship-building saga.

5.2.1 Model Performance Script

5.2.1.1 Selecting and Arranging of the Model Performance

There are many possible model performances that could make up a relationship-building saga; therefore, it is vital to establish criteria for selecting the most suitable ones. Zheng uses three criteria for the selection of model performances: authenticity, feasibility, and usefulness.

Authenticity refers to situation authenticity, or the likelihood that the performance will be encountered in the target culture, as well as script authenticity, “which refers to whether or to what degree the script of the performance reflects what native speakers of the target culture would actually say in the same given context” (Zheng 2011: 95). Feasibility addresses whether the model performance could reasonably be produced in most language classrooms. For example, the length of script, number of roles and intricacy of context must be considered

(Zheng 2011). Usefulness is measured by the degree to which a model performance appears to the learners to be teaching skills that will be practical and pertinent to their lives. In summary, any model performances must be true representations of target culture behavior that is not only practical to the learners’ daily lives but can also be replicated in a language classroom.

Walker and Noda (2000) propose two types of materials that can be employed as a performance: narrative or pedagogical materials designed for this aim. The narrative can be selected from available target-culture media that accurately describes relationship-building behavior in a reproducible manner. The pedagogical materials can either be chosen that demonstrates appropriate interactions between acquaintances, or the pedagogical materials can

54 be produced by the teachers themselves. The study materials need to be designed in such a way that they assist the compilation of a grand relationship-building saga of skills and behaviors that are introduced in order from simple to complex (Zheng 2011). In compiling materials, the level of Chinese language and culture skills of the intended audience needs to be considered as well.

5.2.1.2 Employing a Narrative as a Model Performance Script

According to Zheng (2011: 97), “The model performance script offers opportunities for language learners to observe and imitate the authentic language and culturally appropriate behaviors used among natives in a particular context in the target culture.” A performance-based curriculum asks language learners to memorize and practice performing the model script before class, and then come to class ready to perform the dialogue with their classmates.

When the students are presented with the model performance script, they must first be provided with a description of the context to facilitate their understanding and performance. The theory behind Performed Culture is that students are not learning a foreign language but rather, learning to do particular things in a foreign language (Walker and Noda 2000). This requires that students understand what social interaction they are participating in as well as the purpose of said social interaction. When providing a description of the context, the following five elements of performance must be specified: time, place, role, audience and script (Zheng 2011).

After the description of the context comes the script itself. Besides the language used, the cultural code, such as gestures and body language, used in the model performance should be indicated in the performance script (Zheng 2011). Pinyin romanization, the Chinese characters and the English translation can be provided to assist learners to understand the performance. The main script is followed by any cultural or linguistic notes that will help students understand and

55 review the script. The narrative chosen for this example performance script comes from the

Mainland TV show àiqíng gōngyù (爱情公寓)or Ipartment. Learners should be asked to view the performance in its original format (video) in order to contextualize the interaction in the appropriate cultural context. Both the description of the script’s context, as well as the cultural and linguistic notes, can either be provided in English or Chinese or both, depending on the audience’s level of Chinese.

Zheng demonstrates how an instructor can create a model performance script for use in designing a school-saga for learners of Chinese. However, not all instructors, especially non- native instructors, feel comfortable in their ability to write lines of Chinese dialogue that accurately describe certain social interactions. These concerns will be addressed here by demonstrating how dialogue found in Chinese media can be adapted for use in creating a relationship-building saga for the Chinese classroom. The following example of a model performance script is concerned with the action of greeting and complimenting an acquaintance.

Sample Model Performance Script 1. Description of Context:

In a restaurant, an actress’ agent, Mrs. Chen, is greeting a director supervising the TV show in which her actress is taking part. They have talked on the phone before, but this is their first time meeting in person. The director is excited about the project and hopes to build a relationship through the conversation. The agent is also looking forward to working together and hopes that through meeting the director in person and talking she can form a relationship that benefits herself and her client. After they exchange greetings, the director compliments Mrs.

Chen and she returns the compliment.

2. Performance Script

56 导演：嘿!

Dǎoyǎn: Hēi!

陈太：导演, 你好你好你好! (excited, rushes over to shake hands)

Chén Tài: Dǎoyǎn, nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo!

导演：陈太, 让你久等了. (handshake breaks off）

Dǎoyǎn: Chén Tài, ràng nǐ jiǔ děngle.

