The Comparative Study of Privacy between China and Western Countries By A ThesisPresented to College of Humanities and Foreign LanguagesXian University of Science and TechnologyIn Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree ofBachelor of Arts Thesis Supervisor: June 2012AbstractWith the deepening of global economic integration, the field of intercultural communication gradually extends to all aspects of social life. Due to different history and cultural traditions and social customs in countries and ethnic, intercultural communication is facing a lot of communication barriers. For privacy issue, China and English-speaking countries have different perception, thus it is hard to ignore it in intercultural communication. With the introduction of group privacy view and individual privacy view observed by different cultures, this paper compares the specific manifestation of these two different privacy view in verbal, nonverbal and other behaviors. Verbal behaviors includes the greeting, age and income. Nonverbal behaviors includes the difference in space and time. Other behaviors includes correspondence, hospital, public area and personal emotion.Based on a collection of theoretical results of the Chinese and Western privacy research and exploration of the reasons behind privacy issues, this study provide the reference and ideas for avoiding the communication conflicts.Key words: privacy; intercultural communication; Chinese and western culture摘 要随着全球经济一体化程度的加深，跨文化交际的领域也开始逐步扩展到社会生活的方方面面。可是由于不同国家和民族之间不同的历史文化传统和社会习俗，跨文化交际面临着许多交际障碍。隐私问题在中西方文化中差异甚大。对于强调个人隐私的西方文化和强调集体隐私的中国文化，隐私问题已经成为中西方文化交流中一个难以忽视的交际障碍。本文通过了对群体隐私观和个体隐私观的引入，对比这两种不同的隐私观在言语行为，非言语行为以及其他行为下的具体表现。言语行为包括问候语、年龄、收入上的不同，非言语行为包括时间空间上的不同，其他行为则涵盖了信件，医院，公共场合以及个人感情的不同。最后通过探究中西方隐私问题背后的原因，为交际的顺利进行提供可参考的意见和建议。关键词：隐私；跨文件交际；中西方文化ContentsAbstract.i摘 要.iiIIntroduction1II. An Overview of Studies on Privacy32.1 General Conception of Privacy32.2 Studies on Privacy42.2.1 Studies on Privacy in China42.2.2 Studies on Privacy in Western Countries52.3 Privacy and Intercultural Communication62.3.1 Intercultural Communication62.3.2 Privacy in Intercultural Communication7III. Differences in Privacy between China and Western Countries83.1 Views on Privacy83.2 Privacy in Verbal Behaviors93.2.1 Privacy in Greetings93.2.2 Privacy in Income103.2.3 Privacy in Age103.3 Privacy in Nonverbal Behaviors113.3.1 Privacy in Space113.3.2 Privacy in Time123.4 Privacy in Other Behaviors133.4.1 Privacy in Correspondence133.4.2 Privacy in Hospital133.4.3 Privacy in Public Area143.4.4 Privacy in Emotion14IV. Reasons for the Different Privacy View between China and Western Countries154.1 Collectivism and Individualism154.2 High Context Culture and Low Context Culture164.3 Agricultural Culture and Industrial Culture16V. Conclusion18Bibliography19Acknowledgments20iiIIntroduction Personal life has been changed a lot with the the popularization of globalization, the development of modern communication technology and the increasing diversity of media networks. Intercultural communication are becoming increasingly frequent. At the same time, cultural differences breed a large number of communication errors, barriers and conflicts so that peoples psychological distance is growing faster and faster. The main reason is not just the interests and territory competition or political and ideological differences, but more is the huge gap in the culture and values. For this reason, privacy as an important part in the intercultural communication has often bring about communication barriers. Differences in geographic regions, historical traditions, social customs, values, specific cultural background, and ways of thinking make contribution to the difference of privacy view between China and western countries as well as potential obstacles to intercultural communication, inefficient communication and misunderstanding. Therefore, the study on the difference of privacy view between China and western countries can minimize a variety of communication barriers and unnecessary misunderstandings in intercultural communication. The whole thesis is organized as follows:The first part is an introduction which states the reason and purpose of privacy study in intercultural communication. And the main content of the whole thesis is briefly introduced.The second part is an overview of studies on privacy. Apart from the general concept of privacy, this paper introduces separately the different definitions and research results of privacy i