1.1 Culture as Intercultural Communication

Many unique societies that appeared around the world differed greatly from each other, and many of these differences remain to this day. There are important variations in the way societies organize themselves and interact with the environment, as well as in their shared conception of morality. Furthermore, we cannot deny the more obvious cultural differences that exist between people, such as traditions, dress, and language.

1.1.1 Two Types of Culture

Culture consists of material culture and immaterial culture. The concept material culture covers the physical expressions of culture, such as technology, architecture, and art, whereas the immaterial aspects of culture include principles of social organization, mythology, philosophy, literature, and science which make up the intangible cultural heritage of a society.

Material culture is the physical evidence of a culture in the objects and architecture they make, or have made. It refers to the touchable, material “things” that a culture produces—physical objects that can be seen, held, felt, or used, which is as shown in Fig. 1.1. Examining a culture's tools and technology can tell us about the group's history and way of life.

Immaterial culture, or non-material culture, are the thoughts or ideas that make up a culture. They do not include any physical objects or artifacts. Any ideas, beliefs, values, or norms that may help shape a society can be defined as immaterial culture.

Question: Can you give more examples of material culture and immaterial culture?

1.1.2 Five Dimensions of Culture

Although culture is a complex and vague concept which is very hard to define, we can approach the study of culture through five different dimensions.

1) Culture as heritage

Heritage is the most typical symbol of culture. For example, the Great Wall (长城) and the Imperial Palace (故宫) are the symbols of Chinese culture, while the London Bridge represents British culture, and the Liberty Statue (自由女神像) stands for American culture.

2) Culture as product

Product is also culture, like silk and Chinese paintings representing Chinese culture, while KFC, Hollywood movies symbolizing American culture.

3) Culture as behavior

People's behavior often reflects their culture. For example, Chinese people often shake hands or pat on the shoulder when meeting friends, while Japanese people bow a lot and American people are more likely to hug. The French are more fond of kissing their friends on the cheeks.

4) Culture as relation

Culture is also deeply rooted in people's relations to each other and to oneself. For example, Chinese people are more in favor of relationships with close social distance, while westerners tend to enjoy more privacy.

5) Culture as value

Culture is also embedded in people's value or beliefs, such as Confucianism (儒家思想) and Daoism (道教) for Chinese people; Christianity (基督教) for most westerners; Islam (伊斯兰教) for people from Islamic countries.

In a word, heritage, product, behavior, relation, or value represent specific cultural phenomena and they have their distinctive features which make them different from each other. Thanks to those differences we have culture diversity which make our world more colorful.

Question: Your hometown has its own culture. Can you explain it from these five aspects?

Taking Shaoxing as an example, Shaoxing has a long history of heritage like Dayu, a national hero to prevent flooding; Goujian, the king of the Yue Kingdom in ancient China;Luxun, a well-known writer. Shaoxing is city of vintage, producing the famous yellow rice wine. Shaoxing is also a city with lots of bridges and water, sometimes called the Oriental Venice (东方威尼斯). Shaoxing has her unique cuisine like Huixiang beans and Stinky Toufu. People from Shaoxing also have unique personalities. Sometimes they were called Shiye (introvert but can be masterminds and advisers). When you live here and get along with people here, you will soon know the difference.

1.1.3 Characteristics of Culture

1) Culture is everywhere and nowhere.

Culture is a convenient abstraction, like some well-known concepts, such as gravity in physics. We never see gravity, yet we see bodies falling in regular ways. Similarly, although culture is everywhere, nothing alone or nobody himself or herself is sufficient for catching its full picture.We can only feel it, recognize it, experience it, learn it, or create it in various ways.

2) Culture can be both tangible and intangible.

Most of material culture such as architecture, paintings, is tangible, which can be easily seen, felt, or noticed, while the immaterial culture like religion or literature is intangible. The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage defines intangible cultural heritage as follows:

The intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature, and their history, and gives them a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.

3) Culture can be both static and dynamic.

Some symbols of culture can be kept to a very long time. For example, Chinese traditional culture advocates such moralities as benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, and trust. People nowadays still believe they are the basis for a real human being. As the time flies, Chinese culture has also developed and integrated with other cultures in some aspects. More and more young people celebrate Western holidays such as Valentine's Day and Christmas. Another example is, people in Germany today generally seem eager to adopt new words from other languages, especially from American English, while many French people are resistant to it because of “corrupting” their own language.

4) Culture can be popular or high.

Taking music as an example, there are popular musics such as “rock and roll” or “rap” while there are also classical musics and symphony.

5) Culture can be material or spiritual.

The food products such as McDonald and sushi are one of the symbols of American culture and Japanese culture. The Hollywood movies and Bushido spirit can also embody American culture and Japanese culture.

1.1.4 Definition of IntercuIturaI Communication

Intercultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from different cultural backgrounds try to communicate with each other. Culture decides how individuals encode messages, what kind of medium they choose to transmit them, and the way messages are decoded or interpreted. Every nation has its own characteristics. It is mainly through its culture that we first begin to know the nation and its characteristics. So we cannot say that this culture or custom is right and that is wrong. Equal respect should be attached to every culture in the world, even to those that are not in existence any more.

The world is becoming smaller and smaller. More and more foreigners come and go around us every day. When we are in the same country, the same city, the same neighborhood, cultural collision is expected to be more serious. If we want to avoid this situation, one important thing is to get some basic knowledge about other cultures so as not to misunderstand some actions or habits of the foreigners. On the other hand, people nowadays are more likely to go overseas for experiencing culture diversity. They can broaden their horizons and develop themselves for all kinds of reasons. Especially, with current process of global economics, people who own different perspectives on cultures stand at a more competitive position in the current world. If they can combine positive culture elements from two different cultures for their self-development, it would be a competitive advantage in their whole career.

Group Work

Work in groups and see the examples from the table below.

1.Identify the examples of five dimensions of culture in two films,for example,Transformers (《变形金刚》)versus Lost in Hong Kong(《港囧》).And compare the differences between Chinese culture and the culture of the foreign country.

2. Make a presentation of 10-15 minutes about your analysis. You can use video clips, pictures, or data as evidence to support your idea.

Exercises

1. Choose the best answer from the following choices.

1) How many types of culture are mentioned in this chapter?

A. 2.

B. 3.

C. 4.

2) Which kind of expression is NOT included in immaterial aspects of culture?

A. Social organization.

B. Art.

C. Science.

3) Technology belongs to ________.

A. material culture

B. immaterial culture

C. none of them

4) Which one does NOT belong to the five dimensions through which we can approach the study of culture?

A. Culture as identity.

B. Culture as value.

C. Culture as heritage.

5) Which one is NOT one of the characteristics of culture?

A. Being tangible and intangible.

B. Being static and dynamic.

C. Being local and non-local.

2. Fill in the blanks with the key points.

1) Culture consists of _____________ and _____________.

2) Material culture is the _____________ of a culture in the objects and architecture they make, or have made.

3) Immaterial culture, or non-material culture, are the _____________ that make up a culture.

4) Intercultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from different_____________ try to communicate with each other.

5) Culture decides how individuals _____________ messages, what kind of medium they choose to transmit them, and the way messages are _____________ or interpreted.

3. Finish the following tasks with your own understanding.

1) You must have traveled to some places in China or other countries. Please describe the culture of those places through the five dimensions of culture you have learned.

2) Please give more examples to explain the characteristics of culture.