A new trend in Chinese address and its theoretical implications

Abstract

This study examines the factors that affect people’s impressions of chat commerce in contemporary Chinese e-commerce, where various types of address terms and related expressions are used by online shop assistants. Our survey revealed that interpersonal distance was the strongest factor influencing the favourability of chat styles. Specifically, the distant type was rated the highest, whereas the close and mixed types were rated low, although they are used in practice increasingly frequently. We argue that this overt contradiction can be accounted for in terms of two perspectives: One is the district of residence, which was the second-strongest factor in our survey, and the other is the traditional Chinese “family culture”, in which people are treated both on a generational basis and on a closeness basis simultaneously. Moreover, we also discuss that the rusty pick-up lines, which express sympathetic proximity in content, combined with reverential distance in address form, perform a “bifocal” function.