| The Karakoram Highway is a transnational highway built by China with assistance to Pakistan in the 1960-1970 s,starting from Kashi,Xinjiang,China,and ending in Takot,a city in northern Pakistan.The Karakoram Highway is an international project with equally importance compared to the "Tanzania Railway" of the same period.There is little academic research on this highway.The route of the Karakorum Highway basically matches the ancient Silk Road near the Chinese border,and has the value of heritage.As the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor progresses,the Karakoram Highway as a historical foundation has increasingly exhibited new features.This article focuses on studying the communication practice of road builders,according to road builders of the Karakoram Highway outside the territory.The research method of it is field work and interview.Due to the specific era background of the construction,the process of contacting the others of the workers sent to Pakistan by China represents a process of transformation of relationship.We will specifically analyzes the phenomena of intergroup constraints,adaptation,spanning,and communication,which implies a general dimension of time.The first chapter of this article is a basic introduction to the general situation of Karakorum highway construction,including the natural environment,route history,engineering construction,and national strategy.The second chapter describes the road builders and their social environment outside the territory with the metaphor of “stage” and “role”.Specifically,the construction site is a relatively closed “full controled organization”.In this environment,road workers continue to construct and maintain the ideal pattern of group identity through various “self-technologies”.The third chapter,the earlier stage of the project,shows the specific identity and role interpretation of the road builders.This interpretation has a very strong sense of the times.They present the“sublime” of their understanding in a kind of extreme self-discipline.The three sections of this chapter carry out regression mining through daily life,textual events and spatial landscape.The situation described in this chapter is the “legal” part of the group’s construction abroad and the most stable part of the role.The fourth chapter discusses a stage with the meaning of "cultural politics".In this chapter,we begin with an inspection of the “foreign affairs discipline” of road workers,and gradually present the process of reaching out to others,that is,a series of wait-and-see,temptation,adjustment and interaction processes.Specifically,road workers start from internal adjustment,then touch the edge,and finally cross the group boundary to form the initial contact with others.At this stage,there is certain tension between system,discipline and actual life,communication between the two parties,and this is also a game between “ritual” and “custom”.Road builders contacted the others with various responses.The so-called ethnic differences are,to a certain extent,regarded by road builders as a more culturally diverse difference in daily life.After this,the road builders opened up a new situation of communication.Therefore,in Chapter 5,we describe the interactions between road builders and the local society.This includes further recognition of the other as a result of the expanded scope of activities;interaction with the official;interaction with the public;and finally,on the basis of the above,we discussed the construction and significance of group relationships between different civilizations.The perspective of this article is probably focused on a level of “reality”,“humanity”and “society” that coexist with a theme of “sublime”.It is in daily arrangement that the relationship is constructed between the groups.Or,in other words,the interactions between different civilizations are more folk-to-folk interactions,which are relatively more trivial daily interactions.The daily contact we said is closely related to personal space.The workers in Pakistan has maintained a sense of role in their personal space with others.The communication behavior guided by the role has constructed a positive concept culture between the two parties.Of course,the maintenance of a role concept is related to a specific era,personal emotions,and a reasonable,strict and generous working environment.The “Belt and Road” initiative is constantly advancing,and the contact and dialogue between multiple civilizations have been furthered in depth and breadth.What attitudes and actions should be taken between different countries and civilizations in the world is a complex subject.Under the rigid system constraints,flexible daily communication will always emerge.Obviously,pure economic and material gifts are not all.Constraints,understanding,and negotiation in daily contact construct community identification in a more delicate way.In addition,for the discipline itself,as cultural interactions become more diverse,we should conduct research on cultural dialogue at a more general level to understand the meaning of“folklore”.This is also the significance of this article as a non-traditional folklore study for the development of the discipline. |
