Research Essay: Portrayal of China in Western Media

Week 4: Eastern approaches to communication

– COM304

– Dr Zhen Troy Chen

– [email protected]

– Room HS323

Recap: Week 1-3 Theory+Method+Design

Learning by doing

– Week 1: General introduction

– Week 2: Historical encounters

– Orientalism, representation, and discourse

– Theory + Cases/Topics/Media formats/genre

– Week 3: Orientalism in Trans Film, M. Butterfly

– Essay and Media Project

Theory+Method+Design Learning by doing

– Week 1: General introduction

– Week 2: Historical encounters

– Week 3: Orientalism in Trans Film, M. Butterfly

– Week 4: Eastern approaches (theory)

– Week 5: History and cases (Sinophllia)

– Week 6: History and cases (Sinophobia)

– Week 7: Reading Week

Theory+Method+Design Learning by doing

The actual order is subject to change!

– Week 8: Journalism and framing (Dr Kuang)

– Week 9: Western reception of Chinese cinema

– Week 10: Western correspondents

– Week 11: Chinese cinema (Dr Hui Miao)

– Week 12: Chinoiserie – Chinese visual styles (projects)

– Week 13: Cinema Or Fiction and Non-fiction (projects)

– Week 14: Review and Projects

Outline of the lecture

– Western philosophy is closely linked to scientific thinking

– Teleology and cause & effect are central elements of western philosophy

– Recent advances in physics have challenged these approaches

– The influence of eastern philosophy

– A different approach to the study of communication?

– http://www.ted.com/talks/devdutt_pattanaik.html

Teleology - evolution

Teleology - The Rapture/The Promised Land

Newtonian physics

– Western philosophy is influenced by science, particularly the ideas of Isaac Newton (1643- 1727)

– Newtonian physics based on measurability, linearity, cause and effect, and truth

Simple cause and effect model

Cause and effect (linear causality)

–The importance of teleology to western culture

The importance of teleology to western culture

– Teleology is an ideology that is central to western thinking

– People may disagree over the make-up of the perfect society, but most agree that it is worth striving for

– Christianity and Marxism are examples of teleological ideologies, with their emphasis on ‘progress’ towards a definitive and desirable endpoint

– Pattanaik: “In India there is no The Promised Land, there are many promised lands”

Moore’s Law – technological progress

From A to B - the Transmission (media effects) model

– The subordination of much of western culture to this model has affected the study of communication

– Everything moves in a straight line from A to B

– In North America, communication was traditionally linked to transportation, in particular with the westward expansion and building of the railroads

– The emphasis, then, is very much on the ‘transmission’ of messages

An early theory of communication

• Shannon and Weaver’s Mathematical Theory of Communication (1949)

–The problems with teleology

Empirical challenges to the transmission model

– There is little evidence that the media has the effect that it ascribed to it

– The growth of the media, the multiplicity of channels and media outlets, makes it more difficult to contain all these elements into this simple model

– From the 1950s to recent times the West has grown prosperous in a relatively peaceful environment

– But if we extend the model into the past (to before WWII) or the future (to potential economic and environmental catastrophes) it is more difficult to talk of a period of unending progress

The challenge to Newtonian physics

Empirical challenges to Newtonian physics – Quantum physics

– Up until the early twentieth century, western science was linear and causal in orientation

– It was believed to be possible to accurately measure the physical world with precise experiments and models

– But Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity uncovered many more dimensions than the 3 that we perceive

– Also, space and time are not ‘absolute’ elements but contingent on each other – the universe is dynamic not static and thus is impossible to measure

– Therefore it appears that a theory of everything is impossible – life is more cyclical than linear

Newtonian physics

Quantum physics

Capra, The Tao of Physics (1991) – the new scientific paradigm and eastern

philosophy, pp. 360-375

– 1. Think about the dynamic of the whole rather than individual, isolated parts

– 2. Think about process rather than structure

– 3. In quantum physics the ‘observer’ and the ‘observed’ cannot easily be separated

– 4. Knowledge is not foundational – it is a ‘network’ with no firm foundations

– 5. Science cannot find the truth, only an approximation; mystics say we cannot find absolute truth in a particular object but we can see the unity of all things

– 6. Harmony with nature not domination of it

Brian McNair’s (2006) Cultural Chaos

– We can no longer use linear methodologies to study modern communication

– The news is ‘cyclical’ not ‘linear’ in nature – we tend to talk of news cycles

– All parts of the system are inter-linked but in a ‘chaotic’ way – This means that one event in one part of the system can have unpredictable effects in many different parts of the system