陈太：没关系

Chén Tài: méi guānxì

导演：想不到你那么年轻啊

Dǎoyǎn: xiǎngbùdào nǐ nàme niánqīng a

陈太：啊。。。您看起来也一样啊（pauses modestly after receiving compliment； looks slightly away and places hand on chest. When returning compliment removes hand from chest and gestures toward director）

Chén tài: A…nín kàn qǐlái yě yīyàng a

Director: Hey!

Mrs. Chen: Director! Hello, hello hello! (repeats out of excitement)

Director: Chen Tai, Sorry I’ve kept you waiting!

Mrs. Chen: No problem at all

Director: I had no idea you were so young

Mrs. Chen: Oh well, I could say the same about you.

3. Linguistic Notes

(1) 嘿 hēi: This word can have many meanings, including indicating surprise or the desire to get someone’s attention, as is the case here. It is similar to the English word ‘hey’

(2) 导演 dǎoyǎn: Between Chinese professionals one’s title is often used as the sole form of address. As these people are meeting in a business setting, Chen Tai only refers to the director by his title.

57 (3) 你好 nǐ hǎo: Similar to English ‘hello’. Its usage differs from the English in that it is a polite way to greet someone you have not met before. In this case the people have talked on the phone but have never met in person, thus ‘nǐ hǎo’ is employed.

(2) 太 tài: This is a shortened form of 太太 (tài tài) which is similar to the English ‘Mrs.’. It indicates that the woman is married to a man whose last name is ‘Chen’.

(4) 您 nín: The second person pronoun can be replaced with 你 nǐ to make a phrase more formal. In this case Chen Tai is returning a compliment and thus wants to convey respect.

4. Cultural Notes:

(1) This interaction is fairly formal. This is evidenced in the polite greeting which includes a handshake as well as usage of professional titles and formal titles with last names (Chen Tai).

Handshakes have been used often in Chinese culture when meeting someone for the first time, especially in business settings. In should be noted, however, that this custom might undergo change in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic. In addition, the director uses the phrase “让你久

等了” which is a polite expression used when you arrive after the other party. You do not have to have actually arrived later than expected to employ this expression; the only requirement is that you have arrived after the other party. Mrs. Chen dismisses this formulaic pseudo-apology as is customary in polite conversation.

(2) Here both parties are fairly similar in age and position. This affects the type of compliment as well as the response to the compliment. In younger generations of Chinese there is a trend toward deflecting or evading compliments rather than outright accepting or rejecting them. This can take several different forms, such as the one above, where Mrs. Chen pauses and looks away modestly before returning the compliment, in this way choosing to deflect the compliment.

However, while this style is commonly used among younger people, if the complementor is

58 significantly older, the compliment is often rejected instead, using a phrase such as “没有，没

有”.

5.2.2 Scaffolding Drills

According to Zheng (2011: 101), scaffolding drills function “to both practice the key words and sentence patterns covered in the model script and introduce variations to the model dialogue.” The target behaviors are isolated into short exchanges with a controlled script. The linguistic patterns employed should be obvious for students who have memorized the dialogue and reviewed linguistic notes before class.

The goal of repeating the drills is that students’ accuracy and fluency in employing certain words or sentence patterns will improve and “automatic responses can be inculcated”

(Zheng 2011: 102). These drills can be prepared by learners ahead of time and performed in class. The example drills below are arranged to build on each other with the first one being a slight modification of the first part of the dialogue (the greeting) and the second one being a modification on the second part (receiving and giving a compliment). Both of these drills demonstrate how the strategy one uses to perform certain tasks (i.e. greeting and compliment giving and receiving) changes as the context of the social interaction changes. In the first drill, the gender and profession of the characters are altered by the instructor. In the second, the age of the complimenter changes which affects the way one in which one would receive a compliment.

The third drill is a way to summarize and review both the dialogue and everything the learners have observed about how gender, profession and age can affect the performance.

Sample Drills Drill 1: Meeting an acquaintance in person for the first time

59 Context 1-1: Two people who have talked on the phone before are meeting for the first time in a restaurant. The first person is a director, the second person’s last name is Chén.

Props: n/a

李：嘿！ Lǐ: Hēi!

陈：老师，你好你好你好！ Chén: lǎoshī, nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo!

李：陈（太太/先生/女士），让你久等了 Lǐ: Chén (tài tài /xiānshēng / nǚshì), ràng nǐ jiǔ děngle

陈：没关系 Chén: Méi guānxì

Li: Hey!

