Date: 11-May-2006
From: Daniel Kadar <danielkadaryahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Written Communication Across Cultures
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-3427.html
AUTHOR: Zhu, Yunxia TITLE: Written Communication across Cultures SUBTITLE: A sociocognitive perspective on business genres SERIES: Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 141 PUBLISHER: John Benjamins YEAR: 2005
Daniel Z. Kadar, Department of Linguistics, Gate of Dharma University of Buddhist Studies, Hungary; Department of East Asian Studies, Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary
OVERVIEW
The book compares Chinese and English business genres -- sales letters, sales invitations, and business faxes -- from a sociocognitive perspective. It is consisted of nine chapters.
Chapter 1 is an introduction. First the author summarizes the framework which she applies to compare Chinese and English (E/C) business genres. This summary helps the reader relating the work to research trends that study genres from cross-cultural perspectives (even though the author claims that she applies a synthesised theoretical framework rather than relying on a specific area). In the next section the author introduces the rationale, aim, and research questions of the book. An outline of the contents closes the chapter.
In order to provide theoretical background for the comparison of E/C business genres, Chapter 2 discusses several cross-cultural research areas like: (a) Contrastive rhetoric -- Kaplan's (1966) study on the in-/directness of (argumentative) thought patterns in cultures, and its critiques, can help understanding cultural differences in writing styles. (b) Contrastive study of persuasive traditions in Greek and Chinese rhetorical traditions -- such a research can provide insights into the cross-cultural examination of written business discourses, because it ''examines rhetoric beyond the level of argumentation'' (p. 12). (c) Intercultural communication -- Hall's (1976) ''high vs. low-context cultures'' theory and Hofstede's (1991) intercultural theory (cf. the four cultural variables of ''individualism-collectivism'', ''power relations'', ''uncertainty avoidance'', and ''masculinity/femininity'') are mentioned as possible research concepts. (d) Cross-cultural pragmatics -- cross-cultural politeness research, in particular face issues, is of potential relevance for the comparison of business genres. (e) Cultures -- the normative notion of ''culture'' in communities of practice can be effectively utilized for a cross-cultural genre study.
In the concluding section the author notes that she will ''establish a sociocognitive contrasting system that employs these cross-cultural ... dimensions'' (pp. 24-25).
Chapter 3 elaborates the conceptual framework of the study. In order to offer a dual perspective, the author reviews sociocognitive genre research that has been developed in the ''West'' on the one hand, and Chinese genre studies, on the other. The sociocognitive research of genres is surveyed according to the concepts of: (a) Genre as social stock of knowledge -- this fundamental theory in sociocognitive genre research claims that language users (re) construct given genres according to schemata based on their stocks of knowledge. (b) Genre and the sociocultural contexts -- communicative genres are historically and culturally specific; hence it is necessary to rely on the ''ethnography of communication'' when studying the characteristics of ''stocks of knowledge''. (c) Genre practice and the discourse community -- discourse communities have to be also studied in order to successfully map genre knowledge, because ''a discourse community requires its members to exhibit a general level of knowledge structures as a prerequisite for membership'' (p. 35). (d) Genre as communicative events -- the realization of genre ''knowledge stocks'' can be viewed as ''communicative events'', and so examining ''communicative purposes'', ''rhetorical structures'', and ''intertextuality'' can aid genre analysis.
After surveying sociocognitive genre research, the author attempts to give an overview of Chinese genre studies. First she outlines Chinese genre systemization: business genres (a) typically belong to the so- called 'yingyongwen' ('practical writing') domain of written language; (b) in this domain emotions have less role than logic (but they have considerably more importance than in ''Western'' business writings); (c) the Chinese further categorize business genres according to the superior/equal/subordinate relationship between the writer and the reader as 'shangxing' (lit. 'up direction')/'pingxing' (lit. 'equal direction')/'xiaxing' (lit. 'down direction') types. Later on the author briefly introduces the history of Chinese genre research and its present state in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Finally, the Chinese research of 'practical writing' genres is introduced, which is a new scholarly area in the PRC. In the closing section of the chapter the author introduces her model for cross-cultural genre study, which is based on intercultural theories, sociocognitive approaches to genres, and Chinese genre theories. The model compares E/C business genres according to (a) sociocultural factors, (b) persuasive orientations/communicative purposes, (c) rhetorical structures/intertextuality, and (d) professionals' views of cultures involved (p. 58).
