Directness in Chinese Business Correspondence of the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Although the literature has usually characterized Chinese business correspondence as indirect, this article illustrates how Chinese writers used directness in 115 extant English-language business letters to Jardine, Matheson & Company Ltd. in the nineteenth century. Taking a general speech-act approach and a linguistic pragmatics analysis to determine the incidence of directness and indirectness, the author then uses cultural analysis to understand why the writers used directness and indirectness. The analysis shows that indirectness in the organization of the message served to establish an informational context whereas directness served to signal a strong proximity dimension in the relationship between the correspondents. The article proposes that these Chinese writers may have chosen directness precisely to signal proximity, especially where power differentials were great.