A Burkean analysis of China Is Not Happy: a rhetoric of nationalism

As a sequel to China Can Say No, China Is Not Happy is the bestseller of 2009 in China. The book praises China's post-80s generation for their act of patriotism, condemns the West, in general, and the United States, in particular, for exploiting the Chinese and for causing a global economic crisis. It also criticizes the Chinese liberal elite and overseas returnees for being Western-influenced mental slaves and traitors. The authors of the book call for an abandonment of “literary tone”, advocate a tough stand against Western countries, and envision China as the leader of the world through its economic and military power. This paper examines the major themes and belligerent rhetoric employed in the book through an application of Kenneth Burke's rhetorical concepts of identification, terministic screens, and representative anecdotes. The author of this paper contends that such use of rhetoric demonstrates the language habit of China's political discourse in its modern history, escalates blind nationalism, and widens the gap in intercultural understanding between China and the US.     

Intercultural praxis: Australian diploma of early childhood education preservice teacher visual literacy comparisons between Australia and Vietnam

ABSTRACT

This research investigates an intercultural praxis approach to using visual research methods, in Australia and Vietnam, with preservice teachers in a Diploma of Early Childhood (DEC) course. The paper results from limited research with DEC preservice teachers exploring the development of intercultural praxis and limited research in teaching whilst using visual images (photos). The methodology is supported by using Bennett’s developmental continuum for intercultural sensitivity and draws on sociocultural theories to consider how these DEC preservice teachers’ histories and situational contexts are relevant in understanding the development of intercultural communication. Mixed methods include a comparative analysis of student-produced visual multiliteracy images (photographs) generated in Australia and Vietnam, during 2015 and 2016, annotations on those photos and interviews with two cohorts of students (n = 27) six months after their experiences in Vietnam. Analysis is reinforced with Sorrells’ intercultural praxis framework to understand students’ capacity to use inquiry, framing, positioning, and dialogue processes as a result of their study tour to Vietnam. The paper outlines and reinforces the importance of being explicit in developing intercultural sensitivity in dynamic teaching contexts and illustrates the increasing awareness of intercultural communication with these DEC students.     

Intercultural education in everyday practice

While there is substantive work in intercultural education, especially that which proposes intellectual or conceptual road maps for pedagogic interculturalism and, more specifically for the classroom, there is a need to surface the complexity of everyday intercultural classroom practices. This article reflects on some Singapore students’ responses to materials designed to help them engage critically with intercultural issues. These responses can be categorized into three types of tajectories: reifying, critical and conflicted. Reifying practices basically mean that students essentialize individuals, communities and countries despite (and perhaps because of) the intercultural approach to the teaching of communication. Critical trajectories, on the other hand, showcase students’ ability to identify stereotypes and provide much more nuanced characterizations of individuals and countries. Conflicted trajectories, however, seem to be the most dominant classroom practice: these are attempts of students to be critical but, in practice, their criticality is enmeshed in reifying tendencies. In other words, ‘criticality’ as it is envisioned is always incomplete on the ground. Thus, we need micro-lenses in interculturalism and intercultural education to help us critically reflect on and surface essentialisms, tensions and struggles in everyday classroom practice.     

Towards intercultural communication: from micro to macro perspectives

This paper investigates intercultural communication and its significance to higher education. The paper briefly discusses culture, subculture and the meeting of cultures. It also provides a brief survey of developments in intercultural communication research. With reference to New Zealand, the paper further points to some limitations of intercultural communication theories, but meanwhile acknowledges the significance of these theories to higher education. The author argues that adopting interculturalism based on the principles of equality and respect at the national and institutional levels is more crucial than merely mastering some intercultural competencies or applying some intercultural communication models outlined in intercultural communication theories.     

Examining power through social relations in teachers’ discourse about intercultural education

This study examined power through social relations between entities in the implementation of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in an environment where English is spoken as a foreign language. The examination involved analysing the discourse of two foreign English teachers. Specifically, subject positioning of entities, made apparent through pronominal markers and shifts, as well as discourse meaning, were analysed to establish attributes and relations pertinent to the teaching and learning entities and context. The findings showed how teachers’ epistemologies can be made visible through the examination of discourse. Steven, a participant of this study, indicated that while he seemingly practised an inclusive approach, he was restricted by his teaching context, which appeared to be stricter, and his students’ language proficiency. The second teacher, Tamara, was more democratic in her pedagogical approach, seen through her students’ involvement. This signified a more open work environment as both teacher and student could make necessary adjustments to support the learning objectives. From this study, we could see how intercultural education is still perceived differently. This difference may be due to the parameters of the teachers. This study also showed how teachers’ discourse is a feasible site for the examination of power.     

