Abstract

With economic globalization, intercultural communication becomes more frequent than ever. As a universal phenomenon, privacy exists in every culture. Different cultures have different concepts of privacy, which unavoidably results in cultural crash even conflict. Since the 1960s, people have studied privacy from different angles, and have agreed that privacy is restricted by historical development, cultural values and so on. Therefore, this thesis intends to make a comparative study of Chinese and Western concepts of privacy, analyzing the primary causes of the formation of privacy. According to these differences, we need to develop reasonable strategies to solve the problems in intercultural communication that might be generated. 

Key Words: intercultural communication, privacy, value, comparison

CONTENTS

中文摘要

Abstract

1. Introduction-1

2. Comparison of Chinese and Western Concepts of Privacy-1

2.1 Chinese concept of privacy-1

2.1.1 Historical reasons for formation-1

2.1.2 Changes of Chinese concept of privacy-2

2.2 Western concept of privacy-2

2.3 Privacy and interpersonal communication-3

3. Reasons for the Difference between Chinese and Western Concepts of Privacy-4

3.1 Causes of individualism-4

3.2 Causes of collectivism-6

3.3 Understanding of individualism in China and the West-8

4. Strategies in Intercultural Communication-8

4.1 Improving cultural sensitivity-8

4.2 Strengthening native culture-9

4.3 Integrating into exotic values-9

5. Conclusion-10

Works Cited-12