Chinese categorization of interpersonal relationships and the cultural logic of Chinese social interaction: An indigenous perspective

Abstract

This paper explores the conceptual basis of Chinese social organization, and examines how the fundamental Chinese categories of interpersonal relationships affect Chinese ways of speaking and social interaction. Firstly, the paper will analyze the full meanings and interrelationship of two of the most distinctive (complementary) dyads of Chinese social categories, namely, shēngrén (lit. “uncooked person”, “stranger”) vs. shúrén (lit. “cooked person”, “an old acquaintance”), and zìjĭrén (lit. “oneself person”, “insider”) vs. wàirén (lit. “outer/outsider person”, “outsider”). It will then put forward two master scripts—general principles underlying norms of social interaction—in Chinese culture that are governed by the demarcations of these fundamental categories: nèiwàiyŏubié (“difference between the insider and outsider”) and yóushūzhìqīn (“from far to close”), and illustrate aspects of Chinese language use that are guided by these principles. They include dă zhāohu (“greetings”), the use of tóng X (“fellow X”) and lăo X (“old X”), and a brief discussion of the value of not being polite in Chinese culture. On the one hand, this paper demonstrates the need for treating interpersonal relationships as a theoretical variable in the study of human interaction and shows the importance of an indigenous perspective; on the other, it relates theoretical discussion of human interaction to practical needs of understanding Chinese interactional style for the purpose of language teaching and political and commercial negotiations. Both goals can be attained by the use of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage and “cultural scripts” theory.