A Study on China English and Chinese English from the Perspective of Crosscultural Communication

XIONG Xin

School of Foreign Languages,Guangxi University of Science and Technology,Guangxi,China

Email:1301643470@qq.com

XIE Xinyi

School of Foreign Languages,Guangxi University of Science and Technology,Guangxi,China

Email:1434296218@qq.com

[Abstract] With continuous improvement of China's overall national strength and further cultural exchanges between China and the West,Chinese people increasingly use English for cross-cultural communication,resulting in China English and Chinese English.China English is a linguistic phenomenon involving cultural exchanges between Chinese culture and British culture,which is a normative English variety accepted by native speakers.While completely different from China English,Chinese English (Chinglish) is a non-standard expression neglecting the culture and customs in English-speaking nations,which is a rote interfered by the thinking mode and linguistic habits of the mother tongue-Chinese,so we should try to avoid it.This thesis analyzes the definitions and reasons of China English and Chinese English from the cross-cultural perspective,coupled with a few measures to avoid the Chinese English or transferring it to China English,emphasizing the crucial influence of China English on cross-cultural communication for it is the very product of cross-cultural communication.

[Keywords] China English;Chinese English;cross-cultural communication

Introduction

The combination of English with other local cultures and customs when it is commonly used around the world has resulted in many varieties with regional characteristics.These varieties act a vital role in the process of cross-cultural communication,and are responsible for various communication functions in certain social groups.

From the beginning of the 19thcentury to the present,Chinese people has a history of learning English for more than 180 years.Due to mutual influence and mixture of Chinese and Western cultures,plenty of Chinese borrowing words have joined English language family,becoming a part of standard English.With the further cultural and technological exchanges between China and foreign countries,Chinese has generated a great deal of English expressions and discourses with unique Chinese characteristics in political,economic,cultural and other aspects of life.These new English forms,which show the events and phenomena with Chinese characteristics,have obvious Chinese cultural features,greatly enriching the vocabulary,syntax and discourse of modern English.And these emerging phenomena of English have been collectively referred to as China English by scholars.However,due to the internal heterogeneity between Chinese and Western cultures and the negative transfer of mother tongue that cannot be avoided during language acquisition,English learners in China are prone to mechanically apply the rigid Chinese linguistic patterns to English,causing interlanguages that cannot conform to English language norms,which is Chinese English(Chinglish).

"Faithfulness,expressiveness and elegance" theory proposed by Yan Fu,as "three difficulties" for translating.In my opinion,his theory can be concluded as "understanding and expression".Some translators try to shoehorn the corresponding English expressions they look up the dictionary into English translations by sentence patterns and grammar rules they have learned,so their translations are correct in meaning but not accurate or authentic in expression,resulting that Chinese readers could understand their meanings but seldom are foreign ones.

Definition of China English and Chinese English

Rong Pei considered China English as the English with Chinese characteristics locally used in China,with standard English as its core(Rong,1991,p.4).However,Li Wenzhong recognized that Rong's definition was inappropriate,and redefines China English as the vocabularies,sentences and discourses with Chinese characteristics taking the standard English as the core to express the unique things in social,cultural and other fields in China,free from interference and influence by the mother tongue,becoming an authentic English communicative method by means of transliteration,borrowing translation and semantic regeneration and so forth (Li,1993,p.18).While Jia Guanjie,on the basis of the integration of the definitions of Rong and Li,further defined China English as an English variety with the inevitable Chinese characteristics used by Chinese-speaking people,with standard English as the core,and beneficial to the wide spread of Chinese culture(Jia,1997,p.11).

Chinglish,also known as Chinese English,means when Chinese people learning or using English,the certain linguistic phenomena in Chinese are brought into English,causing apparent similarities to Chinese in expression way,syntactic structure and use of vocabulary.Jin Huikang pointed out Chinglish is with great instability generally for the individual's language characteristics,often disturbed by Chinese style and thinking mode,which is mainly reflected in inappropriate intervention(Jin,2003,p.66).This kind of English has great arbitrariness,subjectivity and creativity,belonging to an interlanguage without common norms."For instance,"窮光蛋"is translated into"poor light egg".And some learners are prone to use Chinese-style greetings such as"teacher Wu"(吳老師)and"Have you eaten up?"(吃過了嗎?).And when people are on the phone,they would ask"who are you?"instead of"who is that speaking?"and the like.Even if these sentences are correct in grammatical level,they do not conform with English culture and custom.Consequently,this type of sentences cannot be understood or accepted by English-speaking natives,and then Chinese English came into being.

