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By analyzing and studying different temporal concept between China and America, the thesis aims at allowing readers to deeply understand temporal concept and then to analyze its influence on business negotiations by quoting some negotiating cases. After that, some useful solutions to contradictions caused by different temporal concept are illustrated. Finally, the closing part includes the conclusion, as well as the limitations of this thesis.源:自/751-·论,文'网·www.751com.cn/
2. Literature Review
Temporal concept, are also called concept of time by different scholars. It is a term explaining how people perceive, and use time in communication. Greatly influenced by culture, the way people perceive and use time varies from culture and culture. American and Chinese studies on temporal concept are analyzed as follows. American studies on temporal concept have a very long history. Anthropologist Edward T. Hall concept of poly-chronic versus mono-chronic time orientation analyzed how cultures structure their time. In The Silent Language, Hall points out that culture has three levels: the formal, the informal, and the technical level (Hall, 1959: 63). Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck pide time orientation into three parts: past orientation, present orientation, and future orientation. According to Kluckhohn, “All societies have some conception of the past, all have a present, and all give some kind of attention to the future time-orientation”(Kluckhohn, 1953: 348). However, people from different cultures vary widely the concept of time and in the value placed on the past, present and future. In addition, people under different time orientations may have different opinions on the pattern of time. According to Davis, in future-orientated societies, time is linear (Davis, 2001: 201). However, in past and present-orientated societies, time is cyclical.
Chinese scholars have summarized some theories through the study on cultural differences on temporal concept. In China, the research on cultural temporal concept mostly focuses on introducing, recommending and commenting the theory of western scholars, which can be found in the monographs about intercultural and nonverbal communication published in recent years.
From my point of view, there are huge differences in temporal concept between China and America. And it is these differences in temporal concept that leads to the contradictions in business negotiations. No matter before, during or after negotiating, those contradictions caused by different temporal concept inevitably influence the result of the negotiation.
In summary, American scholars have proposed many theories on time through empirical research and quantitative studies. These theories can be scientifically validated through repeated tests and applied by many different scholars in different periods, places and among different cultures. In contrast, the research on temporal concept in China has a short history but has achieved a lot.
3. Differences in Temporal Concept Between China and America 文献综述
China and America have different concept of time owing to their different cultural backgrounds, such as religious relief, social pattern and economic system. As the economy is developing rapidly, intercultural business contact is becoming more and more frequent. It is inevitable that some misunderstandings and conflicts occur when two cultures communicate. In order to avoid this problem, we should comprehensively learn about differences in time conception of each culture to facilitate the ability of international communication. Differences in temporal concept between China and America are mainly embodied in the following aspects: time orientations, time patterns, and time systems. Accordingly we can analyze it from three categories.