Taking Hall As A Mirror:On The Intellectual History Of Intercultural Communcation Studies In America

After having been introduced to China for four decades,Intercultural Communication studies has gone through changes in research paradigm as a result of the deep integration of "Culture" as an important dimension in Communication studies.Researchers are no longer limited to foreign language teachers,the research object has been expanded from interpersonal communication in intercultural context to mass communication and international communication,and the research goal has also achieved excellent interaction between "Introducing the World to China" and "Introducing China to the World".China is now faced with "Unprecedented Changes in a Hundred Years".The fierce competition of ideologies between China and the West triggered by the changes in the geopolitical pattern brought about by China’s peaceful rise has made China deeply experience the reality of "aphasia" and "stigmatization" because of ecological imbalances in the field of international discourse.In the context of the new era,the geopolitical interests,economic development and the emerging information and communication technology demand the rethinking,problem focus and system reconstruction in the field of intercultural communication in China.What needs to be done first is to look back upon the "American Version" intercultural communication theories and thoughts,which is widely known by the academic community.Aiming to understand the experience and spiritual core of changing from the anthropological mission of studying "foreign culture" to "multiculturalism",the above backtracking should include the study of its space-time background and problem awareness so as to clarify its academic changes.For this purpose,Hall,the forefather of intercultural communication and inheritor of the academic thoughts of Boas School,is the core of this dramatic change and the key to the history of American intercultural communication.This paper,by adopting the Perspective Analysis Method,thoroughly restores the essence of intercultural studies in anthropology,the ideological conditions of the corresponding turn and the irreplaceable role of Hall in it via time,space,subject and discourse.To put it more specifically,from the perspective of time,it reveals the truth of suspending the temporality of foreign cultures and weaves non-western cultures into its own time frame and cultural sequence,thus completing the "dimension-reduction construction"of them.From the perspective of space,it reveals the historical truth that early anthropological studies focused on overseas "primitive tribes" in order to cooperate with the expansion of colonialism in the globe,and later they shifted the research focus to the "Global South" to serve the construction of overseas hegemony of the United States.From the perspective of subject,this paper reflects on the fact that in order to seek the universal cultural law of human beings and carry out the cultural research of "national character",anthropology has hidden the subjectivity of tribe residents and citizens in other countries.From the perspective of discourse,it criticizes the domination of the social and cultural process of developing countries by the West with the old and new discourse of "CivilizationBarbarism","Development" and "Modernity".But at the same time,the transformation of anthropology from "allochronism" to diachronic and synchronic time research,the addition of global vision in space,the spatialization of culture and the culturalization of space,the emergence of the subject triggered by the concept of "Culture is communication",the transfer of research subject of intercultural communication and the emergence of the "new discourse" of intercultural understanding have accelerated the transformation from anthropology to intercultural communication to a certain extent,and the role of Hall in this important turn has been observed and elaborated.To sum up,the recall of the intellectual history of American intercultural communication shows the important role of anthropology and intercultural communication studies in constructing and maintaining the overseas interests of the United States,reveals the inheritance of intercultural communication after anthropology in its early stage and also shows the theoretical development of its ideological basis in the field of international communication.Today,China is an important country in this world,and the intercultural communication studies in China is exploring the necessary theoretical framework based on the global view and a local vision."Telling the Story of China Well" is an integral part of the reconstruction of the intercultural communication system,but at the same time it should also learn from the knowledge production mechanism of anthropology.On the basis of doing overseas ethnographic research with Chinese characteristics and conducting regional,national and international dissemination of new knowledge production,China should reconstruct the relationship with the whole world,strengthen the ability to "Tell the World Story Well",and consistently contribute Chinese wisdom to the research and practice of intercultural communication worldwide.