The Effect of Both High-Context Culture and Low-Context Culture on the Progress of Time Conception of Chinese
Abstract: Human events occurring in daily life are closely related to time. Time is fundamental bases on cultures and human activities. In academic fields, different cultures shape different time conception, and time conception is an important mirror to reflect culture. Edward Hall regarded time orientation is evidently distinct between high-context cultures and low-context cultures. Time conception consists of time orientation and the view of time. Time orientation and the view of time of Chinese have changed a lot under the influence of high and low context culture, especially low-context culture from some western countries. The paper aims to find the progress which we have achieved about the conception of time in our country.
Key Words high-context culture; low-context culture; conception of time; Chinese
高语境文化和低语境文化对中国人时间观念进步的影响
摘  要
    时间和人们的生活息息相关。任何文化和人类的活动都可以体现在人们对时间的理解和观念上。不同的文化塑造了不同的时间观念，而且时间观念是反应文化的一面重要镜子。爱德华.霍尔认为高语境文化和低语境文化中的时间观念明显不同。在传统儒家文化影响下的中国逐渐形成了高语境文化，由此衍生出了延续五千多年的根深蒂固的传统时间观念。近年来中国和在低语境文化影响下的国家的接触逐渐增多，时间观念的不同引发了很多矛盾。但是受低语境文化的影响中国人的时间取向和时间观也有了很大的改变，更有利于跨文化交际的顺利进行。本文重点探索高语境文化和低语境文化对中国人时间观念的积极影响和改观。
[关键词] 高语境；低语境；时间观念；中国人
1. Introduction
Two thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher Sophocles stated: ‘Time is a kingly God’ In China ‘ Time is money ’(一寸光阴一寸金) is an evergreen guideline from one generation to another. Therefore, time is the most precious treasure for every nation. However, if we take a deep observation into the conception of time in different countries, we can find that cultures vary widely in this aspect. Where they differ is in the view of time, usage of time an
d time orientation. Hall described that time is one of the fundamental bases on which all culture rest and round all activities revolves and he also regarded time orientation is evidently distinct from high-context cultures (HC) and low-context cultures (LC). In high-context culture, time is viewed as more open, less structured, more responsive to the immediate needs of people, and less subject to external goals and constrains. In low-context cultures, time is highly organized, in part because of the additional energy required to understand the message of others (Myron W.Lustig, Jolene Koester Intercultural Competence 114). Low-context cultures are forced to pay more attention to time in order to make their work and lives orderly.
According to Hall’s cultural continuum that ranges from high to low, the cultural pattern of Chinese is typically high-context culture. Chinese has a strong belief that the past should be guide for making decisions and determining truth. They have no strictly organized and ordered time arrangement. Time schedule is changeable and flexible for Chinese. The concept of time is vague and approximation. However, by contrast, time in low-context culture is highly structured and time table is firmly and inflexible. Since the beginning of ref
orm and opening-up, exchanges between China and some low-context cultural countries are increasing and the conflicts which are raised by the difference of concept of time between two cultural patterns attract more attentions. So under their influence and in order to solve the problems, Chinese started to change their concept of time gradually and achieved progress. The development of Chinese time conception is moving to the low-context culture.
2. Definitions and Features of HC, LC and Their Relations with Time
  According to Hall, different cultures can form a continuum that ranges from high-context culture to low-context culture, in which some countries, such as Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam, belong to the high-context culture, and other countries, such as Germany, Switzerland, and United States, belong to low-context culture. Hall defined these two terms in the following manner: A high-context communication or message is one in which most of the information is already in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicitly transmitted part of the message. A low context communication is just the opposite; i.e., the
mass of the information is vested in the explicit code. (Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter and Lisa A. Stefani, Communication Between Culture 79)
The feature of HC and LC is distincttabletimely different. A high-context culture prefers to use covert and implicit message that rely heavily on nonverbal code systems. The group is very important in HC, and members of the ingroup are easily recognized. Time is not strictly arranged and more responsive to people’s need. For example, one day a Chinese wants to invite his friend to have dinner. They may have a conversation like this:
A: Hi, old Wang. How is everything going?
B: Very good.
A: How about your son?
B: He is well, but his study is always a worry for me.
A: Do you have any appointment tonight? I want to invite you to have a dinner tonight.
B: I want to visit a friend tonight, but I can change it to another day.
A: Ok, bye.
B: Bye.
In this conversation we can get four points about time. (1) The first four sentences are meaningless to the point, and it seems a waste of time, but in some high-context cultural countries, such as Japan and China, it is necessary to warm up the relationship. (2) A will invite B to have dinner “tonight”; therefore, it means B only have 4 to 5 hours to prepare. Chinese have been used to it, but its time of preparation is surprisingly short to low-context cultural people. (3) Before the conversation, B had a plan to visit his friend, yet in order to have dinner with A he changed his plan at last. So time is open and flexible in China. (4) From the beginning to the end of the talk, there is no an accurate time of the dinner. “Tonight” is a vague time, thus vague time is common in high-context country.

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