Chapter 4 ''gives an overall view of the research design and details of the research method, data ... of the analysis'' (p. 61). The research method is ''interpretive'' (i.e., the author interprets the empirical results of the analyses) and ''contrastive'' (i.e., the results are based on cross- cultural comparison). The data is drawn from authentic business writings, as well as from questionnaire and interviews. The participants of the latter data collecting method are managers from China and New Zealand (NZ).
Chapter 5 ''applies the framework proposed in Chapter 3 and compares E/C sales letters'' (p. 71). First the author examines the E/C sociocultural contexts for the writing of business genres. Due to the fact that ''the free market economy has been a dominant feature in the West for many century'' (p. 72) English business genres are written for an individualistic, low-context culture: their writers primarily pay attention to achieving immediate goals. In the PRC, on the other hand, ''free-market economy is accepted together with traditional cultural protocols'' (p. 75), and ''relationship ('guanxi') building is considered a key to business success'' (p. 75). After mapping sociocultural differences, the chapter compares the communicative purposes and persuasive orientations of the E/C sales letters. The analysis points out the fact that the E/C letters apply by-and-large identical ''logical approach'' to sell the goods, but -- in contrast to the English sales letters -- in the Chinese letters ''the influence from ... 'emotional' approach is quite evident ... by having one extra purpose of establishing a long-term relation with the reader'' (p. 78).
In the next section the author compares the texts of the E/C sales letters: first she examines intertextuality in the studied texts, then she outlines the rhetorical structures of the E/C sales letters and compares the different moves employed by the authors of these texts. The findings of the textual analysis reflect the different backgrounds of E/C business cultures -- while both cultures stress the logical approach as an important persuasive orientation, the differences between E/C intertextuality/rhetorical moves refer to an individualistic vs. communal opposition in the perception of business interactions. I.e., while the English sales letters tend to use a more direct style and apply embedded intertextuality/rhetorical moves to ''press'' the consumer to acquire the given goods, the Chinese letters have a deferential style and utilize intertextuality/rhetorical moves to express respect. (E.g., the English writers attach postscripts to their letters in order to stress the benefits that the reader can have from the business, while the Chinese writers insert typically non-equal, deferential ('shangxing') genre elements into their letters.) Furthermore, the writers of the English letters aim to achieve immediate goals, thus they give very detailed accounts on the given goods; the Chinese writers, on the other hand, avoid giving detailed descriptions, exactly because their primary aim is to build long-term relationships with the customers. Finally, the author examines those E/C sales letters which were found to be the most effective by the interviewed managers in NZ and the PRC, and she also surveys the managers' evaluations of the most effective E/C letters. The evaluations of the ''professional communities'' are in accordance with the aforementioned findings of cross-cultural genre differences. Generally, he NZ managers appreciate directness/effectiveness in the English letter and criticize the Chinese letter because of its indirect structure, while the Chinese managers find the English letters too direct and of ''cold'' tone.
Chapter 6 compares E/C sales invitations in similar manner indicated in Chapter 5. The data is composed of forty authentic sales invitations to trade fairs in Australia, NZ and the PRC. First the author discusses the sociocultural contexts of E/C sales invitations. While the sociocultural background of English invitations is similar to that of sales letters, in Chinese cultural context the act of invitation goes far beyond a business partnership, and invitations typically belong to the so called 'liyi xin' ('letters of social etiquettes') genre -- hence the Chinese inviters apply particularly deferential register in order to properly build interpersonal relationships. In the subsequent section the author compares the communicative purposes and persuasive orientations of sales invitations. The English sales invitations apply a logical approach (a) to persuade readers to attend the trade fairs and (b) to achieve positive image. The Chinese letters, while applying resembling logical approach to invite the readers/gain positive image, also try to achieve a collaborative/respectful image and build a host- guest relationship with the readers.
