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1、The Effect of Both High-Context Culture and Low-Context Culture on the Progress of Time Conception of ChineseAbstract: Human events occurring in daily life are closely related to time. Time is fundamental bases on cultures and human activities. In academic fields, different cultures shape different
2、time conception, and time conception is an important mirror to reflect culture. Edward t. Hall regarded time orientation is evidently distinct between high-context cultures and low-context cultures. Time conception consists of time orientation and the view of time. Time orientation and the view of t
3、ime of Chinese have changed a lot under the influence of high and low context culture, especially low-context culture from some western countries. The paper aims to find the progress which we have achieved about the conception of time in our country.Key Words high-context culture; low-context cultur
4、e; conception of time; Chinese高语境文化和低语境文化对中国人时间观念进步的影响摘 要 时间和人们的生活息息相关。任何文化和人类的活动都可以体现在人们对时间的理解和观念上。不同的文化塑造了不同的时间观念，而且时间观念是反应文化的一面重要镜子。爱德华.霍尔认为高语境文化和低语境文化中的时间观念明显不同。在传统儒家文化影响下的中国逐渐形成了高语境文化，由此衍生出了延续五千多年的根深蒂固的传统时间观念。近年来中国和在低语境文化影响下的国家的接触逐渐增多，时间观念的不同引发了很多矛盾。但是受低语境文化的影响中国人的时间取向和时间观也有了很大的改变，更有利于跨文化交际的顺利进
5、行。本文重点探索高语境文化和低语境文化对中国人时间观念的积极影响和改观。关键词 高语境；低语境；时间观念；中国人1. IntroductionTwo thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher Sophocles stated: Time is a kingly God (Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter and Lisa A. Stefani, Communication Between Culture 78). In China Time is money (一寸光阴一寸金) is an evergreen gu
6、ideline from one generation to another. Therefore, time is the most precious treasure for every nation. However, if we take a deep observation into the conception of time in different countries, we can find that cultures vary widely in this aspect. Where they differ is in the view of time, usage of
7、time and time orientation. Hall described that time is one of the fundamental bases on which all culture rest and round all activities revolves and he also regarded time orientation is evidently distinct from high-context cultures (HC) and low-context cultures (LC). In high-context culture, time is
8、viewed as more open, less structured, more responsive to the immediate needs of people, and less subject to external goals and constrains. In low-context cultures, time is highly organized, in part because of the additional energy required to understand the message of others (Myron W.Lustig, Jolene
9、Koester Intercultural Competence 114). Low-context cultures are forced to pay more attention to time in order to make their work and lives orderly.According to Halls cultural continuum that ranges from high to low, the cultural pattern of Chinese is typically high-context culture. Chinese has a stro
10、ng belief that the past should be guide for making decisions and determining truth. They have no strictly organized and ordered time arrangement. Time schedule is changeable and flexible for Chinese. The concept of time is vague and approximation. However, by contrast, time in low-context culture is
11、 highly structured and time table is firmly and inflexible. Since the beginning of reform and opening-up, exchanges between China and some low-context cultural countries are increasing and the conflicts which are raised by the difference of concept of time between two cultural patterns attract more
12、attentions. So under their influence and in order to solve the problems, Chinese started to change their concept of time gradually and achieved progress. The development of Chinese time conception is moving to the low-context culture.2. Definitions and Features of HC, LC and Their Relations with Tim
13、e According to Hall, different cultures can form a continuum that ranges from high-context culture to low-context culture, in which some countries, such as Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam, belong to the high-context culture, and other countries, such as Germany, Switzerland, and United States, belon
14、g to low-context culture. Hall defined these two terms in the following manner: A high-context communication or message is one in which most of the information is already in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicitly transmitted part of the message. A low context communication is just
15、 the opposite; i.e., the mass of the information is vested in the explicit code. (Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter and Lisa A. Stefani, Communication Between Culture 79) The feature of HC and LC is distinctly different. A high-context culture prefers to use covert and implicit message that rely h
16、eavily on nonverbal code systems. The group is very important in HC, and members of the ingroup are easily recognized. Time is not strictly arranged and more responsive to peoples need. For example, one day a Chinese wants to invite his friend to have dinner. They may have a conversation like this:A
