American/Western & Chinese Rhetorical Customs

cultural similarities and differences between the American/Western

theory and customs of writing rhetoric and the Chinese rhetorical

theory and customs. The plan of the research will be to set forth

the principal concepts presented by various commentators, and then

to discuss the chief ways in which their points of view have the

effect of illuminating the nexus of culture, history, and diction

To make a meaningful examination of the similarities and

differences between Western and Chinese rhetorical styles, which

Matalene explains is known as "contrastive rhetoric" (789), it is

useful (for a Westerner, at any rate) to first determine the

general position from which the culture of Western rhetoric and

expression proceeds. This position appears to be twofold. In one

sense, the tradition of Western grammar and style is prescriptive.

That is, the language is governed by specific rules and conventions

that determine its correct expression or writing. In another sense,

Western expression, or more exactly its structure, is logical; that

is, one idea flows from or is built upon another. Lang asserts that

the prescriptive nature of writing in the Western culture is

analogous to the prescriptive quality of moral actions within the

culture (25), specifically noting that in Strunk and White's (The

Elements_of_Style(, a handbook for writers, "the clarity and

. . .
. Rather, the Chinese appear to have internalized the process of proof. The proofs are built in to the expressions themselves. This being so, the further away (in expression) the writer can move from a direct presentation of a proof as such, the more compellingly he will have made a statement. Matalene writes that as a teacher she found her students bewildered that "their teacher . . . had to have everything spelled out" (802). She also cites Gregg's observations that "Chinese rhetorical values [are] imitation, inculcation, and indirection" (802). In a culture with such a powerful collective memory and which relies on memorization for so much basic literacy, this has a logic all its own. Meanwhile, however, Western readers Matalene characterizes as individualistic consider imitation as plagiarism, inculcation as noncreative rote learning, and indirection as obfuscation (802, (et passim(). Attitudes toward the correct mode of expression take on complex dimensions in the English and Chinese cultures. Whereas the basic rules of syntax and grammar are prescriptive in Western writing, and whereas there appears to be a preference among teaching scholars (including Matalene) for writing to be presente
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2224
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)