援外身份转变中的情感调适与互动策略——以中国援W国农业技术示范中心为例

Emotional Adaptation and Interaction Strategies in the Transformation of Foreign Aid Identity——A Case Study of China-W Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center

在援助实践中,一种理想的效果是,援助不仅能促进当地经济、社会等多方面的发展,同时双方还能达成情感上的共融相通。本文以一个在东非W国的中国农业技术示范中心为例,来分析农技专家与当地参与者之间的人际关系演化过程。研究发现:处于高度不确定的海外环境,援助专家在面临生理和心理双重困境时需要完成个体身份的“他者”转换,并实现情感上的适度调整,与当地社会进行适当合理的互动,才能有助于援助项目的顺利开展。在四组案例中,农技专家在与农技中心的厨师、司机、协调员和实习工人互动时有着不同的情感类型,包括相互包容、换位体验、认知错位和突发误会等;从而后续的互动双方也相应呈现不同的策略,如移情思考、提高认知阈值和引入第三方协调等方式;最终,上述四种互动类型分别取得了信任提升、彼此体谅、情感协调和误会消弭的良性互动结果。上述“情感—互动”关系模式的总结有助于增进我们对于对外援助实践过程的理解。

Due to the uneven economic and social development between countries and regions,international development aid has a long history.Since the United States put forward the Marshall Plan,development aid has become an important way to solve the problem of unbalanced regional development and poverty in late-developing countries and regions.For a long period of time,mainly Western developed countries in Europe and the United States provided aid in various aspects,including technology,economy,education,medical care,and even military security,to the vast number of southern countries.This cooperative development relationship is also called“North-South cooperation”.However,with the rise of some emerging countries,these countries have gradually changed from the original role of aid recipients to aid providers.This change also shows that the monopoly position of the traditional North-South cooperation model has been slowly broken.Among them,China has also become an important foreign aid provider.In China’s foreign aid,an important way is to provide agricultural technical aid to Africa,a typical representative of which is to set up agricultural technology demonstration centers in developing countries such as Africa.As a development aid project in a foreign country,it needs a lot of local support and help when it lands.For an organization,positions including drivers,chefs,security guards and skilled workers can be set;however,the setting of these positions does not mean that they can cover all the needs of project operations.In fact,since the agricultural technology center is not an“enclave”completely isolated from the outside world,but needs to have very close interaction with the local society,in addition to the functions undertaken by these formal post settings,some people who can work around the clock also required a companion and guide to rely on.The local staffs of the agricultural technology center are the local partners that the Chinese agricultural technology experts rely on most.This means that the agricultural technology center actually has a functional requirement for local employees that exceeds the general formal job position.However,for these local staffs working in the agricultural technology center,they have no naturalo bligation to assist the agricultural technology center in fulfilling all demands for smooth technology promotion in the local area.From the perspective of superficial relationship division,the formal relationship corresponds to the needs of the job position setting,and the informal relationship corresponds to the needs outside the job position.For the latter to work,a certain emotional connection needs to be established between formal and informal relationships.This emotional connection is not a one-way output,but the result of interaction between the two parties.A more positive emotional association can stimulate the role of the other party in the informal relationship;a more negative emotional association will make the other party become passive in the informal relationship.And these two informal relationships triggered by changes in emotional associations will also have a certain impact on daily formal work.The following sections will mainly analyze and discuss the abovementioned issues in the form of ethnography.Based on the author’s fieldwork data,four groups of micro-interaction cases were selected,which respectively showed different interpersonal emotional interaction modes and the relationship with aid projects.In the first group of cases,the relationship between the Mr.Zhangshan and the chef has a multifaceted character.On the one hand,the parties are the formal working relationship between the employer and the employee.In this aspect,the performance of the chef is relatively complicated.In the chef’s own work,her culinary skills accumulated over the years are the foundation of her life in the Agricultural Technology Center,and she has been fully recognized by Mr.Zhangshan.On the other hand,due to the prevailing poverty,the cooks have occasionally exhibited some anomie.But these anomie behaviors will be tolerated by Mr.Zhangshan in most cases,and this tolerance actually depends on the emotional interaction between the two parties.In the kitchen,the main interaction space between the two sides,Mr.Zhangshan and the chef produced emotional projections respectively.The long-term assisted life of wandering outside made Mr.Zhangshan feel lonely,and the kitchen can not only provide him with the necessary food,but also the only way to dispel homesickness under limited conditions.For the chef,the kitchen is not only her workspace,but also a haven for self-realization and escape from family stress.The teaching and learning about Chinese food and diet have given them a commonality based on interests.In addition,in the trivial daily life,there are some scenes of interdependence between each other,which help to further deepen the relationship between the two parties.Mr.Zhangshan’s limited tolerance to the chef and the chef’s trust in Mr.Zhangshan are the result of long-term interaction between the two parties,and this positive emotional interaction can be continuously superimposed.But one of the factors that can restrict the emotional interaction between the two parties is the formal relationship between the two parties.As the manager of the agricultural technology center,Mr.Zhangshan needs to maintain sufficient authority and distance in front of many local employees to ensure his own safety.The unique position of the chef requires her to show her unique superiority among her colleagues from time to time.Therefore,there is often a conflict between the two.But such conflicts are often easily resolved.Thus forming a relatively benign interactive relationship on the whole.Between the driver and Mr.Zhangshan,there is a situation where role expectations are misplaced.Mr.Zhangshan has always positioned himself as a technician in his long-term foreign aid work.The sudden epidemic forced him to“stay behind”to manage all the daily affairs of the Agricultural Technology Center.Although Mr.Zhangshan has been working in the Agricultural Technology Center for nearly ten years and knows almost everything well,sometimes unexpected situations still make him nervous and anxious.And this kind of emotional external expression will make the driver feel incomprehensible.He even broke his expectations of a manager’s ability to manage emotions and bear pressure,and then doubted Mr.Zhangshan.The rejection of follow-up salary increases further disappointed drivers.As for the driver,he is an important helper who has been trusted for a long time,his reasonable request was rejected,not only the