Taking China As A Method:Academic Approaches And Theoretical Changes In Chinese Intercultural Communication Studies

The intercultural communication study in China has undergone continuous development for over 40 years.It is a still relatively young discipline and research field,but it also displays strong theoretical and practical potential.The emergence,development and prosperity of intercultural communication study in China has been subject to the logical dominance of development and transformation discourse,theoretical need of policy and mechanism construction,and the profound impact of knowledge and academic tradition after the reform and opening up.Tracing back the academic progress of the study of intercultural communication in China,it is not difficult to see that the changes of certain technical context,knowledge context and social context would affect,or even decide the overall outlook of the study of intercultural communication in China;and different features were manifested in the various historical periods.Currently,international and intercultural communication studies have witnessed a full-blown on every scale.Intercultural communication study is embracing a new development opportunity in China.Thus this dissertation project is dedicated to the following two purposes.Firstly,it summarizes and reflects on the existing works,aiming to analyze their relationship with the technical context,knowledge context and social context.Secondly,it replans and defines the key issues,development objectives and specific paths of new knowledge production of the study of intercultural communication in China.The theoretical development and the innovation of the study of intercultural communication in China have gained certain achievements,but the comments made by the outer world could not comply with the actual achievement.On the one hand,the study of intercultural communication in China has not updated the understanding of intercultural communication theory and thought since its introduction into China around 40 years ago.Therefore,it did not keep pace with the increasingly prosperous international communication and intercultural communication practice.On the other hand,the theoretical explanatory power remains weak in the study of intercultural communication in China.The study of intercultural communication in China has been facing such a paradox that intercultural communication as a thought resource has been seriously lagging behind the one as a communication path.Fewer and fewer researchers would put their study focus on the basic theory of intercultural communication and on the retrospect of intellectual history resources,while the studies on practical trends such as the improvement and planning of international/intercultural communication capacity,the construction of international discourse power,Chinese culture going out and Chinese media going out are exploding.Under such circumstances,the question about the future prospect of intercultural communication in China would be shown in the writing:what is the future direction of the study of intercultural communication in China?In view of these,based on the reflections on thoughts,theories and academic works of the study of intercultural communication in China that has been precipitated for more than 40 years,this paper takes the academic progress and theoretical change as perspectives and the insufficient explanatory power of the study of intercultural communication in China as the main thread.Firstly,it pinpoints the academic stages,theoretical stages and provides reasons for the classification of those stages.This step is necessary for renewing the understanding of the overall structure of the study of intercultural communication in China and the effective path to evaluating the gains and losses.Secondly,the paper suggests the development direction needed by the international communication and intercultural communication theory in China,trying to clarify the reasons for the insufficient explanatory power of the study of intercultural communication in China.This is key to breaking through the weakness in the theoretical explanatory power of study of intercultural communication in China.In the end,the paper discusses how to reshape the theoretical explanatory power of the study of intercultural communication in China from two dimensions:value sequence and theoretical system.The value sequence is the starting point of logic to observe the theoretical construction and theoretical imagination,while the systematic theoretical construction and theoretical imagination is the logical fulcrum of "the reason why the theory qualifies as a theory".Hence,theoretical construction,theoretical imagination and the systematization of theory is not only the effective choice to disenchant the dilemma of the study of intercultural communication in China,but also the key method to put the generation appeals of the generation of new knowledge of the study of intercultural communication in China into practice.The paper is composed of six chapters and the specific arrangement is shown as followings:The introduction part is the collective summary of the question awareness in the paper.In this part,the paper reviews,sort and reflect on the "question field" and its"questioning method" of the study of intercultural communication in China.As a"question",the study of intercultural communication in China has methodology significance.One question means one structure.It not only pinpoints the question consciousness of the study and presets the cognitive thinking of researchers since it indicates the academic caring of researchers,and therefore restrains the answering method of researchers.While the "questioning method" means the understanding of the question and the exploration of the solution to the question.In this sense,the"academic