The Unique Values of Chinese Traditional Cultural Time Orientation: In Comparison with Western Cultural Time Orientation

The field of nonverbal communication has been given more and more attention in the academic circle of intercultural communication. However, as far as the time issue is concerned, it requires a thorough study. Particularly, the time orientation of the Chinese traditional culture has not been fully covered. This paper makes a special effort in the exploration of the unique values underlying the traditional Chinese culture time orientation by making a comparison with the western time orientation. It analyzes the subjective, flexible and relative features of traditional Chinese culture time orientation by specifically investigating the unique values of past-time focus. It will discuss the pursuit of the right occasion in Confucianism’s time orientation, as well as the relativity view and carefree manner of spending time in Taoism’s time orientation. The paper finally concludes that the subjective, flexible, and relative approaches of the traditional Chinese culture time orientation can provide meaningful revelations to the western world, which has laid much emphasis on the objective, absolute, and future-focus time orientation.