The paper argues that a change of the name from multiculturalism to transculturalism will not work magic if the thinking paradigm that dictates trans- culturalism is still the same mindset that dictates multiculturali...The paper argues that a change of the name from multiculturalism to transculturalism will not work magic if the thinking paradigm that dictates trans- culturalism is still the same mindset that dictates multiculturalism, which is basi- cally swayed by postcolonialism, a victim mentality, or what Fanon termed as a colonized mind that conceives the world ahistorically in terms of a false binarism of the West and the non-West, ignoring entirely the complexities of power relations in intercultural and intracultural interactions, and disregarding the simple facts that, as the West is not a colonizing whole, the non-West is not a colonized monolith and that, as there are diversities between cultures in the West and the non-West, there are differences within the Western cultures, within the non-Western cultures, and within each culture. I discuss the failures of multiculturalism, critique the indiscriminate application of postcolonialism, and look into the problems and risks of conceiving power relations in cross-cultural interactions along the postcolonialist binary line, which has reduced the diversified world into the West and the non-West. The transculturalist hypothesis of World Englishes is used as a case in point. My conclusion is that transculturalism can only be meaningful if it adopts ＂a disposition of openness, liberated from the colonized mind or the postcolonialist identity politics.展开更多
文摘The paper argues that a change of the name from multiculturalism to transculturalism will not work magic if the thinking paradigm that dictates trans- culturalism is still the same mindset that dictates multiculturalism, which is basi- cally swayed by postcolonialism, a victim mentality, or what Fanon termed as a colonized mind that conceives the world ahistorically in terms of a false binarism of the West and the non-West, ignoring entirely the complexities of power relations in intercultural and intracultural interactions, and disregarding the simple facts that, as the West is not a colonizing whole, the non-West is not a colonized monolith and that, as there are diversities between cultures in the West and the non-West, there are differences within the Western cultures, within the non-Western cultures, and within each culture. I discuss the failures of multiculturalism, critique the indiscriminate application of postcolonialism, and look into the problems and risks of conceiving power relations in cross-cultural interactions along the postcolonialist binary line, which has reduced the diversified world into the West and the non-West. The transculturalist hypothesis of World Englishes is used as a case in point. My conclusion is that transculturalism can only be meaningful if it adopts ＂a disposition of openness, liberated from the colonized mind or the postcolonialist identity politics.