Chen: Teacher, hello hello hello!

Li: (Mrs. /Mr. /Ms.) Chen, Sorry I’ve kept you waiting!

Chen: No problem at all

Context 1-2: Two people who have talked on the phone before are meeting for the first time in a restaurant. The first person is a school’s principal, the second person’s last name is 陈.

Props: n/a

李：嘿！ Lǐ: Hēi!

陈：校长，你好你好你好！ Chén: xiàozhǎng, nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo!

李：陈（太太/先生/女士），让你久等了 Lǐ: Chén (tài tài /xiānshēng / nǚshì), ràng nǐ jiǔ děngle

陈：没关系 Chén: Méi guānxì

Li: Hey!

Chen: Principal, hello hello hello!

Li: (Mrs. /Mr. /Ms.) Chen, Sorry I’ve kept you waiting!

Chen: No problem at all

60 Drill 1 is designed to practice greetings between acquaintances of different professions and genders. These kinds of titles, whether they be job titles or a simple ‘Ms.’ or ‘Mr.’ are extremely important in interactions between acquaintances. The way one addresses an acquaintance can set the tone for the rest of the conversation, so it is vital to show the proper degree of respect. In addition, as many non-native speakers of Chinese may not be accustomed to using titles in a greeting, this is a useful drill to help encourage the adaption of this new style. The phrase ‘让你

久等了’ is kept the same to help students memorize this useful polite expression and to demonstrate how it can be used in many contexts.

Drill 2: Responding to a compliment from an acquaintance

Context 2-1: Two young acquaintances are meeting for the first time and one mentions being surprised and how young one is. The second one responds to the compliment

李：想不到你那么年轻啊

Lǐ: xiǎngbùdào nǐ nà me niánqīng a

陈：啊。。。您看起来也一样啊

Chén: A…nín kàn qǐlái yě yīyàng a

Li: I had no idea you were so young

Chen: Oh well, I could say the same about you.

Context 2-2: Two acquaintances, surnamed Li and Chen, are meeting for the first time. Li is significantly older than Chen. Li compliments Chen saying they are surprised by how young Chen is. Chen responds appropriately to the compliment.

Props: n/a

李：想不到你那么年轻啊

Lǐ: xiǎngbùdào nǐ nàme niánqīng a

陈：没有，没有

61 Chén: méiyǒu, méiyǒu

Li: I had no idea you were so young

Chen: Oh no, not at all

Drill 2 is focused on the different ways one goes about responding to compliments in Chinese culture. Between members of the younger generation, it is becoming more common to deflect and evade compliments rather than reject them outright. This can take a number of forms, including the physical response of evading eye contact modestly as demonstrated in the video.

The study also demonstrated in Chapter 3 that there is evidence to suggest members of the younger generation tend to respond to a compliment by returning the compliment, as also demonstrated in the video. However, when the complimenter is significantly older, the situation requires a ‘politer’ response, in the form of rejection of the compliment. This is demonstrated in context 2 where the response is to reject the compliment, in this case using ‘没有，没有” méiyǒu, méiyǒu.

Drill 3: Greeting and Complimenting in different circumstances

Context 3-1: Two people who have talked on the phone before are meeting for the first time in a restaurant. The first person’s age and profession are described on the identity card, the second person’s last name is Chén. They greet each other after which the first person compliments Chén saying they had not expected Chén to be so young. Chén receives the compliment and responds appropriately depending on the age of the first person.

Props: Papers that serve as identity cards that indicate the age and profession of the character surnamed ‘Lǐ’. For the age, it needs to be indicated as either ‘younger/ the same’ or ‘older’ than the character surnamed Chén. The exact age is not required for this scenario. Professions should be the same as those reviewed in drill 1.

李：嘿!

Lǐ: Hēi!

陈：（导演/校长/老师）, 你好你好你好! (excited, rushes over to shake hands)

62 Chén: （Dǎoyǎn/xiàozhǎng/lǎoshī） nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo!

李：陈（太太/先生/女士），让你久等了

Lǐ: Chén (tài tài /xiānshēng / nǚshì), ràng nǐ jiǔ děngle

陈：没关系

Chén : méi guānxì

李：想不到你那么年轻啊

Lǐ: xiǎngbùdào nǐ nàme niánqīng a

陈太：（啊。。。您看起来也一样啊 / 没有没有）

Chén tài: (A…nín kàn qǐlái yě yīyàng a/ méiyǒu méiyǒu)

Li: Hey!