BORDERS BE DAMNED: CREOLIZING LITERARY RELATIONS

Conventional literary practices have always been used to perpetuate an us/them binary that reduces potential discussions concerning diversity, transnationalism or hybridization to a simplified relationship between dominant and subordinate categories. This article proposes that in order to avoid this predicament, cultural critics should move beyond ‘vertical’ methods of analysis and instead employ intercultural models which lend themselves to a consideration of the horizontal affiliations that can be found among women writers of colour. By engaging the writings of Jessica Hagedorn, Hisaye Yamamoto and Sandra Cisneros, the article argues that multicultural analysis enables an understanding of these (social, cultural and political) affiliations between racialized women in the United States. Further, it suggests that by comparing, contrasting, and interfacing emergent literary practices within current theories of cultural and feminist studies, critics will develop a ‘creolized’ approach which will help facilitate new alliances and sensitivity among the disenfranchised.     

The role of reflexive thought in the achievement of intercultural competence

ABSTRACT

Reflexivity refers to the capacity for individuals to understand the cultural system and manage their own position within it. Reflexivity is a key concept in the understanding of intercultural communication, particularly in recognising the ability for individuals to understand and adapt to new cultural contexts. However, the prevailing methods used in intercultural communication (namely that of intercultural competencies) do not place a great emphasis on the role of reflexivity in achieving cultural adaptation. In this paper, I argue for the central positioning of the concept of reflexivity in intercultural education as a mechanism which mediates between intercultural experiences and individual behaviour. I present evidence of the reflexive sequence (subject-object-subject) from the reflections of a cohort of students (n = 19). Finally, I suggest a pedagogical instrument (a heuristic) for empirically exploring reflexivity in intercultural communication.     

National images and intercultural dialogue in Southeast Europe

Abstract

On the basis of the constructivist and discourse approaches, this paper views national image as a multifaceted socialpsychological construct, representing both the self-concept of nationality and the attitudes of non-members towards it. National self-image is stored in collective memory and crystallized in collective self-narratives. In Southeast Europe, these are the three major discourses of self, other and the Balkans. Strong prejudices towards neighbouring nationalities are paradoxically combined with a sense of Europeanness and Eurocentrism in the peninsula. This means that European identity does not necessarily rival national identity, but under certain circumstances may even underline and strengthen it. Finally the paper sees intercultural education and intercultural marketing as the two main goals of intercultural dialogue in the region.     

Non‐understanding as a heuristic to hypothesizing cultural models: A meta‐oriented sociolinguistic strategy1

This article is concerned with the development of an analytic strategy to construct U.S. cultural models of war and terrorism, which are ‘mediatized’ or significantly shaped by the media. Central to that strategy are repair cues to non‐understanding as heuristics in intercultural encounters. These are applied to an inherently mediatized discursive ‘reality’ of war and terrorism. Theoretically, I synthesize sociolinguistic and anthropological perspectives into a ‘meta‐oriented sociolinguistics’, which analytically focuses on the meta‐dimension of discourse. The strategy is applied to a text on war and terrorism from the New York Times, to demonstrate its utility. Furthermore, I provide implications for enhancing validity in the ethnography of mediatized discourse. Specific to the findings of this article, I suggest that corpus studies of media discourse should be conducted on the metadiscursive keywords kamikaze, surprise attacks, Pearl Harbor, and 9/11 in particular temporal frames.     

Discursive imbalance and deficiency in intercultural news communication

Intercultural news communication has become increasingly common in our current era of globalization. But why are certain topics and certain modes of speech adopted in news making rather than others, leading to discursive imbalance? Why are alternative modes of communication often excluded when news travels from one culture to another, causing discursive deficiency? We take a constructivist approach in this paper to examine intercultural news discourse, using examples from previous research and especially from reports on a controversial canine regulation in Beijing in 2006. By analyzing selected news accounts from both Chinese and American media, we attempt to elucidate the discursive power processes involved in this case and draw general lessons about intercultural news communication overall.     

The business of writing: literature as a commodity in Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú

This article presents considerations about the status of literature as a commodity and writers as professionals in the twenty-first century. These considerations are based on an analysis of Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú (2011), which follows the story of an Argentine crime novel writer who becomes a ghostwriter after her latest novel receives harsh reviews for being considered commercial rather than literary. I argue that the novel in question points out misconceptions about the influence of the book industry on the aesthetic quality of literary writing, highlighting the need for literary criticism to look into everyday relations between readers, authors, and editors.     

Laowai as a discourse of Othering: unnoticed stereotyping of American expatriates in Mainland China

ABSTRACT

Homogeneous ethnic labels, deriving from migrants’ phenotypic and cultural distinctness, are frequently utilised to single them out as the Other during intercultural encounters. Nonetheless, the Othering enacted by ethnic labelling has not attracted enough attention from host-nationals who use these labels. In-depth interviews with 35 American expatriates revealed that laowai was perceived as a discourse of Othering, which first categorised Westerners under this label as the Other in mainland China for their noticeable non-Chinese physical appearance, and then exposed them to its Chinese users’ diversely motivated stereotyping in such forms as exclusion, alienation and discrimination. However, Chinese people had not noticed laowai’s nature of being a stereotype-laden discourse of Othering and conversely considered this label as a neutral and even friendly expression. Ultimately, these Americans experienced Chinese people’s habitual use of laowai as a way to separate them as permanent outsiders who were subject to Occidentalism in mainland China.     

