Abstract: Face is a topic of common concern in China and west. The scholars of China and west also raise different face theories base on the different cultural identities. In the west, Erving Goffman raised the concept of face first. Based on Leech’s famous “Politeness Principle”, Brown and Levinson raised “Face theory”. In China, Hu Hsien Chin and Gu Yueguo are the representatives in the study of the concept. These differences are not only in concepts, but also in behaviors. This paper will elaborate the differences of face in Chinese and western cultures from three aspects: theoretical study, face-saving strategy and language expression. Then the reasons of these differences will be summarized in the following. Embarrassment and misunderstanding be avoided in intercultural communication through insight into the differences of face and the reasons is the main purpose of this paper.  

Key words: politeness; face; cultural differences; pragmatic study

摘要：面子是中西方共同关注的话题。由于中西方具有不同的文化特征，中西方的学者也提出了不同的面子理论。在西方，最先由Erving Goffman 提出面子的定义。Leech提出著名的礼貌原则之后，Brown和Levinson在其基础上提出了面子理论。在中国，面子的研究以胡先缙、顾曰国等学者的理论为代表。对于面子，中西方不仅是观念不同，而且在行为习惯上也存在很多差异。本文首先将从理论研究，面子维护策略以及语言行为这三个方面阐述中西方面子观的不同，然后总结出形成这些不同的原因。通过研究中西方面子的不同，消除跨文化交际中的交流障碍，避免不必要的尴尬与误会是本文的主旨。

关键词：礼貌；面子；文化差异；语用研究