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Lies That Bind
Chinese Truth, Other Truths
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Publisher:
2007
Summary
This provocative book explores the ideology of truth and deception in China, offering a nuanced perspective on social interaction in different cultural settings. Drawing on decades of fieldwork in China, Susan D. Blum offers an authoritative examination of rules, expectations, and beliefs regarding lying and honesty in society. Blum points to a propensity for deception in Chinese public interactions in situations where people in the United States would expect truthfulness, yet argues that lying is evaluated within Chinese society by moral standards different from those of Americans. Chinese, for example, might emphasize the consequences of speech, Americans the absolute truthfulness. Blum considers the longstanding values that led to this style of interaction, as well as more recent factors, such as the government's control over expression. But Chinese society is not alone in the practice of such customs. The author observes that many Americans also excel in manipulation of language, yet find a simultaneous moral absolutism opposed to lying in any form. She also considers other traditions, including Japanese and Jewish, that struggle to control the boundaries of lying, balancing human needs with moral values in contrasting ways. Deception and lying, the book concludes, are distinctively cultural yet universal—inseparable from what it is to be a human being equipped with language in all its subtlety.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2007
ISBN-Print
978-0-7425-5405-4
ISBN-Online
978-1-4616-3885-8
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
233
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Preface No access Pages i - iv
Dedication No access Pages v - vi
Contents No access Pages vii - viii
Preface No access Pages 1 - 8
Chapter 1 Truth, Lying, and Deception: Blum's Maxims for China No access
Chapter 2 Tricks and Traps: Deception and Protective Cleverness No access
Chapter 3 For Their Own Good: Benevolent Deception and Flattery No access
Chapter 4 State Secrets and Fakes: The True, the Real, the Transparent, and the Squelched No access
Chapter 5 Longing for Honesty No access
Chapter 6 Crooked and Straight: Right Action and Strategy in Premodern China No access
Chapter 7 A Social Theory of Truth: Language in Revolutionary China No access
Chapter 8 Truth and Deception across Time and Space No access
Chapter 9 Knowing How to Play with Words and Minds No access
Appendix: Theoretical Foundations and Implications No access Pages 173 - 196