With cross-cultural teaching gaining increasing attention of all types of language teaching,it has been found that the emergence of Chinese English is not only due to the differences of languages,but also caused by cultural disparities.Affected by the Chinese thinking mode and lack of correct understanding of local cultures and communicative ways of native English-speaking nations,English learners have created many Chinglish.Therefore,China English belongs to the standard English,with the typical Chinese cultural connotation,which has a positive influence on enriching English connotation and disseminating brilliant Chinese culture(Adamson,2004,p.188).Conversely,Chinese English is an irregular English language,made up by China's English learners in their daily life,by the impact of English-Chinese cultural differences,which should be totally avoided.

Causes for China English and Chinese English

Language and culture are closely related since language reflects a nation-owned social experience and features of ethnic culture.When people acquire the other language,they gradually understand the culture of the nation as well.Language is not only a set of symbols,since people's linguistic expression forms depend on society or community in which language are confined and impacted by customs,lifestyles,behaviors,values,ways of thinking,religious beliefs,ethnic psychology and personality(Jiang,2003,p.27).

The forms of China English

Due to the disparity between Chinese and English culture,to express somewhat unique things or phenomena in China culture,there is no corresponding word in English,that is,there is a cultural gap between Chinese and English.

Transliteration

Some vocabularies of China English are generated from the pronunciation of Putonghua,namely Pinyin.E.g.:goji(枸杞),chow mein(炒面),Lychee(荔枝),typhoon(臺風(fēng)),yangko(秧歌)and so forth.Additionally,some transliterated words originated from dialects in China,such as wok(鍋),wonton(云吞),cheongsam(長衫),dim sum(點心),chop suey(雜碎)and Hakka(客家的)all of which came from Cantonese.And cumshaw(小費，賞錢),tea(茶),petsai(白菜),ketchup(番茄醬)and sampan(舢板)etc.coming from Hokkien(Minnan dialect).These vocabularies of China English derive from China's local or folk culture in politics,religion,historical personnel as well as daily communication,all of which manifest distinct characteristics of local culture in China.Furthermore,these China English words with vigorous vitality,are gradually accepted by more and more people after being spread around the world,being used in oral English and written articles.

China's political conditions

China's social development has great characteristics all the time,since it has eventually stepped into socialist stage with Chinese features after its lasted 2000-year feudal society and being the victim of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression coupled with four-year Chinese civil war.During that time,a great number of linguistic phenomena and features sprang up,which are rare in English-speaking countries.Therefore,the unique China English have made its debut.For example:great leap forward(大躍進),three represents(三個代表),supply-side structural reform(供給側(cè)結(jié)構(gòu)改革),socialist concept of honor and disgrace(社會主義榮辱觀),sites and heritage related to the CPC(紅色資源).Besides,some external political materials are inclined to be written in contracted forms so as to be concise and to the point.Consequently,the English-translated versions of them hold a mass of special short sentences.For instance,"keep the front gate open and block the side doors"(開正門,堵偏門),"whoever causes pollution is responsible for its treatment" (誰污染,誰治理).In addition,some China English come from the imprecise etymology,since they express matters with Chinese characteristics,but without specific origination in Chinese,such as"a community with a shared future for mankind"(人類命運共同體),etc..

Chinese way of thinking

Generally speaking,English thinking mode is linear model while Chinese one is curved-type.Consequently,English articles tend to come straight to the point and do some explanations and descriptions later.However,China English passages due to the influence of Chinese thinking mode are more implicit and tortuous,which is the typical thinking way of China.

Dear Li Ming,

How are you doing recently?It has been three months since we met last time and I really miss you.

Recently,I have been learning painting in a local institution because I am really obsessed with it.And the teachers there are very friendly to me.If I am baffled with some difficulties in learning,they are very pa-tient to help me with them.What's more,I have become increasingly positive and delighted thanks to painting,which calms me down a lot when I am in a bad mood.However,I am going to lose my habit soon since I cannot afford the tuition fee.Right in the moment of immersing with sorrow,it suddenly reminds me you are extremely warm-hearted person who are glad to help the friends in need.Because of this,I have taken my time to write to you,hoping that you could lend some money to me so that I could go on pursuing my dream.

Looking forward to hearing from you.Wish you best!

Yours Grace

This kind of China English with distinct Chinese cultural features are irreplaceable in the cross-cultural communication.Because of the contrasts on the mode of thinking,culture and language,when translating,there is no exact equivalent in Chinese for all the words of English.

The causes of Chinese English

Different ethnics have different geographic,religious and historical conditions.Thus,there are various descriptions of this nation-owned unique allusions and legends about diverse events and experiences.As a result,China's English learners frequently create numerous Chinglish owing to incomprehension about the cultural background of western countries.