After studying persuasive orientations, the author examines intertextuality in the studied E/C sales invitations. In the English texts intertextuality (e.g. regular reference to Internet) serves informative goals, while in Chinese letters it serves the attaining of ''a higher level of politeness'' (p. 107). Beside intertextuality the author also studies rhetorical structures. Similarly to sales letters, the English invitations are direct and their aim is to invite the reader for one definite occasion; the Chinese ones are more deferential in style, and their twofold aim is to (a) invite the reader's organization and (b) build up long-standing relationships. For example, Chinese authors tend to repeat invitations at the closing sections of the texts, which cannot be observed in the English invitations. In the final part of the chapter the author compares NZ and Chinese managers' views on the most successful sales invitations. As it turns out from the comparison, the Chinese managers find the most successful English letter somewhat more acceptable than vice versa. This difference is supposedly rooted in the fact that the Chinese managers ''had no problem understanding the English letters'' (pp. 121-122), while the deferential/ritualised style of the Chinese invitations ''may water down the real intent of the invitation relating to sales'' (p. 122) for the NZ managers.
Chapter 7 compares E/C business faxes, a written genre that have become increasingly popular in business communication. This comparison is not only challenging because it is based on a sociocognitive theory (cf. Chapter 5 and Chapter 6), but also the cross-cultural analysis of business faxes is a regrettably understudied topic, hence its examination is of a pioneering character. First the author introduces the data of the analysis, then she discusses the technological and sociocultural contexts for fax writing. Interestingly, while researchers like Louhiala-Salminen (1999) predict that faxes may be transitory and short-lived as a form of business writing in Europe because of the increasing use of e-mails, in Australia, NZ and the PRC fax writing will be prospectively remain an important means of communication. In Australia and NZ, companies of reasonable sizes still prefer using faxes to e-mails, while in the PRC ''e-mails have never become as popular as faxes'' (p. 127). In the next section the author introduces fax as genre. Fax writing is an independent genre in both English and Chinese cultural contexts, but also it has mixed characteristics: e.g. English faxes have the generic features of memos and letters, while Chinese faxes ''appear to share some formal ... features as well as personal letters'' (p. 129).
In the subsequent section the author examines the persuasive orientations and communicative purposes of business faxes; she claims that ''the persuasive orientations discussed in earlier chapters still apply to business faxes'' (p. 130), i.e., Chinese faxes tend to indicate both the emotional and logical approaches, and also they try to attain long-term relationships with the readers, while English faxes have a clear stress on logos. The examination of intertextuality in the texts supports this finding: e.g., the Chinese faxes regularly apply referential intertextuality related to 'guanxi' or 'connections'. In the next section the author compares the rhetorical structures of E/C business faxes. Again, the rhetorical differences support the above notion of cross-cultural differences between persuasive orientations. E.g., the Chinese writers prefer inserting greetings and traditional Chinese good wishes into their faxes (to attain close relation with the readers), while the English writers tend to avoid using such ''overtly personal'' rhetorical elements and they focus on the concrete deal. Or, in the case of business complaints, the English writers use a very direct tone to express complaints, while the Chinese writers cautiously avoid direct criticism, and they tend to refer to their ''disappointment'', which can be harmful towards relationship building (i.e. they apply the ''emotional'' approach). At the end of the chapter the author compares the E/C business faxes that were evaluated as most effective by the interviewees, and also she compares the managers' views on them. The NZ managers value directness, clear focus and logical structure in the most effective English fax, while the Chinese managers criticise it because of its non-deferential style and lack of ''human kindness''. The Chinese managers like the formal/ritual style, warm tone, and the skilful mixing of messages of the most effective Chinese fax, while the NZ managers criticize it because of its humble tone and ambiguous message. The managers' views reinforce the aforementioned E/C cultural differences in persuasive orientations.
Chapter 8 ''aims to apply research findings of earlier chapters to genre teaching across cultures'' (p. 155). The author first overviews the state of cross-cultural genre teaching and raises the notion of generic competence. Because textbooks (particularly those that teach business genres) are prescriptive, i.e., they only teach the form of genre, it is difficult for language learners to attain a high-level competence when they can write effectively without conscious efforts (cf. the notion of ''unconscious competence'' on p. 158). Hence the author tries to apply her sociocognitive model for the teaching of E/C business genres, in order to involve students ''in the processes to understand genres beyond the text'' (p. 161). The proposed model consist of the following processes: (a) Learning sociocultural contexts across cultures -- the students first learn the sociocultural background of the studied genre. (b) Learning persuasive orientations and communicative purposes -- this process ''enable students to acquire basic theoretical understanding about persuasion'' (p.165). (c) Learning to write texts and incorporating peripheral participation -- in this process theories are linked with practice. (d) Incorporating authentic data and managers' views -- teaching these helps students becoming involved in the professional practice of the studied genre. (e) Learning implications for intercultural generic competence -- ''the final process aims to raise students' awareness of the implications of studying genre for cross-cultural generic competence'' (p. 173).
