An Analysis of the Significance Of Inter-Culture Communication from the Angle of Brand Name and Trademark

Intercultural Communication and Inter-Cultural Communication Studies

What is Inter-Culture Communication? Cultural dissemination? Intercultural communication refers to communication activities between individuals, groups or organizations from different cultural backgrounds. For many readers, cross-cultural communication is still a very unfamiliar word, but in fact it is an ancient topic. The Silk Road, Xuanzang’s Buddhist pilgrimage, Zheng He’s voyages to the West, etc. in our country’s history are all examples of cross-cultural communication. Today, with the rapid advancement of transportation and communication tools and the increasingly obvious trend of world economic integration, cross-cultural communication is no longer a rare thing for us. With the rapid development and popularization of the Internet, people can conduct cross-cultural communication without leaving home. On the Internet, people can chat and play games with people from different cultural backgrounds at home and abroad through text, sound, images, etc. If communication is a way of life, cross-cultural communication is a way of life for people in the "global village".

With the increasing number of cross-cultural communication activities, many cross-cultural communication practitioners have begun to pay attention to this phenomenon. A long time ago, Buddhist and Christian religious leaders, the ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Socrates, the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles and the British playwright Shakespeare noticed that "speaking the other person's language, according to the audience to adjust communication skills” (Sitaram & Cogdell, 1976, p. 6). However, the first person to systematically study cross-cultural communication activities was Edward Hall. In the 1950s, Edward Hall first proposed "cross-cultural communication" when he was working at the American Foreign Service Training Institute (FSI). concept.

What is cross-cultural communication? Intercultural Communication is a discipline established by the American anthropologist and cross-cultural research scholar Edward Hall in the 1950s. Its English expression is "Intercultrual Communication or Cross-cultural Communication", which is also translated as "Intercultrual Communication or Cross-cultural Communication" in my country. "Cross-Cultural Communication" or "Cross-Cultural Communication". As a branch of communication studies, intercultural communication aims to study how people from different cultural backgrounds communicate and how to improve cross-cultural communication skills and methods and approaches to overcome cross-cultural communication barriers. Cross-cultural communication is an interdisciplinary subject that integrates research results in anthropology, culture, psychology, communication and other fields. The main theories of intercultural communication are found in works on cultural differences (cultural dimensions), notably by Geert Hofstede, Harry C. Triandis, In the works of Fons Trompenaars, Shalom Schwartz and Clifford Geertz. At present, the relevant theories of these scholars have been widely used in communication theories and communication scenarios, especially in business, management and marketing.

2. The historical background of American cross-cultural communication research and Edward Hall

(1) The historical background of American cross-cultural communication research

Cross It is no accident that cultural communication was founded in the United States. We know that before the discovery of the New World, the indigenous inhabitants of the United States were Indians. Later, immigrants from all continents poured into the United States, and the United States gradually became a large country of immigrants and a culturally diverse society. In this religiously and culturally diverse society, white people dominate, and Indians, Africans, Asians, Latin American and Eastern European immigrants are naturally dominated.

As a result, racial conflicts and cultural conflicts began to spread.

World War II turned many European American alliances into ruins. For the needs of the Cold War and to compete with the Soviet Union, the United States implemented the Marshall Plan and vigorously supported European economic development. As a result, a large number of experts, scholars, and corporate employees was sent to Europe; at the same time, the U.S. economy was not greatly affected by World War II. The United States became a prosperous superpower politically and economically, attracting international students and immigrants from all over the world. The U.S. government has discovered that many workers sent abroad by the U.S. government and companies are unable to adapt to life in the country where they are sent due to cultural differences, and ultimately return without success. There are also many immigrants and international students in the United States who experience this kind of "culture shock." It can be said that in the 1950s, the number of immigrants, international students, and tourists in the United States increased dramatically, the number of expatriate workers continued, and the formation of a multicultural society objectively required a new discipline—intercultural communication to study related cross-cultural issues. Conflict issues.

(2) The life of Edward Hall

Edward Hall happened to be in this era. His life experience and professional background made him the person to undertake this mission. Edward Hall was born in Missouri, USA on May 16, 1914. He received bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in anthropology and engaged in postdoctoral research in sociology/cultural anthropology. From 1933 to 1937, he worked and researched in the Navajo and Hopi Indian villages in the southwestern United States, and wrote his autobiography "The West in the Thirties." During World War II, Edward Hall served in Europe and the Philippines, where he conducted research on spatial concepts in different cultures. In the 1950s, Edward Hall taught at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. government, providing cross-cultural skills training to foreign personnel. During this period, he proposed "high context" and "low context" culture and wrote several best-selling books on cross-cultural communication.

