Abstract

Based on 10 authentic audio-recorded data, the study aims to explore the dynamics of the insurance sales agent-client interactions in transformational China’s rural areas from the perspective of topic management. The analysis of the interactions aims to understand the interactants’ roles in midst of social change. The relationship between sales agents and clients is ambiguous and conflicting. By identifying three types of talk, namely, friendship talk, institutional talk and task-oriented talk, we find both parties are consciously or unconsciously initiating, maintaining and managing different topics to their respective advantages strategically. Through the analysis, we hope to depict the transforming nature of the modern Chinese rural society, where old and traditional value system has been, for a large part, demolished, while new value system is yet to be established.

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