[英语学习]A Comparison of Chinese and Western Priacy Concepts.doc

AbstractKnowing the different views on privacy between Chinese and Western cultures is important to improve the ability to communicate in cross-cultural environment. This paper is to make a comparison of the views on privacy between Chinese and Westerns and analyze the reasons of the differences.Key words: privacy views in China and West; comparison; reasons1. IntroductionSocial being is the nature of human being but the close connection between human beings and their personal affairs is also the inherent nature of human beings. The psychology to protect privacy evolved with the development of peoples wisdom. The origin is the sense of shame recorded in Bible. In Genesis of Bible, the first thing that Adam and Eve did after eating fruit of wisdom was that they knew shame and picked fig leaves to cover their bodies. The scholar, ZHANG Xing-bao thinks that the sense of knowing shame and covering body is the proof of the beginning that people became aware of privacy (WANG Xiu-zhe, 2005: 137).1.1 Background of the ResearchIn the current social environment, people are placing more emphasis on privacy, and going to greater lengths to have their privacy protected and respected. In cross-cultural communication, we cling to our respective cultural backgrounds, so realizing differences on both sides is the premise of successful communication. Privacy, as a psychological concept, it is very easy to be misunderstood. Due to the differences between Chinese and western cultural background, and different concept of values, the meaning and category of privacy are different; the privacy of consciousness is also different in international intercourse unavoidably. But the concept of privacy is not constant, and it will change with different times and places. Privacy is a kind of common phenomenon; it exists in every culture, just different in how its expressed. The conventional view is that Chinese culture is absolutely collectivism, there is no privacy in the Chinese collective interior, meanwhile, sensitive issues such as privacy in cross-cultural communication is absolutely conflict. This view is not appropriate, and is a misunderstanding of Chinese privacy culture. Especially now, the development of economic globalization promotes steps of worlds cultural communication and also the understandings in different civilizations. In this process, the ideas of people are also changing a lot. The so-called taboo that in peoples daily life or work there is a limit of self-discipline, different ethnic culture has different taboo. In our daily interactions, especially in cross-cultural communication, we have to deal with this issue seriously. 1.1.1 Definition and history of privacyThe concept of privacy began in the West. It is an individual or groups control of the regulatory mechanism of interaction with others, and is a human survival characteristic. Implicit, which means hidden, do not want to share inconvenient things; private, which means private affairs, is present in the affairs of private living space. Private living space that exists in secret affairs, activities and related information is privacy. It related to the public living space, the field of public life, public affairs, activities and information is the corresponding. Mr. Wang Liming summarized Privacy as "a kind of non public interest, and non independent of group interests, someone does not want to interfere in the personal affairs and fields of others” Specifically, privacy refers to "personal information, private activities, and private sector." In recent years, domestic cultural studies of privacy problem exist in two tendencies: A tendency is to Westerners (English-speaking people) the concept of privacy as the only criteria for judging the value which Chinese do not treat it as privacy. The other is a tendency to think that westerners are too focused on privacy.Reference to Western concepts about privacy: 1. Western academic discussion on privacy issues, from the American scholar Warren and Brandeis defined privacy. In 1890, these two writers defined the "Privacy" in The Right to Privacy as a right. "Black's Law Dictionary" says that privacy is the right to private life without interference, or a private matter right shall not be disclosed without permission. 2. " Ci Hai Dictionary” will be defined as someone dose not want to tell the privacy of people, also refers to some shady things. In our current law, there is no express reference to privacy provisions of the word. 3. Privacy not only has objective definition, but also coupled with the subjective understanding of individual differences because of different social and cultural backgrounds.Western scholars Alan.F.Westin defines four types of privacy: solitude, intimacy, and anonymity, self-reserve. Altman also thinks privacy is not more than one sort. He defined privacy as "self or group for others' contact do selective control". Altman Ming points privacy into individual privacy and group privacy. From the formulation of Chinese and western concept of privacy, we first specifically is the "privacy" in Chinese and in English is different. Chinese privacy refers to specific behavior; here we don't discuss these behaviors legal or illegal and moral or amoral. These behaviors are not rights, which protected by law on the level of the west. And without, obviously refers to the rights of private life without interference, or personal things without permission in public rights.Privacy is a psychological concept; it is an objective environment for the attitudes, beliefs, and how to understand in the environment view. Privacy reveals a psychological environment. Conventional wisdom is that Eastern cultures (e.g. China) are not stressed individual privacy, and individual rights than obligations. "Webster Dictionary" is the interpretation of privacy: 1. Private, from the state of public attention or companionship; 2. Independent, to avoid non-consensual. In short, privacy is a part of individual independence. Concerned about personal privacy interests have been, and not by other factors or people interfere. Note that state. And Altman (I. Altman) thinks privacy is that people or groups allowed access to self-selective control mechanisms.In fact, privacy is a universal phenomenon. It exists in the display of different cultural values, but its manifestations and to differing degrees. For example, in the traditional sense, the Chinese often express themselves through the physical form of privacy, with the outside world cut off to protect privacy such as walls and fences. In Beijing traditional courtyard, the Great Wall, the ancient Chinese cities walls and moat, round the south Hakka Earth Buildings, etc., revealing the concept of the Chinese people's privacy: the personal privacy is more important than the privacy of groups, this is reflecting the Chinese culture and re-group or collective and individual characteristics of light; individual interests to collective needs. In Western society, the privacy of an individual state of mind is an individual as a person's state of its recognition and protection is a doctrine from the perspective of human rights and obtained a subjective recognition. Chinese culture advocates the privacy fence is a psychological corresponding to the extreme respect for their space and highly sensitive, meaning that the scope of privacy is not a physical barrier can be