Five steps toward understanding deception and truth in China

Susan Blum
http://www.nd.edu/~sblum/
Anthropology
Notre Dame

Abstract:

Truth-telling is valued in all human societies to varying degrees, but is certainly not the sole function of language in actual human interaction. In field experiences in China over two decades, I have often been startled at the ways words were used, sometimes not understanding at all what was occurring despite knowing the words. In a cross-cultural exploration of the values of truth and deception, I have examined the moral valences attached to a range of goals for speech. Though it is common to discover cultural particularities in fieldwork or to focus on universal aspects of human behavior, in my grappling to understand field experiences in China I have tacked back and forth between views that deception is more prevalent in China than in the U.S., that deception is conceived more honestly in China, that deception is prevalent but lamented in contemporary China, that deception is equally distributed in human societies, and that history must be invoked in any setting. Using the notion of Grice's maxims, I propose Blum's Maxims for China as a way of organizing the ways people use words interpersonally in China and elsewhere.