ABSTRACT
If we cannot understand the Chinese power operation and interpersonal relations with the concept of distance, how can we understand the Chinese, especially Chinese authoritarianism and interpersonal relations? Although the written Chinese characters do help shape Chinese culture, their influence is only on the form of Chinese thinking rather than the content of it. Similar to the West, the influence of the alphabetical language is on the form of the Western mode of thinking. That is why we call the logic created by Aristotle “formal logic.” That means if we want to know the content of something such as Chinese authoritarianism, we will have to look elsewhere.