qualified. Visibly, privacy is an area with a claim of exclusivity and mental activity, and is isolated from the self and others a state of mind.Though there are some records about privacy in history, the notion of privacy didnt exist until the modern society, and the views on privacy are also quite different. In China, its a courtesy and consideration to ask about others personal information. Thus the question such as: “Are you married?” “How much do you earn a month?” are regarded as common topics. But these questions are not appropriate to ask in America for they belong to touchy topics. Otherwise the American will feel very embarrassed and the communication between them cant go on smoothly. It isnt uncommon that communication obstacles often appear between Chinese and Americans owing to different cultures. So this paper is going to analyze the privacy views of Chinese and Americans and sincerely hope it would be beneficial to improve cross-culture communication in future.1.1.2 Importance of privacy The concept of privacy began in the West. It is an individual or group control of the regulatory mechanism of interaction with others, and is a human survival characteristic. Implicit, which means hidden, do not want to share inconvenient things; private, which means private affairs, is present in the affairs of private living space. Private living space that exists in secret affairs, activities and related information is privacy. It related to the public living space, the field of public life, public affairs, activities and information is the corresponding. Privacy is objective and subjective. Objectivity refers to privacy is objective in real society, and its existence is independent of human subjectivity refers to transfer. Because of differences, the privacy of their own also means attitude of people. As long as peoples attitude is to conceal himself, it can become privacy facts. 2. The Different Concepts of Privacy between China and Western2.1 The Concept of Privacy in West“Privacy” has a long history and is respected by Americans. According to Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary (4th edition), privacy has two meanings: (1) state of being alone or undisturbed; (2) freedom from interference or public attention. In addition, in the Journal of Anhui Policemen Vocational Institution, Weastin, clearly divided privacy into four types: (1) solitude, which means let me alone; (2)intimacy, which means that tell the secret to the intimate friends or family members；(3) anonymity, which means that a person doesnt want to be recognized by others; (4) self-reserve, which indicates that one has self-discipline to keep calm and far away from disturbance (YUAN Shi-cong, 2004: 30).America is one of the earliest countries that pointed out the importance of respecting individuals privacy in law. In 1890, American scholars Samule. Alon and Luis. D. Blantanis published a paper named “The Right to Privacy” in Harvard Law Review. In the paper, he denounced the mass media exposed individuals privacy, which established the legal base for protecting peoples privacy (ibid). From then on, American government completed a series of laws to protect privacy, such as, Information Freedom Law (1967), Law of Privacy (1974), etc.English privacy is defined as freedom from interference or public attention, is the "uninterrupted or free from public attention, is a private right to personal freedom" ("Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary," 1998: 1174). From this definition we can see an individual in the west has the right to their privacy not being disturbed, not a personal matter, defendant's right to liberty is a well-respected concept. They believe that individuals create privacy to make the control and domination of others. They have chosen to express inner feelings and not subject to external constraints, have the opportunity to have full self-assessment of behavior and to make a choice on the new behavior but also individuals have the opportunity on formal occasions in family groups and between the definition of thinking, which co-operation in different fields of different communication options, maintaining balance between personal and social coordination.Westerners place a great emphasis on privacy. Modern technology has made this issue become particularly prominent in todays society. "Wall Street Journal" and NBC poll conducted in 1999 showed that privacy is an American concern of the 21st century. The Chinese on the "Privacy" is defined as a "reluctant or unwilling to open the defendant's personal matter" ("Modern Chinese Dictionary", 2004:1506). Westerners individual privacy is broad and covers many the concept of individual privacy, including private time and private space, private areas of activity and the maintenance of private rights of this sort of thing. Such as respecting other people's private time. Westerners are invited to participate in social activities will notice in advance, giving others enough time to make arrangements. Similarly, visiting friends and family have advance notice, otherwise, the Westerners view, that is violating the privacy of others. Westerners have Very strong sense of the boundaries, without permission they will not enter someone else's territory. As in Western countries, even if the parents have no right to enter the children's room without permission, or be considered rude or disrespectful behavior of others privacy, personal belongings inside the room should not be used without the owners consent.In addition, all related to personal privacy, such as personal conditions (age, work, income, marriage, children, etc.), political ideas (for or against which the parties), religion (a religious belief), trends in personal behavior (where to go, with whom relations, communications, etc.), can not directly intervene. Westerners are generally reluctant to interfere in other people's private lives and personal privacy, do not want to be someone else to interfere.2.1.1 The four sorts of privacy concept Seeing from definition of privacy in English, we can see American people treat privacy as a human right, which cannot be arbitrarily violated. Westin separates privacy into four categories: 1) seclusion, the isolation; 2) intimacy, that is only a close friend or confidant to the leakage of privacy; 3) Anonymous, that is, do not expect recognition by others; 4) self-restraint, that is kinds of psychological self-restraint in order to prevent unnecessary harassment. In fact these four types of privacy reflect in the difference performance and different cultures. Cultural differences will be shown in the view on privacy2.1.2 The four functions of privacyPrivacy is generally believed that Western countries have the following four aspects for the individual features; 1) Personal autonomy, individuals from the control and domination of others. 2) Emotional relaxation, individuals have the opportunity to adjust to the structure of self-feeling, to have chosen to express inner feelings without external constraints. 3) Self-assessment, individuals have the opportunity to be fully self-assessment of behavior and experience and understanding to make a choice on the new behavior. 4) The limited protection of communication, individuals have the opportunity for formal occasions in family groups and between the definition of thinking, which co-operation in different fields of different communication options, maintaining b