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Hi guys, I really enjoy your topic- giving gifts which is super attracted me. How do people choose a gift in a first meeting context and what they say to present their blessing are incredibly varies from culture to culture. Overall, the video that you choose highly represents the differences among cultures. However, one of my suggestions is that maybe it could be more relevant to connect your analysis with your topic. Lastly, the consequence of each plate can be adjusted a bit, for example, the references plate is more appropriate to put it at the end of your presentation.

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In addition to the concepts discussed above, Simon is a "foreigner" in this scene. Although his behavior caused misunderstandings, he expressed a more cooperative disposition, such as trying hard to speak in Mandarin, caring about Gao’s father's health, etc. If we only analyze this scene, the symbolism of the behavior behind it also needs to be taken into consideration. The background of this meet-up gift sending is that Weitong and Weiwei are preparing for a fake marriage. In traditional Chinese culture, especially for the older generation, the timing of gift-giving is always relevant to the two parities’ identities. Simon was presenting a meeting gift to Gao’s parents as the landlord and roommate at that time, which was inappropriate, and superseded the main event. Besides, according to the plot, Gao’s father is an extremely face-concerning veteran, and he behaves very dignifiedly, which indirectly excludes the possibility of negotiation between them.

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These two concepts (high-context culture & low-context culture, individualism vs. collectivism) are related to culture. Cultural difference is a macro concept, and it specifically varies from person to person and cannot be generalized when applied. Therefore, it can be said that these two concepts are possible explanations for the transcultural communication between Simon and Gao's parents, but they are not absolutely accurate.

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High-context culture & Low-context culture

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High-context culture & Low-context culture

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Based on the theory of cultural distance, Hall (1976) puts forward that culture has the nature of context, and divides culture into the high-context culture and low-context culture in his book Beyond Culture. English speakers are always direct and straightforward in their expression, while Chinese tend to be implicit and tactful in interpersonal communication, focusing on the connotation behind the words.

In the clip, Simon wanted to express good intentions when he gave the gifts to Gao’s parents, and the gifts he selected were very appropriate and practical. However, when giving skincare products, he said straight away that Aunt Gao was old and her skin was sagging. When giving blood pressure instruments to Uncle Gao, he said that that Uncle Gao is not well and it can help to check his body at any time in case of danger. This direct expression of Simon was intended to reflect the practicality of the gift but ignored the derivative meaning behind the language. There is an obvious contrast between Simon’s expression of "preventing the sagging of the face" and Gao’s mom's expression of “stay young forever”.

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Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cameron, D. (2009). Theoretical Issues for the Study of Gender and Spoken Interaction. In Gender and Spoken Interaction, ed. P.  Pichler and E.M.  Eppler, 1–17. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond culture. Anchor Press.

Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. The McGraw-Hill Companies.

Holmes, J. (2012). Politeness in intercultural discourse and communication. In C. Paulston, S, Kiesling, & E. Rangel (Eds.), The Handbook of intercultural discourse and communication (pp. 205-228). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Mills, S. (2011). Discursive Approaches to the Analysis of Politeness and Impoliteness. In Discursive Approaches to the Analysis of Politeness and Impoliteness, ed. Linguistic Politeness Research Group, 19–57. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Scollon, R., Scollon, W.S., & Jones, R. H. (2012). Intercultural communication: A discourse approach (3rd ed.). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

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1. If Gao's parents were ESL speakers with high proficiency and Simon chose to talk with them in English, would they still consider Simon's explanations were impolite/face threatening? Why?

2. If you are going to visit your friend’s parents/family from different countries/cultures, what factors will you consider that may cause miscommunication? (e.g. language, social values, different metaphorical meanings of gifts…)

3.Based on personal experience, to what extent and in what way do you think the older generation should be responsible for the successful interaction in this situation?

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高：爸，妈。赛门有见面礼物要送给你们。

Gao: Dad, mom. Simon has greeting gifts for you.

高妈妈：哎呀，我们已经来打搅了。怎么还好意思让他破费呢？

Mom: Alas, we have come to disturb. How can we have the nerve to let him spend a lot?

赛门：这是我的一点心意。高伯伯心脏不好，血压高，有了血压器可以未雨绸缪，随时检查，看看自己有没有危险。高妈妈，这是专门给老年女人用的营养面霜，每天睡前擦一点，可以防止脸皮松弛。

Simon: This is a little something for you. Uncle Gao has a heart problem and high blood pressure. A blood pressure monitor can help you prepare for a rainy day and check anytime to see if you’re in danger. Gao’s mom, this is a nutritional cream for elderly women, and you can rub a little before going to bed every day to prevent sagging skin.

高妈妈：你是要我青春永驻？

Mom: You want me to stay young forever?

赛门：对！永远不老···老···老化···

Simon: Yes! Never old… old… aging

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Our "text"- a video clip from "The Wedding Banquet"

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The dialogues of characters in the film "The Wedding Banquet", indicate the two generations' different understanding of Chinese traditional culture and their different definitions of personal happiness. The respective cultural characteristics of China and the West and the issue of cultural conflict are shown in the transcultural communication between the characters, which greatly attracts our interest.

Therefore, our group selected and analyzed a video clip from the film which tells that Weitong Gao brought his boyfriend,  Simon, to meet his parents and give them a meeting gift. This brief dialogue exemplifies several concepts commonly used in transcultural communication.

