| As China's immensity and rapidly growing economy attract more and more international investors, manufacturers, and other business people, the need to study how to communicate technical information to the Chinese grows. The dissertation meets this need and studies how English-speaking cross-cultural technical communicators can effectively adapt technical documents to their Chinese readers.;The study first provides an understanding of the Chinese culture, with a focus on its thinking and persuasion, which are two key elements related to technical communication. Examination of five aspects of the Chinese culture, including the native Chinese systems of thought, Confucianism and Taoism; the Chinese outlook of the world as represented by the Yin-Yang principle; the Chinese language; the Chinese landscape painting; and a model life representing the contemporary Chinese social morality, demonstrates that the Chinese typically think in a holistic and relational way. The study also examines the use of analogy as a distinctive feature of Chinese persuasion. Then, based on the understanding, the study offers six practical guidelines on communicating technical information to the Chinese: (1) Use a respectful and friendly tone; (2) Use "we" instead of "I"; (3) Use the general-to-specific or big-to-small pattern to organize information; (4) Use analogies to explain the complex and strange; (5) Use analogies to aid persuasion; (6) Make plentiful use of visuals. The study not only explains the rationale for the guidelines but also illustrates their application with an on-going example. |
