Abstract
This book encompasses 11 chapters with each one focusing on a specific aspect of intercultural communication, developed around the central inspiring question of ‘Who makes culture relevant to whom in which context for which purposes?’ (p. 5). Chapter 1 states the organization and aims of the book and gives an overview of intercultural communication research.
Aiming at deconstructing the notion of ‘cultural difference’, Chapter 2 shows different meanings of culture and the various ways in which ‘culture’ is used in terms of use, content, exclusionary character, scope and status.
Chapter 3 gives a detailed historical review of three terms (culture, multiculturalism, intercultural communication) in terms of their evolution and uses. The chapter demonstrates that culture is not pre-existent, but created in specific historical, political, military, socio-economic and diplomatic contexts.
Chapter 4 focuses on the relationship between language and culture. In Chapter 5, the author argues that the nation-based ways of approaching intercultural communication have become out of date. Rather than being fettered by banal nationalism, globalization and transnationalism need to be the focus in the enquiry of intercultural communication. Ethnographic studies in particular are well suited to achieve an understanding of communication and identity in context.
From Chapter 6 to Chapter 10, the author shows that in real life intercultural communication is inseparably ‘embedded in economic, social and cultural globalization, transnational migration and overseas study’ (p. 17). The point is specifically illustrated and scrutinized in these chapters from the aspects of employment, marketing, romance, language ideologies and state and commercial policies.
Chapter 11 highlights challenges for the future of intercultural communication research in terms of the material basis of communication, the methodological toolkit of critical sociolinguistic ethnography, the researcher’s devotion to writing social justice into intercultural communication research, and understanding ourselves as strangers in this ever-changing, complex, multinational world.
A number of features worthy of note in this book are as follows: first, the book is a rich source of authoritative references and profound comments from the relevant fields to make this into a solid springboard from which to start further explorations of intercultural communication.
Second, the book is engaging to readers who are carried away by the book to such an extent that they cannot but feel themselves vicariously involved in the intercultural communication explored by the author, equipped with her rich experience, first-hand examples and insightful case analysis, and engrossed in the writing of the book with its reader-friendly language and style.
Third, the book maintains a uniform and neat structure with each chapter consisting of its objectives, the specific issues to be discussed, the key points, further reading and activities. This outlay motivates the reader to dynamically engage in a dialogue with the author, which in a way best exemplifies the theme of the book.
Finally, the book is original in that the author blazes the trail in being the first to come up with the key research question: ‘Who makes culture relevant to whom in which context for which purposes?’, which is most inspiring and thought-provoking, and constitutes a challenge to the platitudinous essentialist discourses of culture. The author’s penetrating and home-striking question is solidly founded on a materialist basis.
In sum, the message of this volume is similar to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, a Chinese classic text:
So it is said that if you know both the enemy and yourself, you will fight a hundred battles without danger of defeat; if you are ignorant of the enemy but only know yourself, your chances of winning and losing are equal; if you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will certainly be defeated in every battle. (Luo, 2007: 55)
This pithy metaphor of marvellous tactics and strategies can be extended and borrowed here to aptly illustrate our present point: we should be able to be understanding of others as well as ourselves in whatever we do, typically in intercultural communication as dealt with in this volume, in order to create a harmonious world in which everyone, no matter what their nationality or language may be, can enjoy equal interaction and communication without misunderstanding.