history" of the study of intercultural communication in China would also be re-understood from the perspective of "history of the question",which is penetrated with "what is intercultural communication" and "how to know about the intercultural communication”.In addition,a brief review and explanation of the existing literature,study methods,study objectives and study innovation is provided,which is the foundation of the paper.Chapter one interprets the emergence,development and prosperity of the study of intercultural communication in China.It reviews the academic stages and theoretical stages of the study and the implications from the development and transformation discourse,policy and mechanism construction,knowledge and academic tradition on the practice of international communication and intercultural communication in China.In a word,the remining and secondary interpretation of these experiences,materials and history are of great significance to re-understand the study of intercultural communication in China.Chapter two demonstrates and interprets the establishment and formation of"intercultural communication in China".Based on the peculiarity of the subject and context,the study of intercultural communication in China walks in the development path that fits its own features.It shows that intercultural communication has unique local,regional and national characteristics instead of following a fixed pattern.The formation of "intercultural communication in China" is not a simple backwash against the universal and general western theories and doctrines,letting alone the copy of western theories.On the contrary,it develops an abstract and speculative theoretical treatment of the practice of international communication and intercultural communication in China in different historical periods so as to form a discourse system of study of intercultural communication in China.The study of intercultural communication in China goes through the following transformation process,that is,"from theoretical borrowing to theoretical self-development","from traditional theory to modernized theory",and "from instrumentalism to academic self-consciousness".The transformation process also shows the triple value implications of the study of intercultural communication in China,including the "ideal type","embodying innovation awareness" and "shouldering the historical mission".Chapter three inspects the theoretical explanatory power of the study of intercultural communication in China.The theoretical explanatory power is a critical dimension to identify the subjectivity of the study of intercultural communication in China.Therefore,it is a problem diagram of primary reflection to have an overall understanding of the study of intercultural communication in China.For the problem of the weak theoretical explanatory power of the study of intercultural communication in China,prior studies have discussed "pluralism and mainstream of study paradigms","the openness and closeness of theoretical systems" and "tradition and modernization of study methods" and other dimensions.However,the exploration of the logic starting point and promotion mechanism on the theoretical explanatory power of the study of intercultural communication in China is still lacking.Hence,enhancing the theoretical explanatory power of study of intercultural communication in China should focus on the problems of international communication and intercultural communication in China and enhance the interaction between theory and practice"with China as method" and be based on the experiences of international communication and intercultural communication in China,and it should also pay attention to the improvement of the theory of international communication and intercultural communication in China to boost the rationality of theory.In the latter part of this chapter,a brief consideration of the two unfinished propositions of value sequence of the study of intercultural communication in China（"the theoretical positioning of communication competence" and "value standpoint of communication competence" is offered）.Chapter four discusses and reflects on the value sequence of the study of intercultural communication in China with the representative of "enhancing the competence of international communication and intercultural communication".The value issue characterizes the extremely complicated problem diagram in the study of intercultural communication in China.We need the guidance of values to balance all kinds of symptoms and disadvantages during the study process.Under the comprehensive impact of pragmatism philosophy trend,developmental discourse and convenience of communication study methods,"enhancing the competence of international communication and inter-cultural communication" has been the dominant value of the study of intercultural communication in China,and the value has been performed in the study of international communication and intercultural communication in China.However,the priority of the competence/dominant value of international communication and intercultural communication should be carried out with caution.The reflection on the position of "competence myths" and the persistence of the standpoint of "theory travel" suggested in this chapter is a new attempt to re-define the value sequence of the study of intercultural communication in China.In conclusion,the paper positions the "multidisciplinary" as the starting point of the logic of the study of intercultural communication in China and the "intercultural communication as a research field" as the value instrument to propose the "field"transformation of intercultural communication study in China,so as to provide references for the systematization and subjectivity construction of study of intercultural communication in China and the production of new knowledge.