Politeness in Chinese Diplomatic Discourse: Cross-Cultural Aspects and Translational Challenges

Abstract

         The present article examines politeness strategies of Chinese diplomacy as the culturally particular system of semantic and pragmatic means intended to ensure smooth international communication. The focus is on the cross-cultural character of politeness strategies and on the challenges of rendering Chinese diplomatic tone markers into English and Russian. The problem is urgent because there is still a limited number of comparative studies that cover lexical-semantic, pragmatic and other dimensions of translation of politeness in Chinese diplomatic discourse, which is particularly relevant in the context of globalization.          The methodology of the research includes conceptual-pragmatic analysis of contemporary Chinese formal diplomatic papers (2019-2025) and comparative analysis of their English and Russian equivalents. The analysis reveals that the most significant structural, semantic, and pragmatic features of Chinese diplomatic politeness are honorific nominations, euphemisms, hedging, and indirect constructions. The analysis shows that literal translation results in the loss of meaning and pragmatics particularly when the transfer involves culturally-specific aspects of politeness such as those pertaining to harmony, hierarchy and relational empathy. According to the results obtained, Chinese diplomatic politeness is a particular communicative model, which is focused on the preservation of harmony, hierarchy and face in international relations. The outcomes of this study can be applied to develop translation theory and intercultural communication by clarifying the cultural rationale of Chinese diplomatic discourse and giving useful instructions to translator education and cross-cultural adaptation of politeness strategies.