Chinese Intercultural Silence Characteristics from Grounded Theory Analysis

A proceduralized grounded theory analysis investigates the dynamic characteristics of silence among Chinese people in intercultural communication. The study, authored by Hongya Fan and last updated in May 2026, developed a four-stage theoretical framework from multi-source data including interviews and observations. The 14.6 KB document is shared under a CC-BY-4.0 license on figshare.

Use Cases

• Modeling the strategic negotiation of silence based on the described 'Context-Mediated Negotiations' stage.
• Analyzing cultural semiotics in communication based on the framework reframing silence as dynamic rather than a void.
• Training intercultural sensitivity tools based on the diagnostic distinction between strategic silence and passive absence.
• Studying habit formation in communication based on the concept of 'Ego-Protective Inertia' reinforcing silence.

Strengths

• Theoretical framework is derived from multi-source data including interviews, observations, and textual artifacts.
• Analysis is based on a proceduralized grounded theory methodology for participant-driven exploration.
• Dataset is openly shared under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license.

Limitations

• Dataset is a 14.6 KB DOCX file, indicating a very limited textual scope rather than a large data corpus.
• Column-level documentation and sample data are unavailable, requiring manual inspection after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for quantitative analysis.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Data gathered from multi-source authentic intercultural interactions, including semi-structured interviews, naturalistic observations, and textual artifacts, analyzed via constant comparative analysis.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-21 14:48:53

Geography

Likely focuses on Chinese cultural contexts, but specific geography is not stated.