Mediated intercultural communication involving Chinese speakers and English speakers

In this chapter we explore intercultural communication that primarily involves Chinese speakers and English speakers. We focus on intercultural pragmatics of Chinese and English speakers and mediated intercultural communication practices through Chinese–English interpreters in a globalized world. Drawing on established research paradigms such as Hymes’ SPEAKING model, Hall’s high and low context cultures, Hofstede’s dimensions of culture, and face and maxims of politeness, as well as on more recently developed research paradigms on intercultural communication, for example, Sharifian’s research on cultural linguistics and the Inter-Culturality Framework introduced in Chapter 1, we explore the extent to which intercultural communication among Chinese and English speakers can be effectively mediated through Chinese–English interpreters in domain-specific interactions.