Chinese Culture and Intercultural Communication
Domain 6 - Chinese culture and intercultural communication
This domain tests how culture is taught and how intercultural encounters are interpreted. It is not a trivia test about festivals; it asks you to avoid essentialism and to teach culture as practices, products and perspectives.
Core concepts
- Big C and little c: Big C includes literature, history and art; little c includes greetings, food habits, family roles and politeness. Both matter, but little c is often more relevant to language use.
- Culture as iceberg: Visible behaviour sits above the waterline; values, assumptions and beliefs lie below. Do not infer values from one behaviour.
- Intercultural competence: Byram’s model includes attitudes (curiosity, openness), knowledge, skills of interpreting and relating, and critical cultural awareness. It is not just “knowing Chinese customs.”
- Context and face: High-context communication relies on situation and relationship; face (面子) and indirectness can shape refusals and criticism. These are tendencies, not rules that every Chinese speaker follows.
- Stereotypes and variation: Culture is heterogeneous by region, generation, class, gender and individual style. Teach “some people in some situations” rather than “Chinese people always…”
Worked example
A learner is shocked that a host asks about salary and age. A weak answer says “Chinese people are collectivist, so privacy does not matter.” A better answer explains that such questions can signal closeness and concern in some family or hometown contexts, while also noting that urban professionals may avoid them. The teacher asks learners to compare with their own norms, practise polite deflection (这个…不太方便说), and reflect on when directness is appropriate. Reasoning: the goal is interpretive skill and flexible behaviour, not memorizing a national rule.
Traps
- Equating culture with festivals, food and costumes only.
- Presenting one informant’s behaviour as “the Chinese way.”
- Ignoring intracultural variation and power relations.
- Using culture to excuse unethical or illegal behaviour.
- Treating learners’ own culture as the default standard.