17、: Hi, old Wang. How is everything going?B: Very good.A: How about your son?B: He is well, but his study is always a worry for me.A: Do you have any appointment tonight? I want to invite you to have a dinner tonight.B: I want to visit a friend tonight, but I can change it to another day. A: Ok, bye.B
18、: Bye.In this conversation we can get four points about time. (1) The first four sentences are meaningless to the point, and it seems a waste of time, but in some high-context cultural countries, such as Japan and China, it is necessary to warm up the relationship. (2) A will invite B to have dinner
19、 “tonight”; therefore, it means B only have 4 to 5 hours to prepare. Chinese have been used to it, but its time of preparation is surprisingly short to low-context cultural people. (3) Before the conversation, B had a plan to visit his friend, yet in order to have dinner with A he changed his plan a
20、t last. So time is open and flexible in China. (4) From the beginning to the end of the talk, there is no an accurate time of the dinner. “Tonight” is a vague time, thus vague time is common in high-context country.Low-context cultures are characterized by the opposite attributes: messages are expli
21、cit and dependent on verbal codes, group memberships change rapidly, innovation is valued, and time is highly structured. (Myron W.Lustig, Jolene Koester Intercultural Competence 114) In low-context cultures, time is highly organized, in part, and everything is in schedules or in details, because of
22、 the additional energy required to understand the message of others (Guo-Ming Chen, William J. Starosta, Foundations of Intercultural Communication 51). Take the same example for explanation: if a person who come from a low-context cultural country, such as United Stated, wants to invite a friend ha
23、s a dinner, he will be arrange it four days before the date of invitation. The friend will arrange this appointment into schedule and has enough time to prepare. The starting time of dinner will be detailed into minutes. 3. Definitions and Features of Conception of TimePrimitive societies may arrang
24、e their lives by simple notions, such as morning, afternoon, season, sunrise, sunset and so on. The ancient Chinese takes a life of “Rise and rest together with the sun”(日出而作,日入而息). For civilized societies the concept of time is increasingly complex and time is more precious. Many proverbs about tim
25、e are taken as guidelines to alert modern society, for example: “Time and tide for no man” (岁月不等人), “Time fletch away without delay” (光阴似箭,日月如梭), “Lost time is never found again” (光阴一去不复返).Running through all our ideas of time are two contrasting notions: time as a line of discrete events, minutes,
26、hours, days, months, years, each passing in a never ending succession; and time as a circle, revolving so that the minutes of the hour repeat, as do the hours of the day, the day of the week and so on (Fons Trompenaars, Charles Hampden-turner Riding the Waves of Culture 123).Anthropologists stated t
27、hat how a culture views of time and manages it is a clue to the meanings its members find in life and the supposed nature of human existence. The conception of time is strongly affected by culture because time is an idea rather than an object. How we think of time is interwoven with how we plan, str
28、ategize and coordinate our activities with others. Kluckholm and Strodtbeck identified three types of culture: (1) present-oriented, which is relatively timeless, traditionless, and ignore the future. They pay little attention to what has happened in the past and what the future will bring, because
29、past is considered as unimportant while future is unpredictable. (2) past-oriented, mainly concerned to maintained traditions in the past. They have a high sense on traditions like to their ancestors, family, ancient proverbs. The present is tired to be maintained. (3) future-oriented, always takes
30、a strong desire to future and setting out to realize it. They are eager to change and have a more desirable development in economic and social scales (Guo-Ming Chen, William J. Starosta, Foundations of Intercultural Communication 51).Some low-context cultures, such as United States, Germany and Swis
31、s, see very small overlap between present and past but an increasing importance from past to highest the future. A similar behavior is reflected in German culture. Everything else than being right in time is an insult fro waiting person and shame for the person who keeps waiting. Time is considered
32、as very rare and expensive. That is why time has to be well organized.The relation between the continuum that ranges from high-context culture to low-context culture and time orientation that from past to future: table1.HC CulturesJapaneseChineseKoreanAfrican AmericanNative AmericanArabGreekLatinIta
33、lianEnglishFrenchAmericanScandinavianGermanGerman-SwissLC CulturePast-orientedJapaneseChineseKoreanEnglishPresent-orientedLatin-AmericanFuture-orientedAmericanFinlandSwitzerlandGermanSwedish(Table 1: Data from Communication Between Culture, Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter and Lisa A. Stefani 77-
