Читать книгу An Introduction to Intercultural Communication - Fred E. Jandt - Страница 34

That cultures define communication in diverse ways demonstrates that communication is an element of culture (Krippendorff, 1993). Definitions of communication from many Asian countries stress harmony (Chen & Starosta, 1996). This is most notable in cultures with a strong Confucian tradition. Societies heavily influenced today by Confucian history or tradition are China, North and South Korea, Singapore, and many East Asian countries with large Chinese communities.

The Chinese scholar K’ungFutzu, a title the Jesuits later Latinized as Confucius (550–478 BCE¹), lived in a time when the feudal system in China was collapsing. Confucius proposed a government based less on heredity than on morality and merit.

Confucius set up an ethical-moral system intended ideally to govern all relationships in the family, community, and state. Confucius taught that society was made up of five relationships: those between ruler and subjects (the relation of righteousness), husband and wife (chaste conduct), father and son (love), elder brother and younger brother (order), and friend and friend (faithfulness). Three of these five bases of relations occur within the family. The regulating factors in family relationships are extended to the whole community and state. The chief virtue is filial piety, a combination of loyalty and reverence, which demands that the son honor and respect his father and fulfill the demands of his elders.

Map 1.3 Countries in Asia With Strong Confucian Influences

Confucianism emphasizes virtue, selflessness, duty, patriotism, hard work, and respect for hierarchy, both familial and societal. Just as George Washington and the story of the cherry tree is used in the United States to teach the value of honesty, Confucianism reinforces its lessons with stories about people who represent particular virtues. For example, Chinese children learn about such heroes as Mulan, a woman of the 6th century who disguised herself as a man and served 12 years as a soldier so that her ill father would not be disgraced or punished because he could not report for military duty. Mulan teaches courage and filial devotion.

Confucianism guides social relationships: It can be said that one should seek to live in harmony with the universe and with one’s fellow man through proper behavior. Confucianism considers balance and harmony in human relationships to be the basis of society. June Yum (1988) describes five effects that Confucianism has on interpersonal communication:

1 Particularism. There is no universal pattern of rules governing relationships: No rules govern interaction with someone whose status is unknown. Instead of applying the same rule to everyone, such factors as status, intimacy, and context create different communication rules for diverse people. In fact, there are several patterns guiding interaction with others whose status is known. In the Confucian countries of North and South Korea, it’s quite common for strangers to find out each other’s age in the first few minutes of conversation and adjust their language to show respect. Koreans are friends (chingu) only with those whose age is within a few years of their own. If a male acquaintance is older than this “friendship age range,” he must be addressed as adjussi, or if it is a female acquaintance, as adjumoni—terms that equate roughly to “uncle” and “aunt,” respectively.

2 Role of intermediaries. Rituals should be followed in establishing relationships. In China, it’s not unusual to use a third party to negotiate with future in-laws about wedding plans and, in general, to use a third party to avoid direct confrontations and resolve disputes (Gao & Ting-Toomey, 1998).

3 Reciprocity. Complementary obligations are the basis of relationships. Gratitude and indebtedness are important parts of Chinese culture. For example, a person feels uneasy to be indebted to someone, and payback is necessary to achieve balance in the relationship. Reciprocity is the basic rule of interpersonal relationships (Gao & Ting-Toomey, 1998). Obligations in relationships are contrary to Western ideas of individualism.

4 In-group/out-group distinction. Scollon and Scollon (1991) argue that the distinction between inside and outside influences every aspect of Chinese culture. In-group members engage in freer and deeper talk and may find it difficult to develop personal relationships with out-group members (Gao & Ting-Toomey, 1998). There can even be different language codes for in-group members.

5 Overlap of personal and public relationships. Business and pleasure are mixed. Frequent contacts lead to common experiences. This contrasts with Western patterns of keeping public and private lives separate. There are several Chinese terms for the English word communication, including jiao liu (to exchange), chuan bo (to disseminate), and gou tong (to connect among people). The Chinese term he denotes harmony, peace, unity, and kindness. Seeking harmony with family and others is the goal of communication in Chinese culture (Gao & Ting-Toomey, 1998).

As a consequence of the value placed on balance and social harmony, Chang and Holt (1991) explain how the Chinese have developed many verbal strategies such as compliments, greeting rituals, and so on to maintain good interpersonal relations. Fong (2000), for example, has described the “luck talk” (speech acts related to luck) during the celebration of the Chinese New Year.

Korea adopted Confucianism as a state religion for six centuries. Yum (1987) explains how the Korean language easily accommodates the Confucian rules of relationships. For example, a grammatical form of direct address, called an Honorific, shows respect. English speakers might vary in how they ask a child, a friend, or a grandparent “to sit” by using a sentence, whereas Korean speakers would use different forms of the root ahnta, meaning “to sit or to take a seat”:

 To a child, younger person, or person of lower rank: ahnjo or ahnjara (informal)

 To a friend or person of equal rank: ahnjuseyo (polite)

 To an elder, person of higher rank, or honored person: ahnjushipshio (more polite)

Korean has special vocabularies for each sex, for different degrees of social status and degrees of intimacy, and for formal occasions. When two people are introduced, they first engage in small talk to determine each other’s social position so they know who should use common language and who should use honorific language. And ironically, because Confucianism does not consider relationships with strangers, Koreans are said to ignore—often to the point that some in other cultures would consider rude—anyone to whom they have not been introduced.

In modern Korea, a generation gap exists: Junior business associates may address seniors with familiar rather than honorific language. The collectivist values of Confucianism mandate a style of communication in which respecting the relationship through communication is more important than the information exchanged. Group harmony, avoidance of loss of face to others and oneself, and a modest presentation of oneself are means of respecting the relationship. One does not say what one actually thinks when it might hurt others in the group.

In some sense, the same ethic can be found in business dealings. Much of commercial life in China is lubricated by guanxi, a concept best translated as “connections” or “personal relationships.” Guanxi is an alternative to the legal trappings of Western capitalism in that business is cemented by the informal relationships of trust and mutual obligation. Sometimes viewed as bribery, guanxi is less like using professional lobbyists than relying on mutual friends among whom trust can be maintained.

A Confucian perspective on communication would define it as an infinite interpretive process in which all parties are searching to develop and maintain a social relationship. Carey (1989) describes this as a ritual model of communication that “is directed not toward the extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time; not the act of imparting information but the representation of shared beliefs” (p. 18).