The author tests this model on Chinese students who learn English business writing. The outcome of the experiment supports the effectiveness of the sociocognitive teaching methodology.
Chapter 9 surveys the findings of the work and lists their possible implications for genre research and intercultural competence. In addition, the author lists some areas where further research can be carried out on the basis of this study.
EVALUATION
Zhu Yunxia's book is a high-level scholarly work, which is a must for every reader who is interested in the research of Chinese business communication and intercultural issues.
The following positive characteristics of the study have to be pointed out. (a) The reader gets insight into an interesting data. A problem in the research of business discourses is that it is often difficult to ''access to sensitive and confidential boardroom discussions, management meetings and certain types of negotiations ... though linguistic evidence based on such settings is crucial to our understanding of international business communication'' (Bargiela-Chiappini & Harris 1997: 3). In the case of modern Chinese business discourses data collection is particularly difficult, because one needs extensive 'guanxi' (relationship) network to get access to business circles. Yet the author successfully manages to collect a large amount of real life data from Chinese managers, which is a valuable contribution to business language research.
(b) The author provides a detailed introduction of the Chinese 'yingyongwen' ('practical writing') in Chapter 3. It is necessary to mention that 'yingyongwen' constitutes one of the most difficultly accessible areas of written Chinese, because the style of 'yingyong' genres is strongly archaising and so their writing/reading requires preliminary studies in traditional Chinese culture and a strong command of Chinese language; this is why the Chinese tend to publish a large quantity of 'yingyongwen' teaching materials for native speakers. Although studying 'yingyongwen' is unavoidable to properly understand Chinese professional/official written genres, this topic is neglected in Chinese linguistics. So the author's detailed description of 'yingyong' genres is not only important for the research that is carried out in the work, but in the long run it blazes a trail for the linguistic research of Chinese written genres.
(c) The author utilizes a remarkably complex research methodology for cross-cultural genre analysis, which is constituted from modern linguistic research areas, traditional genre studies, as well as (cross-) cultural views on successful business. Yet the reader can comprehend the working of this methodology, due to the detailed introduction in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.
(d) The author applies her research findings/methodology for the practical aim of cross-cultural genre teaching, which makes her work a valuable source work for lecturers of E/C written languages. Many textbooks, which teach E/C written genres for non-native speakers, are of prescriptive nature, i.e. they induce memorization instead of understanding. The author's sociocognitive approach to cross-cultural genre teaching/learning, on the other hand, provides a methodology that helps students to understand written genres beyond their formal characteristics.
As regard to critiques, the following points can be mentioned. (a) There are misspellings in the 'pinyin' transcriptions of the Chinese words (like 'lianxi' ('contact') is written as 'laixi', p. 145). Generally these do not raise difficulties for the reader, but e.g. in the case of ''the most effective Chinese business fax'' (pp. 148-149), the addressee, whose name is Liang Jianwei (see the Chinese text in Appendix 1), occurs as ''Mr. Wang Jiawei'' and then as ''Mr. Liang'' in the translation, which makes difficult to properly understand the English text.
(b) In the author's account on ''Chinese written discourse and the division of genres'' (pp.45-47) ''literature'' and ''practical/profession writing'' occur as two basically separated domains of written Chinese. This, however, is a debatable point, since according to researchers like Cai (1999), or Yu (2002) some Chinese literary genres serve the goals of 'practical writing'. E.g., the genre of antithetical couplets (or 'duilian') is categorised as 'yingyongwen' in most of the studies. At first sight the relation of ''literature'' and ''practical writing'' seems to be a marginal issue, but in fact its clarification would be of importance to understand why modern Chinese 'yingyong' genres are rich in literary elements, compared to ''Western'' professional/practical genres.
