cross-cultural communication

What is cross-cultural communication? Cross-cultural communication is a subject founded by American anthropologist and cross-cultural scholar Edward Twitchell Hall Jr in 1950s. Its English expression is "cross-cultural communication or cross-cultural communication", which is also translated as "cross-cultural communication" or "cross-cultural communication" in China. Cross-cultural communication, as a branch of communication, aims to study how people from different cultural backgrounds communicate, how to improve their cross-cultural communication ability and overcome cross-cultural communication obstacles. Cross-cultural communication is an interdisciplinary subject, which combines the research results of anthropology, culturology, psychology and communication. The main theories of cross-cultural communication can be found in the works on cultural differences (cultural dimensions), especially Gilte ... hofstede, Harry C. Triandis, fons trompenaars, shalom Schwartz and Clifford Gilder. At present, the relevant theories of these scholars have been widely used in communication theory and communication scenarios, especially in the fields of commerce, management and marketing.

It is no accident that cross-cultural communication originated in America. As we know, before the discovery of the New World, the native Americans were Indians, and then immigrants from all continents poured into the United States one after another, so the United States gradually became a big immigrant country and a multicultural society. In this multi-religious and multicultural society, whites are dominant, and immigrants from India, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe are naturally dominant. As a result, ethnic contradictions and cultural conflicts began to spread.

The Second World War left many European and American alliances in ruins. In order to meet the needs of the Cold War and compete with the Soviet Union, the United States carried out the Marshall Plan and vigorously fostered European economic development, so a large number of experts, scholars and employees were sent to Europe. At the same time, the American economy was not greatly affected by World War II. The United States became a superpower politically and economically, attracting international students and immigrants from all over the world. The U.S. government found that many workers sent abroad by the U.S. government and enterprises could not adapt to the life of the sending country because of cultural differences, and finally returned in vain. Many immigrants and international students in the United States are experiencing this "culture shock". It can be said that in the 1950s, the number of immigrants, international students and tourists in the United States increased sharply, and the number of expatriate staff continued. The formation of a multicultural society objectively needs a brand-new discipline-intercultural communication to study related intercultural conflicts.

Edward Hall is in this era, and his life experience and professional background make him a person who undertakes this mission. Edward Twitchell Hall Jr 19 14 was born in Missouri, USA on May 6, 2006. He has successively obtained bachelor's degree, master's degree and doctor's degree in anthropology, and engaged in postdoctoral research in sociology/cultural anthropology. 1933- 1937 worked and studied in Navajo and Hopi Indian villages in the southwest of the United States, and wrote his autobiography1West in the 1930s. During World War II, Edward Twitchell Hall Jr served in Europe and the Philippines, where he studied the concept of space in different cultures. In 1950s, Edward Twitchell Hall Jr taught in the Foreign Service College of the American government and trained overseas personnel in cross-cultural skills. During this period, he put forward "high context" and "low context" culture, and wrote several best-selling books on cross-cultural communication.

Cross-cultural communication is inextricably linked with all levels of the huge "discourse field" of the global society. Cross-cultural communication research is directly promoted by the trend of globalization, and is closely related to profound and extensive changes such as colonization, world war and post-war reconstruction, post-colonialism, modernity and so on. The study of cross-cultural communication pays attention to human communication in many aspects, presents spiritual images of different cultures and ever-changing individual expressions, and shows the deepening process of this discipline's understanding of global social and cultural facts and changes, as well as its theoretical and practical value. Cross-cultural communication, as a knowledge system of cultural concepts and strategies, has irreplaceable academic significance for observing and guiding cultural practices of different cultures and social levels, is conducive to mutual understanding and tolerance between different cultures, and also determines the collective destiny of mankind in the 2 1 century.