financial income was not met,but also Mr.Zhangshan’s approval was not obtained,and he was emotionally ignored and hurt.In his imagination,a reasonable manager should not only meet the reasonable economic needs of his subordinates in a timely manner,but also take appropriate care of their emotions.But obviously,Mr.Zhangshan who was already busy didn’t do it as expected.In the follow-up process of being in charge of the grass seed purchase business,the driver gradually realized the pressure on the managers.It is not easy to manage a group of unrestrained workers,so he can understand the long-term psychological feelings of Mr.Zhangshan to a certain extent.In the end,Mr.Renjie’s initiative to disclose the situation of the agricultural technology center made the driver understand the aid organization he has been working for for a long time.There are changes in the relationship between Mr.Zhangshan and Ms.M.In Ms.M’s early work as a coordinator and technician,she had an extraordinary enthusiasm for international aid projects when she first entered the workplace,and placed her own development expectations on the Agricultural Technology Center.At this time,due to factors such as the country’s social environment and economic development level,she was in a relatively low psychological position most of the time when facing the aid projects of the Agricultural Technology Center,and provided support for the local development of the Agricultural Technology Center a lot of help.Based on the support for Ms.M’s personal development and the consideration of the long-term operation of the aid project,the Agricultural Technology Center and the domestic headquarters paved the way for Ms.M to study abroad.But after Ms.M completed this journey,she had a different attitude towards the Chinese staffs of the Agricultural Technology Center and the operation of the entire project.This change has caused a psychological gap and emotional damage to the Chinese staffs who have been stationed there for a long time.When one party’s interaction norms and mentality change,the other party will inevitably feel some discomfort in subsequent interactions.If the two parties can handle the relationship changes brought about by this change of mentality well,then it is possible to find a new equilibrium point in the subsequent cooperation;but if both parties agree to keep the grudge in their hearts,the relationship may intensify.Around the“woven bag”incident,the psychological changes before and after the two parties have become the source of misunderstanding and emotional trauma between each other.For Mr.Renjie,the economic value of the lost woven bag itself is not too important.He hopes to see the truth,and he hopes to see Sofia’s previous relationship and consider his feelings when an accident happens in the center and safeguard the interests of the center.He had more emotional expectations for Sophia than ordinary workers,but things backfired.From the perspective of Mr.Renjie,Sophia didn’t seem to understand his thoughts.As for Sophia,after more than a year of personal relationship before entering the agricultural technology center,she was full of longing for this aid project from the far east,and she was able to work in a relatively comfortable environment and earn a certain amount of income.Preparing for future university life is not only a manifestation of one’s own adulthood,but also the acquisition of skills that have a certain technical content for the locals.But the sudden“woven bag”incident caused her to be suspicious,her personal dignity was challenged,and her previous good expectations were also shattered.The sudden blow made her angry.The psychological activities and external actions of both parties in a tense atmosphere have some irrational elements,and are full of misunderstandings and judgments about each other.The over-excited Mr.Renjie was dissatisfied with his trust being“trampled”and asked Sophia to go home temporarily to rest,hoping that she could understand his intentions;but Sophia went home for no reason,and immediately learned that her job position had been replaced.The perplexity turned into anger and loss,and also refused the author’s mediation.The two sides have formed a situation where riding a tiger is difficult.In one of the protagonists of this article—two Chinese agricultural technology experts,we can find that they have some obvious characteristics in their long and lonely aid careers,such as the work pressure when maintaining the operation of aid projects on their own and the feeling of being far away from their hometown and relatives.Emotional loneliness and work pressure,these two constitute their main mental schema.Although there are many local partners in the local area,most of the time,the counterparty acts as an employee to get along with Chinese agricultural technology experts.Creating partners and getting enough spiritual support and comfort are the deep needs of agricultural technology experts under the rational thought of transactional work.Since they come from different economic,social and cultural backgrounds,and they all interact based on specific affairs,it is difficult for the two parties to communicate spiritually and emotionally like friends without pressure and barriers generating and evolving slowly.From the perspective of emotion generation and evolution,the above four types of interaction cases between agricultural technology experts and local people have certain correlation characteristics.For example,in the fourth group of cases,the process of trying to build a relationship failed;in the second group of cases,after the strength of the relationship was threatened,the relationship was restored through unilateral empathy and perspective shifting.In the third group of cases,after the relationship reached a certain strength,because one of the parties had a status change,and the other party had no way to effectively adjust the self-state on this basis,the result was that the relationship went to the other extreme;in the first group of cases,it showed how a dynamic relationship played back and forth to achieve a relatively balanced state.In transnational exchanges,how to adapt to the ideal situation of local socialculture to achieve mutual benefit and win-win has always been an important issue for foreign aid.In the ethnographic analysis of microinterpersonal interactions,it can be found that emotion plays an irreplaceable role in it.Emotion is a kind of psychological activity common to human beings that is different from social culture,and it is the microscopic basis for many interactions.In Fei Xiaotong’s research in his later years,he proposed an ideal effect of interpersonal interaction,that is,“everyone is beautiful,the beauty of the beauties is beautiful;beauty and beauty are shared,and the world is one”.To achieve this state,it is necessary for both parties to interact to achieve high mutual understanding,empathy and respect.This is especially true for aid activities.An activity trying to improve the destiny of mankind,in addition to bringing about the optimization of objective material conditions,also requires both parties to understand and agree with each other,so that it is possible to achieve the goal of jointly building a“community with a shared future for mankind”.