A Study on Cultural Variations of Smile Based on Empirical Recordings of Chinese and Swedish First Encounters

In this study, smiles were investigated in eight Chinese and Swedish video-recordings of first encounters. The purpose was to explore features of smile, culture specific as well as those that are common to Chinese and Swedes. We found that the Swedish participants smiled more than the Chinese, and that the Chinese female participants smiled more than the Chinese male participants. Only the Chinese smiled with their gaze turning towards the interlocutor/sideways/around or with eyebrow raise expressing embarrassment or disagreement, while only the Swedies smiled with up-nod(s) or chuckle/laughter expressing surprise, sympathy or politeness. Chinese has ‘en’, ‘e’, ‘a’ and ‘dui’ as the most common vocal-verbal expressions accompanying smile and Swedish has ‘{j}a’, ‘okej’, ‘{j}a jo’, ‘{j}a {j}a’, ‘hja’, and ‘{j}a okej’. 2 The Chinese participants used smile in the context of turn giving and feedback+turn giving more than the Swedish participants.