34、80)4. The Conception of Time of Chinese and Its OriginThe conception of time is a vague idea in ancient Chinese. The whole day was traditionally divided into 12 two-hour periods, each being given the name of Earthly Branch, which is “Shi Chen” (时辰) in Chinese, but no accurate divide between any two
35、Shi Chen. In their minds time is consisted by a series of events or history and they are able to do many things at the same time, which also called Polychromic Time (PC) according to Hall definition. Besides polychromic time, Hall also takes the idea of Monochromic Time (MC) into our mind, which is
36、opposite to the former one. Table 2 is a contrastive study of PC and MC by Hall and Hall in 1990.Comparison of Monochromic and Polychromic PeopleDo one thing at a timeDo many things at onceConcentrate on the jobAre easily distracted and subject to interruptionsTake time commitments (deadlines, sched
37、ules) seriouslyConsider time commitments an objective to be achieved, if possibleAre low context and need informationAre high context and already have informationAre committed to the jobAre committed to the people and human relationsAdhere to plansChange plans often and easilyAre accustomed to short
38、 termed relationshipHave a strong tendency to built life time friendshipEmphasize promptnessBase promptness on relationshipShow great respect for privacy property; seldom borrow or lendBorrow and lend things easily and oftenAre concerned about not disturbing others; follow rules of privacyAre more c
39、oncerned with people close to them than with privacy(Table 2: Data from Journal of Sichuan Three-Gorges University, 董淑铭, No.2 1999 )4.1 The Traditional Attitude of Chinese to the Time and Its EffectThe Chinese proverb “Consider the past and you will know the present”( 前车之鉴) clearly states how import
40、ant they consider their culture. Each Chinese develops his or her strong sense of identity from history. (Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter and Lisa A. Stefani, Communication Between Culture 79) Chinese has a long history, which is more than 5000 thousand years. They respect past and take it as a
41、kind of honor and guideline to direct their decisions. The historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto once said: “China appears as the home of an uniquely successful imperial experiment, which has endured for over two thousand years with not very conspicuous discontinuities”.In the agriculture-based feudal
42、society, farmers rise and rest together with the sun, therefore, the conception of time is not as accurate as highly developed western countries, which has developed on the basis of mechanization. However during 5000 years history, Chinese ancestors has summarized many proverbs about time to persuad
43、e their posterity to treasure time, such as “Time is money” (一寸光阴一寸金), “We have only a short life to live” (譬如朝露，去日苦多), “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today” (今日复明日，明日何其多), “spring is the starter for a year as dawn is for a day” (一年之计在于春，一日之计在于晨). In spit of treasure of time, actually,
44、 frugal Chinese is much more generous with the time than those from LC culture. Beijing opera has well abstracted the slow-paced life style of Chinese 200 years before, which is a most appropriate mirror to show the other aspect of conception of time. Every time actors get on the stage in so slowly
45、step with drums and gongs, that many young people and foreigners can not understand it and bear it. The slow-paced life style was also embodied in greetings, for instance: “slow go/ take it easy” (慢走), “slow eat/ enjoy your meal” (慢慢吃), “slow come/ relax” (不要慌,慢慢来). That is the reason why time sched
46、ule is flexible, deadline is changeable, and work is inefficient. However, Chinese can enjoy a leisurely life without much pressure.4.2 The Attitude of Chinese to the Elders, Age and Its Effect The attitude to elders and age is definitely different from that in LC cultural countries. Age is such imp
47、ortant information in China, that every time when we fill in the form we will offer it and experiences in the past. In Chinese conversation age is a necessary topic, because it is a useful way to show their concern and to establish friendship. ( 陈春卿, Journal of Sanming University, sep.2008, No.23) A
48、ccording to traditional proverbs, we can summarize that age means experience, knowledge and wisdom, for example: “An old horse knows the way/ An experienced person knows the ropes” (老马识途), “The veteran goes into action one being equivalent to some” (老将出马，一个顶俩), “The ginger is still old burning/ Sure
49、 enough, the old lady” (姜还是老的辣). In LC cultural country, take America for instance, age is highly private information, especially for adult female, which always a forbidden topic in their conversation, because age means negative for them and elder is regarded as useless. Appellation is another window to understa
