| Jingxin Liu: | |
| Name: | Jingxin Liu |
| Academic Institution: | Harbin Institute of Technology |
| email: | yuxin1228@yahoo.com.cn |
| Country: | China |
| Paper Title | A Study of Cultural Differences Between Chinese and Americans in Bodily Contact |
| Abstract: | A Study of Cultural Differences Between Chinese and Americans in Bodily Contact Communication, a necessary part of human interaction, is conducted verbally and nonverbally. Nonverbal communication, which predated verbal communication, plays a rather important part in social life, more important than we have realized. We are not aware of this fact because it is a less conscious form of communication. In the last 4 decades the study of nonverbal communication has developed into a new discipline, which involves body language, time langue, space language( proxemises), and paralanguage, etc. Like verbal communication, nonverbal communication was born naturally, and is closely associated with the society,. culture, customes and psychology of a given nation. It is not only an innate ability, but acquired through observation, imitation, and guidance in a society. That is why different countries and cultures foster different ways of nonverbal communicaton. Nonverbnal communication embraces a rather broad range of topics. The current paper will confine itrself to bodily contact in space language, and make a cursory comparison between Chinese and American cultures. |