| This study used qualitative research methods to explore the Chinese use of "mian-zi" face in international business negotiations with Americans. Primary data consist of participative field observations of nine intercultural business negotiation cases (six were used), audio-tape recordings, telephone conferences, unstructured interviews, documented business correspondence, and news accounts of Sino-U.S. diplomatic events. A set of eleven social events in which the term "face" was used is also provided, based on field observation, as secondary data for interpretation reference.; Two levels of data were reported: description of eight ethnographic cases and analysis of the cases. The interpretive procedure was aided by the analytical frameworks developed from anthropologist Keith Basso's field work on American Indians (1978, 1990), and from Gerry Philipsen's ethnographic studies on cultural communication (1992).; Findings were reported at two levels: the natives' cultural conceptualizations of "face" and the pragmatic functions served by the use of "face" in business negotiations. Nine categories of the cultural meanings and four types of social functions were inferred from cross-case analysis, extant knowledge drawn from interdisciplinary fields and personal experience in international business negotiations. The study concluded by relating the findings to three problems which exist in the present teaching, training and researching on the subject of Sino-U.S. intercultural business negotiations. |
