This paper addresses the cultural specificity of Chinese written deferential and rude communication. By exploring expressions of (im) politeness in written discourse, the present study contributes not only to Chinese language studies but also to postmodern politeness research, which tends to neglect semiotic-graphic analysis of written forms. Apart from its practical findings, it reinforces the recent theoretical argument according to which it is difficult to capture culturally unique linguistic phenomena, and the cultural specificity of a phenomenon can be captured by mapping its elaborateness from an intercultural perspective.