Lack of deep understanding about some words in English culture

For example,"You look healthy" seems like a compliment in Chinese culture,but that sentence actually suggests someone was unhealthy and just recovered from an illness.While that could be corrected into"You look great".Moreover,if you want acclaim a lady's nice figure as "You are so skinny",it would also incur misunderstandings for"skinny" means an unhealthy body shape,which should be replaced by "slim".And "red sugar" should be "brown sugar(紅糖)",because red means blood in the west."White wine"does not mean"白酒",which should be"liquor",because wine in English made of grapes.At times,some learners use"work like a dog"to describe someone works as exhaustible as a dog,but that phrase should be used for depicting someone works very hard.Because dog in the west is good symbol contrary to its connotation in China,the former one symbolizes loyalty in the work and the latter one is usually with somewhat pejorative.Noodles in the west is the food for little kids,but in China,many people usually use"noodles"rather than"pasta"or"spaghetti",because when we are in primary school learning English,we are taught this word but without being told its cultural background.Thus,when translating,we cannot translate it literally but to find out their cultural connotations to avoid Chinglish.

The disparity of eastern and western values

Chinese tend to express their feelings,opinions or comments in an implicit way.On the contrary,English-speaking natives tend to show that openly and straightforwardly.Because China is a big country with a 5000-year history of Confucianism,which emphasize inside collect,implicative manners as well as keeping in a low profile,while western countries maintain that a person should be open-minded,frankly-speaking,which is regarded as confidence and coverage.That is the reason why Chinese would reply"where where"when they got good comments and English-speaking natives would respond with "thank you".In another example,a wife asks her husband whether her new dress is beautiful,and the husband replies"your eyes are beautiful".In that case,the husband's answer is brimming with Chinese style,which is tortuous and implied,because he considers it's impolite and hurtful to point the matters out frankly.In Chinese culture,people's expression and exchange focus on speakers,and letting readers to guess,to figure out the deep meanings.Whereas,English-speaking people are keen on putting forward their opinions and comments at the first priority,since English takes reader as the center,so they want readers to get their point directly and immediately.Furthermore,westerners focus on individuality and personal privacy is often their bottom line.While,Chinese people have a strong sense of collectivism.Therefore,for the sake of showing the concerns about others,Chinese people enjoy asking something private.When Chinese communicate with westerners,they are passionately interested in the questions like"what have you eaten?""what is your job?""where are you going?"and so forth.

Different thinking modes

There are some different thinking modes between Chinese and English,for example,"你歌唱的真好。"should be "you are a good singer",while Chinese English would be "you sing very well." "你拿了我的書嗎？" should be"do you have my book?"instead of"have you taken my book?"."女兒的眼睛長得像你"should be"your daughter's eyes are from you" rather than "your daughter's eyes look like you".The above sentences reflect two totally different thinking modes when depicting the same thing.Due to the huge gap of language expressing model and thinking mode,some English learners are greatly impacted by Chinese thinking mode.Meanwhile,they do not realize the significance of cultivating English thinking mode-you can express abundant meanings accurately even without a good command of enormous vocabularies.Thus,provided that China's English learners cannot flexibly apply the cultural background of English-speaking countries,merely with some simple and surface study of vocabulary and grammar,they are prone to create massive Chinese English which does not conform with English grammatical rules.

Influence of China English and Chinese English

When learning English,Chinese pay the most attention to the lexical and grammatical rules instead of the social culture and thinking model in English-speaking nations,and tend to unconsciously express their opinions from the Chinese cultural perspective,neglecting the vital function of culture when acquiring English(Samovar,2012,p.156).Badly,Chinese English would cause inappropriate expression and behavior,even cultural conflict.From the perspective of language acquirement,cultural diversity is one of major interference factors.

Language and culture are both important elements of human civilization,which are tightly connected with.Language is a significant part of culture,meanwhile,it closely mixes with culture and inevitably influenced by cultural element vice versa.Language is not only the main carrier of a nation's history and culture,but the medium to express and show its distinctive culture.In short,China English,as a variety of standard English,is created to meet the need of expressing Chinese characteristics in English.In cross-cultural communication,we are supposed to avoid communicative failures by means of expressing in regular and standard grammar and vocabulary instead of influence of Chinese thinking mode.

Conclusion

With great differences in their essence,causes,linguistic and cultural features,both China English and Chinese English have their own values,because the former belongs to a positive phenomenon,a necessary outcome of crosscultural communication in modern society(Xie,1995,p.8).While the latter is a nonstandard linguistic expression,a negative thing impeding cross-cultural communication.On the other hand,there is not yet an impassable gulf between the two types of expression.Chinglish may change into China English after the stronger cross-cultural awareness,since it is indispensable for China English to precisely express and disseminate the unique culture of Chinese nation.Those special elements filled with Chinese characteristics have to be transmit in China English.Culture is a sophisticated element in cross-cultural communication,we not merely find out the equivalence of linguistic meaning but cultural level.Only by this can we create a barrier-free communication in various cultures.

Acknowledgments

The research of this paper is from the project ofDiscourse Power of Translating in International Communication(16BXW052)sponsored by the National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science of China.