Chen: (Director/principal/teacher)! Hello, hello hello! (repeats out of excitement)

Li: (Mrs. Mr./ Ms.) Chen, sorry I’ve kept you waiting!

Chen: No problem at all

Li: I had no idea you were so young

Chen: (Oh well, I could say the same about you/ Oh no, not at all)

Drill 3 allows for variation depending on the identity card given the character surnamed ‘Lǐ’ as well as the gender of the learner who is playing the role of Chen. While it appears more complicated, there is actually no new information being reviewed. It is simply a combination of the different situations practiced in drills 1 and 2 which together replicated the performance from the dialogue but in slightly different contexts.

This drill trains students in both roles to play attention to the context and make slight alterations in the script because of that. If the role of ‘Chen’ is played by a woman, then the term of address

63 used by Lǐ must change. In addition, the identity card held by Lǐ lists this character’s profession as well as age in comparison to Chen. The profession changes the term of address used by Chen.

In addition, the age affects how the Chen character responds to the compliment. It is vital that students become accustomed to paying attention to culture context themselves and to making the necessary adjustments, rather than waiting for an instructor to spell out the context for them and prompt them to make the required changes.

5.2.3 Contextualized Exercises

The pedagogical materials designed for Zheng’s school saga does not stop at presenting model performance scripts and scaffolding drills. In addition, contextualized exercises are also included to give learners “opportunities to engage in spontaneous communication and improvise performance in the given contexts” (Zheng 2011: 107). These exercises differ from drills in that they provide learners with the freedom to use prior language and cultural knowledge to create their own scripts according to the given contexts and perform them. Below are two sample contextualized exercises following Zheng’s example.

Sample Contextualized Exercises

Context 1: Greet an acquaintance for the first time in person. The acquaintance compliments you and you respond. You are younger than your acquaintance.

Roles: two acquaintances, both adults

Context 2: Greet an acquaintance for the first time in person. The acquaintance compliments you and you respond. You are both the same age.

Roles: two acquaintances, both adults

64 Both of these exercises demonstrate whether learners have understood ways to carry out the required tasks of greeting, complimenting and responding to a compliment. Learners are allowed to imagine the styles of greeting that might be used depending on professional titles they have learned or based on the dialogue from this section. Learners are also free to apply a different compliment besides complimenting someone’s youth if they are familiar with any other ones. The purpose of the two different contexts is to emphasize the difference in responding to a compliment from someone older than you and from someone younger than you.

5.3. Further Cultural Research

This thesis explores behavioral cultural, specifically that of the post-90s generation and how it differs from its predecessors. Socio-cultural, political and economic changes in China from the 1990s and onward have left their mark on this younger generation. While there are many important aspects of culture that are of value, this thesis explores behavioral culture that relates to the way in which Chinese people establish guanxi with their acquaintances. A small survey such as the one performed for this thesis can only begin to scratch the surface of the rich quantity of information that can be learned about guanxi. This study focused on four specific areas of interactions that can be used to build guanxi: greetings, extending and turning down invitations, accepting compliments and negotiating differences and reconciling after a misunderstanding. The information gathered here about specific strategies Chinese people use during these interactions is vital for the next generation of Chinese-learners. Chinese, like any language, continues evolving in step with its ever-changing culture. It is vital that all Chinese language curriculum evolve overtime to reflect this.

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Appendix : The Survey Questionnaire for the Main Study

我是俄亥俄州立大学东亚语言文学系的研究生, 我邀请您参与我关于跨文化交流的问卷调查。感谢您的合作！年龄:

教育程度:

性别: 女男

1. 您在上班的路上碰到了您刚认识不久的朋友，您会怎样向 ta 打招呼？假设您的朋友叫王明聪。请选择您经常会用的打招呼方式。 (可多选) a. 我赶时间，先走了 b. 吃了吗? （吃饭了吗?） c. 嘿! d. Hello （hi） e. 你好！ f. 干啥去？ g. 你怎么样？ h. 早上好！ i. 上班去呀？ j. 王明聪！ k. 早！ l. 其他：（可以在后面写下您的答案）

