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Another Point of View
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There is no question about the importance of nonverbal communication in our interactions with others, but here, from an excerpt of the book, What Your Face Reveals, Henry B. Lin indicates its importance in the Chinese culture:

Face reading provides us [the Chinese] with a very convenient and powerful tool to reveal the secrets of the fortune and personality of ourselves and others whom we may not even know. As the world becomes more and more integrated, and contact with others becomes increasingly frequent and important, the art of face divination (or, decoding the secrets of fortune. "Chinese divination uses tools to induce supernatural forces to reveal the secrets in the course of human affairs and that of nature.") can be of tremendous help in your decision making and interpersonal skills regarding hiring and promotion, making friends, establishing relationships, finding a spouse, or selecting business partners.

Source: H. B. Lin, What Your Face Reveals: Chinese Secrets of Face Reading. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications [a division of Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd.], 1998), p. xvii.



1

When you learn that the Chinese also use other methods of divination, including astrology, palmistry, and numerology, does this help you better understand or provide a more inclusive context for face reading?
2

Knowing what is revealed in the excerpt above, and knowing that face reading is a profound art in the truest sense of the word, taking years of experience to master, does it strike you as something you would want to pursue?
3

If you understand the importance of nonverbal communication—specifically face reading—in the Chinese culture, why do you suppose it has never become as important in American culture? What do you think would be the constraints or restrictions for it remaining, primarily, a Chinese phenomenon?







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