Main events in the life and career of Edward Hall

Time events

Born in 1914 in Webster Groves, Missouri, USA

1918 -Grew up in New Mexico in 1932

Worked in Navajo and Hopi Indian villages in the southwestern United States from 1933 to 1937

Received a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Denver in 1936

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Received a master's degree in anthropology from Arizona State University in 1938

Received a doctorate from Columbia University in 1942

During World War II from 1942 to 1945, he was sent to Europe and the Philippines Serving in the military

In 1946, he engaged in postdoctoral research in sociology/cultural anthropology at Columbia University and conducted research at the Truk Island Management Office of the U.S. military agency

From 1946 to 1948, he served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Denver Chaired the Department of Anthropology and conducted research on race relations in Denver

Taught with Eric Fromm at Bennington College in Vermont, 1948-1950

Assigned to Washington, D.C., 1950-1955 Director of the Fourth Curriculum System of the Personnel Training Institute

Taught at the Psychiatric School in Washington, D.C., from 1952 to 1956

In 1955, he published "Anthropology of Etiquette" in the "American Science" magazine An article

In 1959, the book "Silent Language" was published

From 1960 to 1963, he taught at the Washington, D.C. School of Psychiatry

From 1963 to 1967, he became the Professor of Anthropology at North State Polytechnic (Chicago); funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to conduct research on spatial proxemics and interracial interactions

Published the book "Hidden Dimensions" in 1966

Became a professor of anthropology at Northwestern University from 1967 to 1977 until his retirement

In 1976, he attended the Intercultural Communication Conference hosted by International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan

1976 Published the book "Beyond Culture" in 1977

Presented a paper at the International Communication Protocol Conference in Berlin in 1977

Retired in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1977; occasionally works in Lectured at SIETAR conferences and at the Summer School of Intercultural Communication; taught at the University of New Mexico

1983 book "The Dance of Life - Another Dimension of Time" Published

In 1983, the book "Hidden Differences: International Communication Studies" was published

In 1987, the book "Hidden Differences: Doing Business with the Japanese" was published

The book "Understanding Cultural Differences: Germans, French and Americans" was published in 1990

(3) Edward Hall's cross-cultural experience and professional background

Previous We mentioned that cross-cultural communication is an interdisciplinary subject that integrates research results in the fields of anthropology, culture, psychology, and communication. Edward Hall's ability to create a new academic field of cross-cultural communication is inseparable from his life experience and professional background.

Edward Hall is a native white American, and his "cultural identity" is the white American culture from Northern Europe. It can be found from his life experience that he had deep contact with Indian culture, African culture and Filipino culture. These experiences gave him a strong interest and curiosity in various cultures, and also provided him with first-hand information for cross-cultural research.

When Edward Hall was four years old, his family moved to El Paso (at the border of the United States and Mexico, part of Texas), and the family hired a man from Juarez (Texas). town), they later moved back to St. Louis.

Once here, the nanny and her two daughters could not adapt to the new living environment. When he was five years old, Hall attended a kindergarten with a group of Spanish children and later lived in France for a while. It can be said that Hall has lived in a multicultural environment since he was a child. "I encountered this kind of thing all the time when I was a kid. I was very interested in it."

From 1933 to 1937, Hall worked in Navajo and Hopi Indian villages in the southwestern United States. His job is mainly to use money to motivate local Indians to build dams in order to improve the living environment there and improve the living standards of the Indians. After interacting with the Indians for a period of time, Hall has developed a certain cultural sensitivity. "When I was on the reservation, I often considered how to interact with the Waho and Hopi people. Here I found that they were completely It was different. It just didn't work to impose my way of thinking on them." This exposure gave Hall "first-hand knowledge of one of the most important issues in the world: cross-cultural relationships and their complexity. ” (Hall, 1992, p. 76)

During World War II from 1942 to 1945, Hall was sent to serve in Europe and the Philippines, where he led a regiment of African-American soldiers. He believes that his leadership work is very creative, "I am very creative in my work because I work with black soldiers. I respect them very much and always consider their interests."