Fighting the Opposition: Lack and Excess in Cuban and Cuban-American Narratives of Selfhood

This essay presents a comparative discussion of two novels — one Cuban, one Cuban-American and both by women writers — that examines the roles played by the oppositional tropes of lack and excess in their respective portrayals of post-revolutionary Cuban female identities. Zoé Valdés’ La nada cotidiana (1995) and Dreaming in Cuban by are examined here via three shared thematic concerns — food, the female gendered body, and artistic expression — in which portrayals of lack and excess serve as vehicles for revealing and negotiating the oppositions often identified as inherent to the ‘Cuban condition’. Ultimately, I argue, these two literary works challenge the simplistic dualisms often used as paradigms for demarcating female Cuban identities in the post-1959 context, both within the national border and throughout the Cuban-American diaspora.     

Turbulence in intercultural communication education (ICE): does it affect higher education?

This article examines a rather neglected context of intercultural education: intercultural communication education (ICE). ICE can be found in different fields such as business, applied linguistics, intercultural communication and health education, amongst others. The authors start by reviewing the latest and ongoing changes (‘turbulences’) in the way that ‘intercultural’ is conceptualized in this field and form a template for analysing a focus group with lecturers focusing on intercultural communication in the Nordic country of Finland. Our analysis shows that these practitioners, who are also researchers specialized in intercultural communication, share discourses about the importance of the ‘intercultural’ in education, but that they are unable to clearly position themselves within the existing polysemic definitions and approaches. The current turbulences seem to have very little coherent impact on the way they talk about the ‘intercultural’.     

Speaking American: Popular Indian Fiction in English

A number of new popular writers have emerged in the last decade in India, of whom Chetan Bhagat is probably the best known, but there are many others who sell in unprecedented numbers. Appealing to that vast segment of readers for whom English may be a second language (unlike the literary successes of the last decades, who wrote for a global and local audience), this group of writers has their gaze and concerns focused on India. Yet, the new genres (such as chick lit and techie lit) reveal a striking reliance on an American (US) idiom. While the chick lit novels have a distinctly Indian flavor, they, and the other new genres, promote the valorization of entrepreneurship, easy urban relationships, and consumerism. My essay examines the language of Americanness used in these popular fictions.     

LATIN AMERICA

Abstract

This article draws on theories of colonial discourse, cultural representation, subjectivity, feminist studies, cultural studies, and historical analysis to examine how the representations of American Indians in 1990s television fiction are constructed, especially in the American television fictions Northern Exposure, Twin Peaks and Paradise. Central to this analysis is the discussion of colonial discourse and representations of American Indians as Other on popular American television and, more generally, in mainstream American discourse. This examination is set in the context of the issues surrounding the treatment of Indian people in mainstream history, in film, and in contemporary television fiction. It is the authors' position that in the easy acceptance of a stereotyped cultural construction, mainstream America has come to little knowledge or understanding of American Indian nations, their contemporary concerns, or their discrete identities. For the mass market, their contemporary concerns, or their discrete identities. For the mass market, the Indian is either the Vanishing Race of Edward Curtis's photographs or the savage of the captivity narratives, and the process by which that imaginary functions to contain American Indian identity continues in our most popular narrative today: television fiction.     

Enhancing the intercultural effectiveness of exchange programmes: formal and non-formal educational interventions

This paper examines how the addition of intercultural interventions carried out throughout European credit-bearing exchange programmes can enhance sojourners’ development of intercultural competencies, and it explores how both formal and non-formal pedagogical interventions may be designed and implemented. Such interventions were conducted at a Portuguese university with 31 sojourners throughout one academic year, and their impact was assessed using a mixed methods research design. Sojourners included incoming students of the exchange programmes Campus Europae and Erasmus, as well as highly skilled immigrants. Findings confirm the positive impact of interventions on the development of intercultural competencies and, in turn, their contribution to internationalisation efforts. Implications for further research suggest a need to increase interventions and to develop a systematic approach for fostering intercultural competencies throughout the study abroad cycle.     

'Another History': Alternative Americas in Paul Auster's Fiction

Abstract

Even though Paul Auster's work has been influenced by European writers, he is also a fundamentally American writer. His settings, many of his literary references, his characters and most of his themes are certainly American. And so is his interest in American history and reality. Moon Palace (1989), for example, deals with the creation of the myth of the American Dream as the country extended its frontier westward. One of the ways for Auster to express his concerns is the creation of parallel fictions like 'Kepler's Blood', a story-within-the-story which fictionally rewrites the origins of the US. Almost two decades later, Travels in the Scriptorium (2006) creates another Western American fiction by moving forward and describing a parallel nineteenth-century North America and a country called 'the Confederation'. Finally, in Man in the Dark (2008), Auster's effort at the creation of alternative Americas reaches the twenty-first century by showing a country where the 2000 election has led to secession and war. This essay analyses the parallel worlds created by Auster to question American myths and archetypes, particularly as they relate to the origins of the myths behind the creation of the United States of America.