69 2. 您想邀请刚认识不久的朋友喝饮料。您觉得以下哪一种方式最合适？（单选） a. 我请你去喝饮料吧！ b. 要不要一起去喝点东西？ c. 我正好要去喝杯咖啡，你想一起去吗？ d. 想不想一起去喝点东西？ e. 你想不想一起去喝点东西？ f. 我正好要去喝杯咖啡，一起去吧！ g. 你要不要一起去喝点东西？ h. 其他：（可以在后面写下您的答案）

3. 如果您想邀请一个刚认识不久的同性朋友吃饭。您觉得以下哪一种方式最合适？（单选） a. 我们找个时间一起去吃个饭？ b. 啥时候有空，一起去吃个饭？ c. 明天有空吗，要不一起吃饭？ d. 我要去吃个饭，要不一起去？ e. 你有吃过那家餐馆吗，要不要一起去试试？ f. 其他：（可以在后面写下您的答案）

4. 您想邀请一个刚认识不久的同性朋友到您家做客，您觉得以下哪一种方式最合适？（单选） a. 最近你帮我太多了，我想请你到家里吃饭 b. 周六要不来我家吃个饭？ c. 周六到家里吃饭吧 d. 周六要不要来我家吃饭？ e. 周六晚上有空吗，要不来家里聚聚？ f. 周六晚上你应该来我家 g. 其他：（可以在后面写下您的答案）

70 5. 您如何去夸您刚认识不久的一个异性朋友？（可多选） a. 说 ta 的服饰很好看 b. 说 ta 白了 c. 说 ta 选择的衣服能够很好地表现出 ta 身材的优点 d. 夸外貌（比如：五官） e. 说 ta 最近气色好了 f. 说 ta 的发型好了 g. 说 ta 晒黑了 h. 说 ta 的衣服和饰品搭配地很好 i. 说 ta 瘦了 j. 不会夸 ta k. 其他：（可以在后面写下您的答案）

6. 您如何去夸您刚认识不久的一个同性朋友？（可多选） a. 说 ta 的服饰很好看 b. 说 ta 白了 c. 说 ta 选择的衣服能够很好地表现出 ta 身材的优点 d. 夸外貌（比如：五官） e. 说 ta 最近气色好了 f. 说 ta 的发型好了 g. 说 ta 晒黑了 h. 说 ta 的衣服和饰品搭配地很好 i. 说 ta 瘦了 j. 不会夸 ta k. 其他：（可以在后面写下您的答案）

7. 如果您被一个刚认识不久的朋友夸奖了，您会说什么？（单选题） a. 谢谢 b. 没有，没有 c. 哪里，哪里 d. 必须的 e. 你也很好啊 f. 谢谢，你太会夸人了 g. 托...... 的福 h. 多谢夸奖，你也很好啊 i. 其他：（可以在后面写下您的答案）

71 8. 如果您听到一个你喜欢的刚认识不久的朋友抱怨您上次吃饭没有请 ta，但其实您是因为一些特殊情况没有办法邀请 ta，您会怎么处理?（单选题） a. 什么都不说 b. 问 ta 有没有生自己的气 c. 在之后的谈话中解释自己上次不请 ta 的原因 d. 邀请 ta 吃一次饭 e. 在之后的谈话中解释自己上次不请 ta 的原因，然后再邀请 ta 吃一次饭 f. 其他：（可以在后面写下您的答案）

9. 朋友间有误会，邀请 ta 吃个饭缓解一下。您会：（单选题） a. 在邀请的时候，说出原因 b. 大家都高兴了，没必要说出原因 c. 在吃饭的过程中，双方都高兴的情况下，说出原因 d. 饭后说出原因 e. 其他：（可以在后面写下您的答案）

10. 一个曾经帮过您的刚认识不久的同性朋友想要请您周日帮 ta 搬家，但是您已经跟一个很亲密的朋友约好了一起出去。您会怎么做？（单选题） a. 我会帮 ta 搬家 b. 询问需要搬家的朋友能不能换个时间 c. 我会跟亲密的朋友出去，但是我会跟需要搬家的人解释 d. 先帮 ta 搬家，然后换个时间和那个朋友出去 e. 其他：（可以在后面写下您的答案）

11. 您想拒绝一个刚认识不久的朋友的邀请，但是不方便说出真正的原因。您会怎么说？（单选题） a. 不好意思，我现在在处理一些事情, 可能没有办法去 b. 不好意思，我家里有一点事 c. 我家里有一点事 d. 抱歉，我最近工作太累了 e. 我家里有一点事，没有办法去 f. 我身体不舒服，可能没有办法去其他：（可以在后面写下您的答案）