Offering gifts in Chinese: An interaction ritual approach

Abstract

In this study, we investigate ritual features and strategies of offering gifts in Chinese with the aid of a corpus of naturally-occurring WeChat exchanges. As numerous studies have shown, offering gifts is a fundamental part of daily interaction in Chinese. We investigate offering gifts from a new angle, by adopting an interaction ritual approach which combines ritual, interaction and speech acts. Our analysis has revealed three recurrent features of gift offering behaviour in Chinese: interactionally varying multi-sequentiality, frequency of formulaic expressions, and prevalence of ritual ostensible aggression. We also identified conventional strategies of offering gifts: presenting the gift as a fait accompli, ignoring the refusal, and persuading the recipient. Our study contributes to inquiries into offering gifts behaviour and insistent ritual language use in Chinese.