Face Negotiation in Conflict Resolution

Research on the concept of face and face-work is growing fast, especially in the field of communication, pragmatics, and related fields. Some scholars (Brown & Levinson, 1978; Goffman, 1967; Scollon & Scollon, 1981) attempt to discover the universal theory to account for all human interactions regardless of culture. Other scholars interpret human interactions situated in different cultures, either mechanically applying the model initiated by the scholars mentioned above (Cupach & Metts, 1994; Zhan, 1992), or critically applying the so-called universal theories to the interactions in different cultures (Chang & Holt, 1994; Gu, 1990; Matsumoto, 1988; Scollon & Scollon, 1994, 1995; Jia, 2002). The second line primarily concentrates on the theoretical development and refinement of specific models and mainly deals with the cultural differences, the Chinese concept of face, for example (Hwang, 1998; W. Jia, 1998; Y. Jia, 2002; Scollon & Scollon, 1995). However, no study has been found to deal with the negotiation process and the connection between Chinese face-work and Chinese conflict resolution. This study aims to tentatively analyze face-work, face negotiation in particular in conflict resolution in the Chinese context by micro-interpreting interactions in some episodes of the Chinese tele-play (The Years of Passion and Enthusiasm) and some other daily occasions of interactions