– Holistic, process rather than structure

– Differences between western and eastern philosophy

Binarism – oppositional

– MALE FEMALE – strong weak – calm moody – dominant submissive – tough gentle – active passive – logical emotional – mind body – aggressive peaceful

Prime Minister’s Questions – UK House of Commons

Yin and yang - harmonic

Kulich and Prosser (2007) Intercultural perspectives on

Chinese communication

– Zhiqiang Wang:

– Chinese Western – Guanxi Pragmatic goals – Rule of ritual Rule of law – Collectivism Individualism – Duty Right – Holistic thinking Linear thinking

Devdutt Pattanaik (2009)

– Infinity - east One – west

– Fuzzy logic Binary logic

– Opinion Truth

– Contextual Standardized

– Relative Absolute

– Curvaceous Linear

Capra, The Tao of Physics (1991) – the new scientific paradigm and eastern

philosophy, pp. 360-375

– 1. Think about the dynamic of the whole rather than individual, isolated parts

– 2. Think about process rather than structure

– 3. In quantum physics the ‘observer’ and the ‘observed’ cannot easily be separated

– 4. Knowledge is not foundational – it is a ‘network’ with no firm foundations

– 5. Science cannot find the truth, only an approximation; mystics say we cannot find absolute truth in a particular object but we can see the unity of all things

– 6. Harmony with nature not domination of it

Kulich and Prosser (2007) Intercultural perspectives on

Chinese communication

– In 1971 Robert T. Oliver argued that communication studies needed to incorporate Chinese perspectives

– This challenge has been taken up by Jia (2000; 2002), Jia, Lu & Helsey (2002), Cheng (2005) and Tu (2004), but only at the margins of communication studies, even in China

– Wengshan Jia and Mingzhi He (pp. 92-103) argue that western concept of ‘persuasion’ and ‘control’ (truth, reality and communication effectiveness) should be replaced with ‘harmony’, particularly in relation to inter-cultural communication

– Globalisation and Western and Chinese communication

Deconstruction & globalisation

The European Parliament

Kulich and Prosser (2007) Intercultural perspectives on

Chinese communication, p. 159

– Xuelai Jia and Yuxin Jia followed a famous Chinese football player for 4 yrs as he established an individualistic identity:

– 1. Identity is constructed through communication

– 2. Chinese identity is becoming more individualistic as a result of globalization. However, it is constructed in negotiation with traditional Chinese identity and therefore might differ from western individualism

– 3. This new identity is likely to adopt communication patterns unique to its own culture, but also patterns that are universal to all cultures

Recap

– Western communication based on western philosophy and science, particularly Newtonian physics

– Teleology and cause & effect are central to this model – 20th century quantum physics challenged this worldview, especially as it seemed to validate what eastern philosophers were saying

– We should be careful though of thinking of the East and West in binary terms, especially in relation to globalisation

Roger T Ames – XJTLU Talk

– Human Becoming and Confucius Role ethics

– 安乐哲：儒学角色伦理对个人主义意识形态的挑战

– https://www.bilibili.com/video/av37949330?from=search& seid=8171895725770569284

– Chinese lecture on this very topic

– 安乐哲：儒学角色伦理学

– https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1vb411G7M8?p=1

Seminar

– Jia & He (2007) argue that we should construct a new theory for Chinese communication. Based on some background reading and the information that I have given you in this lecture, I would like you to construct a new communication theory based on ‘eastern’ thought. This exercise will be carried out in groups (already allocated in ICE) during this week’s BBB seminar session.

– I have placed two readings (references below) on ICE to help you with this question. I would expect you to read all of Jia & He’s article and the relevant parts of Jia and Jia’s article, mainly pages 149-155 before your seminar.

References

– Jia, W. and He, M. (2007) ‘Chapter III: status of Chinese communication studies since 2000 and prospects during the first half of the 21st century’ in Kuchlich, S.J. and Prosser, M.H. (eds.) Intercultural perspectives on Chinese communication. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

– Jia, Y. and Jia, X. (2007) ‘Chapter V: the study of Chinese language behaviour cross-culturally: a sociolinguistic approach to intercultural communication’ in Kuchlich, S.J. and Prosser, M.H. (eds.) Intercultural perspectives on Chinese communication. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.