(c) The author defines the presence of honorific expressions in business genres as ''genre mixing''. In other words, she claims that modern Chinese business relations are equal, i.e., business genres belong to the 'equal' type of 'practical writing' ('pingxing' genres), and so authors mix genres when they apply honorific (self-denigrating and interlocutor-denigrating) expressions, which typically belong to 'shangxing' genres (where subordinates write to superiors). The author uses this argumentation to support the notion that Chinese business genres are in the period of formation, which results in the strong mixture of genres. Although the reviewer agrees with the latter notion, the claim that the use of honorifics was genre mixing in Chinese business writing is questionable. First, according to many 'yingyongwen' theorists (see above and also Lü 1979 or Huang 2001) the use of honorifics is not the only a property of 'shangxing' (from-subordinate-to-superior) genres, but honorifics can also occur in 'pingxing' (equal) and casually even in 'xiaxing' (from-superior-to- subordinate) genres. This questions the validity of the statement that the regular use of honorifics in business genres was the ''mixture'' of 'pingxing' and 'shangxing' elements. Second, in Chinese linguistic politeness honorific expressions have fundamental role (cf. Gu 1990), which suggests that in every written genre that require deferential register (because of certain interpersonal power relations) the use of honorifics is unavoidable (cf. Kadar 2005). I.e., the managers supposedly apply honorific expressions because business interaction is an activity which necessitates deference, or the interpersonal power relation between sellers and buyers in China necessitates a deferential tone. This is implicitly supported by the fact that all of the author's examples contain a large quantity of honorific expressions, i.e. the use of honorifics seems to be a generic characteristic of Chinese business letters.
It is necessary to emphasize that the above-mentioned critical remarks do not decrease the overall high scholarly value of Zhu's work, which is an important contribution to the fields of both business language research and intercultural pragmatics.
REFERENCES
Bargiela-Chiappini, Francesca & Harris, Sandra J., eds. (1997) The Languages of Business. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University press.
Cai, Diqiu (1999) Yingyongwen Biaogan (Standard Practical Writing). Tainan: Wenguo shuju.
Gu, Yueguo (1990) Politeness Phenomena in Modern Chinese. Journal of Pragmatics 14, 237-257.
Hall, Edward T. (1976) Beyond Culture. Garden City, New York: Anchor.
Hofstede, Geert H. (1991) Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Huang, Xiangyang (2001) Yingyongwen (Practical Writing). Taibei: Hongye wenhua shiye youxian gongsi.
Kadar, Daniel Z. (2005) The powerful and the powerless -- On the classification of the Chinese polite denigrating/elevating addressing terminology. Acta Orientalia Hung. 58, 421-443.
Kaplan, Robert B. (1966) Cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education. Language Learning 16, 1-20.
Louhiala-Salminen, Leena (1999) From business correspondence to message exchange: What is there left? In M. Hewings & C. Nickerson (eds.) Business English: Research Into Practice (1-27). London: Longman.
Lü, Xinchang (1979) Zuxin Yingyongwen Huibian (A Collection of the Most Modern Practical Writings). Taibei: Taiwan shangwu yinshuguan.
Yu, Kaijun (2002) Xin Shiyong Yingyongwen (New Practical Writing for Use) Tainan: Dafu shuju.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Daniel Zoltan Kadar's (Ph.D.) research interests include traditional Chinese (im)politeness, institutional discourses in imperial China, politeness in Chinese written genres, and universal theories of honorific language (with special focus on honorific vocatives). Recently he works on the research of linguistic (im)politeness in old Chinese institutional discourses, like business, courtroom, medical interactions. His publications include books, like "Terms of (Im) politeness -- On the Communicational Properties of Traditional Chinese (Im)polite Address Terms" (in press, to appear in "Budapest Monographs in East Asian Studies Series", Budapest: Eotvos Lorand University Press), and research articles in English and Chinese, like "Power and Profit -- The role of elevating/denigrating forms of address in pre-modern Chinese business discourse" (in F. Bargiela- Chiappini and M. Gotti (eds.) "Asian Business Discourse(s)", Bern/Oxford/New York: Peter Lang, 2005).
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