What I would like to propose is that as an observable social phenomenon politeness is something superficial but to account for what is perceived at the surface we should delve into the depth where different cultural values are rooted.
When being complimented, an English-speaking person would readily accept the compliment by saying something like “Thank you" to show his appreciation of the praise, but a Chinese speaker would try to deny the truth of the compliment. They both think they are behaving properly. Yet neither of them would think the other is being polite. The English speaker is being polite to the extent that by accepting and showing appreciation of the compliment, he avoids hurting the positive face of the person who makes it; the Chinese speaker is showing modesty by denigrating himself, ignoring the factuality of the compliment paid to him. As has been mentioned, self-denigration has been at the core of the Chinese notion of politeness for over two thousand years, the Chinese in order to show modesty will go to such lengths as to underrate what he himself has achieved and deny the truth of a complimentary remark.
英语作文【在百度搜索更多与“在礼貌方面对汉语和英语文化的研究(Study of Politeness in Chin”相关英语作文】