Huo Er's cross-cultural life experience made him have a strong interest in cross-cultural communication, noticed the problems in cross-cultural communication, and obtained first-hand information on cross-cultural communication. From then on, he gained a perceptual understanding of cross-cultural communication; and truly What led him to conduct research on cross-cultural communication should be the academic influence he received. Hall earned bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in anthropology and did postdoctoral research in sociology/cultural anthropology at Columbia University and also worked in expatriate training schools. These studies and research brought him into contact with scholars in related fields, and finally formed the concept of cross-cultural communication. Later, Hall divided his professional influences into four parts: (1) cultural anthropology; (2) linguistics; (3) ethology; (4) Freud's psychoanalytic theory. (Hall, 1992; Sorrells, 1998)

3. Edward Hall’s contribution to cross-cultural communication research

Schramm once used a metaphor to describe the establishment of communication studies. He said that Lasswell, Lewin, Lazarsfeld, and Hovde all came from their respective research fields to the oasis in the desert of communication studies. After they made great contributions to the field of communication studies, they became like nomads. Nations also left this oasis and continued research in other fields. Schramm is the founder of communication studies because after he came to this oasis in the desert, contrary to other nomadic scholars, he stayed and established a new field of study (Rogers, 1994).

Hammer borrowed Schramm’s metaphor to describe the establishment of intercultural communication. After World War II, scholars from anthropology, psychology, communication, sociology, and international relations, such as Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Gregorian Bateson, left their respective research fields. , briefly set foot in this area that was unfamiliar to humans at the time: the intersection of culture and human interaction. These people later left, but Hall stayed and settled in this field at the intersection of culture and human interaction, which he called "cross-cultural communication."

Hall first proposed the related concepts of cross-cultural communication. By the 1950s, Hall's cross-cultural life and work experience had given him the concept of "cross-culture". While teaching cross-cultural skills training at a training college for expatriates, he proposed the concept of "high context" "Culture" (high context culture) and "low context culture" (low context culture) concepts. He sorted out these ideas and published the book "Silent Language" in 1959.

The book already contains basic questions for our understanding of culture and communication, such as "what is culture", "culture is communication", "time can speak", "space can speak". Hall attaches great importance to the issue of nonverbal communication, and the book spends nearly 20 chapters discussing this issue. The book was a huge success, with 505,000 copies published between 1961 and 1969. It was also excerpted by numerous books, magazines and other publications, and was translated into six languages. (Masao Kunihiro) It can be said that the publication of this book marks the birth of the discipline of intercultural communication. With Hall's hard work, a new research field - cross-cultural communication was born, and Hall became the founder of cross-cultural communication.

Since the creation of intercultural communication, this subject has achieved great development. Communication schools (departments) in many universities in the United States have successively opened intercultural communication courses. my country’s foreign language teaching, international relations Intercultural communication courses are also offered in foreign-related majors. In 1970, the International Communication Association also established a cross-cultural communication branch; in 1972, the first international conference on cross-cultural communication was held in Tokyo, Japan; in 1974, the International Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR) was established in the United States Maryland was officially announced; in 1998, the International Association for Intercultural Communication was established. Books and magazines on cross-cultural aspects have also been published one after another, such as "Cross-Cultural Communication Reader" (Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter, 1972), "Cross-Cultural Communication" (L.S. Harms, 1973), "Cross-Cultural Communication" An Introduction to Communication Studies (John C. Condon and Fathi Yousef, 1975). By the mid-1970s, many universities in the United States were offering communication courses. Judging from the large number of books and articles on cross-cultural communication, Hall still maintains a huge influence on the subject, and his works are still the most cited.

Chinese scholars began to pay attention to the field of cross-cultural communication probably in the 1980s, and their research focused on the relationship between foreign language teaching and culture. In the mid-1980s, my country's Beijing Foreign Studies University, Shanghai International Studies University and other universities also successively opened communication courses. In my country, works on cross-cultural communication (communication) and photocopied and translated texts in foreign languages ??were also published one after another, such as Guan Shijie's "Intercultural Communication" by Hu Wenzhong, "Introduction to Intercultural Communication" and "Crossing Cultural Barriers - Hu Wenzhong's Comparative Cultural Essays" by Hu Wenzhong, "Globalization and Intercultural Communication" edited by Guo Zhenzhi; Larry A. The photocopied version of Communication Across Cultures: A Reading, co-authored by Samovar and Richard E. Porter, has been released in my country and has been translated by Ma Zhengqi and others and named "Cultural Patterns and Communication Methods". In 1995, our country also held the first intercultural communication seminar, at which the China Intercultural Communication Research Association was established. The sixth meeting was held in May 2005. It can be said that the field that Hall expanded between culture and communication has crossed the Pacific Ocean and its influence in our country is expanding day by day.