..., partly because the personal interests of the residents were linked to the British and their legal and illegal trade. Given the growing contact between foreigners and Chinese, neither being allowed to learn the others’ language, a form of pidgin English arose to meet the trading needs. As the British...

...Western “face” was born in international trading communities in China via the use of Chinese Pidgin English. The term was appropriated by Westerners as a wholly negative trait supposedly endemic to Chinese society, which they explained as a preoccupation with “saving face,” a term that does...