High Context Culture
China
Some characteristics of High-context
communication are:
High-context communication relies more heavily
on shared context and so the message is often
implicit. So, if you are communicating with
business partners from a high-context culture,
you need to pay more attention to what is not
said as much as the words used.
Differences
Low context cultures communicate
explicitly and don’t assume the listener or
reader will fill in any details.
High context cultures leave lots of details
out and may in some cases may not state
the main message of a communication at
all.
China
 China is considered a high context
culture as communication tends to be
indirect and the real message needs to
be interpreted according to the
context.
 When communicating in China, the
sender needs to provide sufficient
context and the receiver needs to infer
intended meaning and closely observe
any non-verbal signals such as facial
expression or gestures.
Examples
o Sometimes, words can be interpreted
differently according to the context, so
‘yes’ can mean ‘no’ in some situations.
o
Silence can be interpreted differently in
different contexts.
o
However, ‘no’ can sometimes also mean
‘yes’.