【正文】 hwest University for Nationalities for the degree of Bachelor of ArtsTable of Contents1Introduction…………………………………………...….....12The Significance and Features of Body Language………. 2 Significance of Body Language…………………………………………. . .2 The Features of Body Language……………………………………………33Taboos in Body Language…………………………………..3 Taboos of Facial Expressions………………………………………………. 3 Smiling……………………………………………………………………4 Smacking………………………………………………………………….4 Covering the Mouth……………………………………………………….4 Taboos of Eye Contact……………………………………………………….4 Taboos of Gesture…………………………………………………………….5 Waving…………………………………………………………………….5 “V” Gesture………………………………………………………………..6 “OK” Gesture……………………………………………………………...6 Middle Fingerup…………………………………………………………..6 Thumbsup………………………………………………………………....7 Shaking Hands……………………………………………………………..7 Taboos of Posture……………………………………………………………..8 Sitting…………………………………………………………………….. .8 Crouching…………………………………………………………………..9 Walking………………………………………………………………….. .9 Taboos of Touch…………………………………………………………….. .9 Touching with Stringers’ Body…………………………………………..10 Touching with Bodies of the Same Sex………………………………….10 Touching with Children’s Body………………………………………….104 Conclusion…………………………………………...……..115 References……………………………………………………...…….…126 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………... .13 Taboo in Body Language between China and West【Abstract】The two ways of human munications, the verbal munication and nonverbal munication are plementary to each other and bee undivided entirety. Body language is the most normal nonverbal munication in human munication, including facial expression, eye contact, gesture, posture and touch, etc. The same act of body language can be considered as the different signal and information by the people with different cultural background. Once leaving it out, one may outrage others. Therefore, in the interculture munication between China and the West, only by acquiring taboos in body language of each other can people avoid culture conflict.【Key words】Nonverbal munication, body language, taboo, intercultural munication【摘要】人類交際有兩種形式:語言交際和非語言交際。這兩種形式相輔相成，構(gòu)成人類交際不可分割的整體。由于文化差異,同一動(dòng)作的體態(tài)語會(huì)被不同文化背景的人理解為不同的信號和不同的信息,稍不注意就會(huì)犯忌?！娟P(guān)鍵詞】非言語交際 肢體語言 禁忌 跨文化交際 131. Introduction Human being municates with each other by two ways. One is verbal munication, and the other is nonverbal munication. The successful crosscultural munication needs to understand not only the verbal behavior but also the nonverbal. Body language is the most mon nonverbal munication and it is a symbol system, an information carrier of people exchanging ideas and expressing emotions which generally acpany and give a hand in message delivery. MerriamWebster39。 looking directly at Chinese, especially women, makes them feel offensive when a conversation occurs between Chinese and westerner. It follows that it influences on the conversation if just have an eye on taboos about speaking (Pan, 2005). Therefore, it is necessary to discuss taboos in body language of nonverbal munication in order to make people recognize its importance of intercultural munication. The Features of Body LanguageJust the same as spoken language, body language is a way to deliver that accumulating during long life in human history. With diverse cultural background, pattern of manifestation and connotation of body language not only have similarity but disparity. As a result, there are two features of body language: biological and cultural features.Biological features refer to the special features which human, whatever nations, all have to express some emotions because the facial expression is innate behavior and human physiology is in mon. For example, people smile when being happy, gape eyes when being angry, and frown when feeling dissatisfied, etc. The very similarity of body language makes Chaplin beloved by Chinese through his brilliant performance in silent film.Cultural features mean some body languages get acquired and pass on from generation to generation, sharing with the members of social groups and being the part of those cultures. Owning to several cultural backgrounds between china and the west, they build up respective values and behavior patterns so that they have no alikeness expressing and understanding body language.Besides, many behaviors of body language are acquired and particularly accepted due to customs. For example, a shrug done by AngloAmericans means having no other way or being rather baffling。 an appropriate hint will be regarded as offence. The reason is that, on the one hand, one action suggests politeness。 even with appreciative sight can make the other angry too. Many foreigners usually feel angry or annoyed when local people looking at them with curiosity for a long time during their travel or lectures in china (Guo Mingchen, 2005). Though there is no maliciousness, it is still impolite. In intercultural munication, once neglect the usage and connotation of eye contact, people can be rude to some extent and violated a taboo.For instance, when two Arabs talk together and stare at each other with warm eyes, this eye contact is not appropriate for two men by reason that long time to gaze is always considered to be a part of homosexual subculture’s codes in body language from the angle of American culture. Furthermore, an educated British believes that keeping his eyes on others directly when munication is gentility。 Spanish always avert the eye contact to show “respect” and “obey” that they are by dint of fan to pass on the mute massage and since then it has e to “a speaking Spanish fan” (Lian, 2005).In the 19th century, after traveling Spain, a France writer Gautier reported frankly: “in Spain, I have never seen any Spanish women didn’t bring her own fan to wander everywhere even go to the church. They play the fan absolutely exquisi