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indicator of his humbleness (Stevens, 2007). In the researcher‟s view, if the Chinese
audience sees Americans bragging about themselves/blowing their own trumpets in
Friends, especially in front of their superiors or older friends, Chinese viewers may well
consider this verbal behaviour as unnecessary or unjustified. They will most likely be
unaware that Friends is a comedy and as such designed to make the audience laugh by
having characters behave in perhaps unacceptable or excessively impolite ways.
The disparity between individualism and collectivism may also account for how
Chinese and Americans may be said to treat in-groups and out-groups differently. For
example, in a collectivistic society, people tend to treat the members in the same group
politely in an effort to obtain interpersonal harmony and group solidarity (Chen, 2006).
The irony is that while Chinese people may be said to not be as strongly aware of
politeness in front of strangers (those who are unlikely to become members of the
in-group) as they are in front of in-group members or those who they think are likely to
become members, they can be involved in informal conflict talks with close friends or
family members, taking such talks as a means of consolidating in-group relations (Chen,
2006). Therefore, it is more reasonable to think that Chinese people might be indifferent
to strangers than to suggest that they are comfortable with being impolite to strangers
(Chen, 2006). By comparison, Chinese audiences watching a series like Friends may
assume that Americans are found more frequently and boldly involved in disagreements
with either intimates or strangers than their Chinese counterparts (Chen, 2006). When
Americans express their discontent, they might use sarcastic language, idioms, pun and
so forth. In the researcher‟s view, Chinese viewers might not understand these as they
are not familiar with US culture. Chinese viewers are apt to conceal their feelings if they
are not happy with another member in their inter-group. Although it is important to
realise that Friends is a sitcom and characters in Friends may be deliberately rude in
order to amuse the audience (which might not occur in real life), the dissertation will
use the scenes in Friends and look into cultural-specific-items that maybe involved in
these situations and how these have been handled by the subtitle translators.
Another example to illustrate how American people perceive politeness in a
different manner from their Chinese counterparts is customer service. In large part due
to the legacy of the state-owned service sector, Chinese shop attendants do not treat
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