Face-Saving Strategies in the Chinese Context: A Case Study of Post-match Interviews With Table Tennis Athletes

Post-match interview is a medium for athletes to showcase their impressions. This paper focus on the discourse of a post-match interview by Chinese athletes in the sport of table tennis at the 2024 Paris Olympics using the face-saving theory as the main framework introduced by Brown and Levinson (1987). In addition, theoretical extensions (Gu, 1990; Mao, 1994; Gao, 1996) are also used to explain conceptions of face in the Chinese context. This study adopts a qualitative case study approach to investigating how athletes construct and maintain their face. It specifically analyzes the positive face, negative face, and redressive strategies. The findings indicate that Chinese athletes commonly adopt strategies such as emphasizing collective honor, humor, and indirect expressions to address face issues. These strategies are related to the collectivist values that are embedded in Chinese culture. This study extends the application of face theory to the under-explored domain of sports discourse and offers insights for future studies in sports communication and intercultural pragmatics.