TACTILE GESTURES IN CHINESE EVERYDAY COMMUNICATION: TYPOLOGY, FUNCTIONS, CULTURAL MARKEDNESS

Abstract

Tactile communication occupies a special place among nonverbal channels of interaction: no other code is subject to such strong cultural pressure or generates such a wide range of interpretations of the same action. Chinese culture is traditionally classified as 'noncontact,' yet this characterization oversimplifies the actual picture: tactile gestures in Chinese everyday life are not suppressed but redistributed among different types of relationships. The aim of this study is to systematize the main types of tactile gestures functioning in everyday Chinese communication, to identify their functions, and to describe the mechanisms of cultural markedness. Based on cross-cultural empirical data, ethnographic observations, and historical-philosophical material, eight stable types of tactile gestures have been identified, ranging from a soft handshake with hand retention to the ritual tapping of fingers on the table, which substitutes for a bow. A classification of five functions of tactile contact is proposed: ritual-etiquette, status-marking, affective-friendly, performative, and socially integrative. A discrepancy between spatial proximity and tactile restraint has been identified: the comfortable interpersonal distance among the Chinese proved to be closer than that of representatives of several other 'noncontact' cultures, while the frequency of tactile contacts remains minimal. A systemic gap has been identified, namely the absence of quantitative body maps of touch permissibility based on a Chinese sample, and directions for filling it have been outlined. The results may be useful in training specialists for work in a Chinese-speaking communicative environment.