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Our group's poster was inspired by the film called "The Wedding Banquet" directed by Ang Lee. The leading man of the story, Weitong Gao, and his lover, an American man named Simon, lived together in Manhattan, New York. However, his parents in Taiwan did not know that their son is gay, and they kept urging him to get married so that he could inherit the family kinship. It happened that an illegal immigrant from China, Weiwei Gu, lived in Gao's apartment, so Simon came up with the idea of marrying Weiwei Gu. He thought that this would appease Weitong's parents in Taiwan, give Wei Wei Gu her coveted green card, and keep the cohabitation relationship between Simon and Weitong. Weitong's parents were delighted to hear the good news and came to New York to celebrate their son's wedding. All kinds of emotional disputes and interpersonal conflicts unfold behind a lively and busy Chinese wedding banquet.

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The concept of (im)politeness is closely related to face. In the field of sociolinguistics, face is usually defined as a mutually recognized and negotiated public image of participants in communication activities (Brown & Levinson, 1987). When communicating in a social context, people pursue the favor of others, and know that a wise way to achieve this is to show the favor of others. These acts out of face are politeness, which is described by Holmes (2012) as what we do (or not do) to maintain a harmonious relationship and avoid conflict with others.

In this video clip, participants make assumptions about face before communication and negotiate face-maintaining through the whole conversation. The story takes place in a family dinner. This divergence about power and distance in the relationship became the root of misunderstanding.

People adopt different politeness strategies and different expectations for others’ strategies when dealing with different power and distance relationships. According to politeness system theory (Scollon, Scollon &amp; Jones, 2012), the impact of power and distance on strategy is as follows:

•P: Power (Hierarchy)

• D: Distance (Solidarity)

Deference politeness system (-P, + D): mutual use of independence strategies

Solidarity politeness system (-P, -D): mutual use of involvement strategies

Hierarchical politeness system (+P, +/- D): Higher status participant to use involvement; Lower status participant to use independence

Simon regarded Gao’s parents as the family of a close friend (or lover) and guests with equal social status, expecting the solidarity politeness system, so he used involvement strategies as much as possible. For example, he called Gao's parents "Papa Gao" and "Mama Gao". addressing the informal terms rather than the more formal "Mr. Gao" and "Mrs. Gao". In order to facilitate communication, Simon chose to communicate in their L1 (Mandarin), which showed a clear orientation of solidarity. Gifts were given for the same purpose. By contrast, Gao's parents believed that their power and distance difference should result in the hierarchical politeness system and thus independence strategies were expected. When Simon took the 'wrong' way of communication, Gao's parents considered it a face threatening act (Brown & Levinson, 1987), so they chose the extreme independence, silence, to deal with this situation, as well as non-verbal behaviors such as frowning expressions to indicate dissatisfaction. Gao's mother also chose to ‘correct’ Simon's real intention at the end of the clip.

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Another explanation of politeness theory in this text is related to sociocultural approaches. Our behavior and conversation are restricted by a wide range of social norms and 'inheritance structures' such as belief, power and opportunity. This view holds that politeness is constructed by individuals in the group because they are told of broader social norms related to politeness in a society (Mills, 2011). Gao's parents were citizens who deeply identified traditional Chinese culture. In their opinion, although they were foreign guests, due to the influence of the traditional concept of ‘respecting the old’, Simon should follow the politeness rules in Chinese when communicating with them. For example, in traditional Chinese culture, it was usually offensive (impolite) to directly mention the diseases of the elderly. In particular, phrases such as "plan ahead", which curse people's illness in a sense, should never appear here. However, it is worth noting that not all language users agree with these norms, and different language groups have different understandings of politeness. Simon's American English community did not have such politeness requirements, leading to a failure to substitute the politeness norms specific to the Chinese context when he transcripted his ideas in Chinese.

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According to Hofstede (1991), in individualist societies, people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only. In collectivist societies, people belong to ‘in groups’ that take care of them in exchange for loyalty.

Individualism and collectivism have been shaped in contexts with cultural differences.
America (Individualism)： Americans are busy at work, and they have a high pace every day which makes them lack of opportunity to meet each other.

China (Collectivism): agricultural culture nation, most lands link together.

Family values are the embodiment of these two different ideas.
In Chinese culture, the value of the overall situation is emphasized, and the harmony of the overall atmosphere is more important than personal feelings.
In American culture, personal interests and feelings are more emphasized.

In the selection of video clips, because Simon was not familiar with Chinese, his words were somewhat offensive and impolite in the context of Chinese culture. But Gao's mother corrected him with a smile, and nothing awkward happened.

Collectivism plays an important role in the values of Chinese culture. People focus on interpersonal relationships and do not emphasize the value and personality of the individual, but rather the protection and restraint of the group and society for the individual. Chinese people emphasize "face" and do not want individual misbehavior or faults to affect the group. When choosing a gift, Chinese people attach importance to the value of the gift itself and tend to prefer expensive items, believing that this will not make the recipient feel that they are stingy or lose their face. When they receive a gift, they often refuse it first, otherwise, they will be considered “greedy” and “bad-mannered”, causing loss of face to both the individual and the family. As Gao's mother said in the video, "How can we have the nerve to let him spend it?", which implying that she intended to excuse herself from Simon's gift. In contrast, Simon, who is influenced by individualism, does not focus on the price of the gift when choosing it, but simply wants to express his greetings and blessings.