Taboos in China: To Be or Not to Be

Abstract

With powerful influence on the people, taboos should be noticed with keen awareness and handled with cautious respect for international visitors in China, a traditional country in its process of modernization, if successful cross-cultural communication is to be achieved. In the ever changing and integrating world, Chinese taboos are never free from differentiation: some are permant; some are newly shaped; some are weakening; and some have even totally disappeared. The introduction of Chinese taboos in different aspects of life and their tendency of development should hopefully provide help for those from the rest of the world to overcome cultural barriers in relation with the Chinese people.