The current study investigates a group of Chinese undergraduates’perceptions of Chinese culture.It examines the discourses that the students drew on to assign meaning to Chinese culture and how the students used thes...The current study investigates a group of Chinese undergraduates’perceptions of Chinese culture.It examines the discourses that the students drew on to assign meaning to Chinese culture and how the students used these discourses in constructing their Chinese cultural identity.A qualitative study was conducted collecting written self-reflective reports on critical intercultural incidents from 39 Chinese undergraduates at a university in Beijing.Questions designed to evoke reports from the students had them describe incidents in their past intercultural experiences that made them acutely aware of themselves“being Chinese”and specify aspects of Chinese culture that they felt such awareness could be attributed to.A discourse analysis reveals the multiplicity and contextuality of the students’notions of Chinese culture.The findings raise important considerations for contemporary Chinese undergraduates’cultural identity and their much debated“identity crisis.”展开更多
Many language instructors in colleges and universities around the world have teaching assistants to help them with the teaching. Since 1968, the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) program has aimed...Many language instructors in colleges and universities around the world have teaching assistants to help them with the teaching. Since 1968, the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) program has aimed to strengthen foreign language instruction at U.S. educational institutions by establishing a native speaker presence. As one of the first group of Fulbright Chinese Language Assistants, the author worked at the College of Wooster in the United States from August, 2005 to May, 2006. At the beginning of the paper, the author gave a brief introduction of Fulbright FLTA program. Then the author described five cultural activities that Fulbright FLTAs could employ in foreign language learners' learning process: giving presentations, teaching songs, watching movies, organizing free tea or coffee breaks, and holding free talks. The following section discussed two phenomena that FLTAs should avoid, that is, ethnocentrism and cultural stereotyping. The author pointed out in the conclusion that Fulbright language assistants should make efforts to be qualified cultural ambassadors.展开更多
Recent historiographic studies of cultural exchanges between Germany and Greece in the 19th and 20th centuries have tended to neglect the mutual influence of the two countries' intellectuals; as a result, there is in...Recent historiographic studies of cultural exchanges between Germany and Greece in the 19th and 20th centuries have tended to neglect the mutual influence of the two countries' intellectuals; as a result, there is insufficient appreciation of the extent to which historiography and philosophy were appropriated by the politics of the Interwar period. This article focuses on attempts by neo-Kantian philosophers to overcome the crisis of historicism, and on the impact of this crisis on Greek intellectuals' perceptions of historicism. The study shows that at the time historicism invoked the past to solve the problems of the present. My purpose is to show that in a time of crisis, Germany's pursuit of its Greekness in conformity with the Bildung tradition, and Greece's cultural dependence on Germany in the meaning-making of its own Greekness, shared common ground in the ideological uses of philosophy and history in the service of politics and the politics of culture. In the aftermath of WWI, German scholars raised the issue of the crisis of historicism. Neo-Kantian philosophers such as Heinrich Rickert, whose theory had a major impact on Greek intellectuals, became involved in this debate, posing the question of historical objectivity. Yet Rickert's philosophy of history soon fell into an impasse, leading to the rise of an idealist philosophy of history in the 1930s that committed itself anew to the dominant politics. In the 1930s, under the guise of idealism, Greek neo-Kantian intellectuals were claiming an objective historical narrative of the traumatic experience from 1922 onwards, which fit into the structure of an idealized ahistorical and mythic past, and which, as a hegemonic discourse, excluded its political enemies and propagandized the political struggle towards the fulfillment of the nation's historical and spiritual mission.展开更多
The tradition of the west defines its modernity as a radical rupture with endless possibilities for egalitarian futures; yet western modernity was rooted in the genocide of indigenous populations, transatlantic racial...The tradition of the west defines its modernity as a radical rupture with endless possibilities for egalitarian futures; yet western modernity was rooted in the genocide of indigenous populations, transatlantic racial slavery and colonialism. Moreover, as the war on terror demonstrates, racial/gender violence continues to be linked to the formation of western identity, culture and politics in the early twenty-first century. This paper examines how the histories of race and coloniality feature in the contemporary formation of the west, with a particular focus on US nationalism and Canadian multiculturalism. These nation-states are most often defined as antithetical, with the latter confirming that western society has transcended its originary racial/colonial politics. I begin with a brief discussion of the reformation of the west in the mid-twentieth century as the USA became the dominant western power. I then move to compare the contemporary national politics of the USA and Canada to highlight the divergence and convergence in their ddineation of their identity and values. My study demonstrates that although the white supremacist discourse that presently constitutes US nationalism is at variance with the multi- culturalism that shapes Canadian identity, these discourses can be defined as twin aspects of the racial/colonial politics that continue to give meaning to the idea of the west.展开更多
基金This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China under Grant No.3162020ZYKC05Beijing Social Science Funds under Grant No.19YYC017.
文摘The current study investigates a group of Chinese undergraduates’perceptions of Chinese culture.It examines the discourses that the students drew on to assign meaning to Chinese culture and how the students used these discourses in constructing their Chinese cultural identity.A qualitative study was conducted collecting written self-reflective reports on critical intercultural incidents from 39 Chinese undergraduates at a university in Beijing.Questions designed to evoke reports from the students had them describe incidents in their past intercultural experiences that made them acutely aware of themselves“being Chinese”and specify aspects of Chinese culture that they felt such awareness could be attributed to.A discourse analysis reveals the multiplicity and contextuality of the students’notions of Chinese culture.The findings raise important considerations for contemporary Chinese undergraduates’cultural identity and their much debated“identity crisis.”
文摘Many language instructors in colleges and universities around the world have teaching assistants to help them with the teaching. Since 1968, the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) program has aimed to strengthen foreign language instruction at U.S. educational institutions by establishing a native speaker presence. As one of the first group of Fulbright Chinese Language Assistants, the author worked at the College of Wooster in the United States from August, 2005 to May, 2006. At the beginning of the paper, the author gave a brief introduction of Fulbright FLTA program. Then the author described five cultural activities that Fulbright FLTAs could employ in foreign language learners' learning process: giving presentations, teaching songs, watching movies, organizing free tea or coffee breaks, and holding free talks. The following section discussed two phenomena that FLTAs should avoid, that is, ethnocentrism and cultural stereotyping. The author pointed out in the conclusion that Fulbright language assistants should make efforts to be qualified cultural ambassadors.
文摘Recent historiographic studies of cultural exchanges between Germany and Greece in the 19th and 20th centuries have tended to neglect the mutual influence of the two countries' intellectuals; as a result, there is insufficient appreciation of the extent to which historiography and philosophy were appropriated by the politics of the Interwar period. This article focuses on attempts by neo-Kantian philosophers to overcome the crisis of historicism, and on the impact of this crisis on Greek intellectuals' perceptions of historicism. The study shows that at the time historicism invoked the past to solve the problems of the present. My purpose is to show that in a time of crisis, Germany's pursuit of its Greekness in conformity with the Bildung tradition, and Greece's cultural dependence on Germany in the meaning-making of its own Greekness, shared common ground in the ideological uses of philosophy and history in the service of politics and the politics of culture. In the aftermath of WWI, German scholars raised the issue of the crisis of historicism. Neo-Kantian philosophers such as Heinrich Rickert, whose theory had a major impact on Greek intellectuals, became involved in this debate, posing the question of historical objectivity. Yet Rickert's philosophy of history soon fell into an impasse, leading to the rise of an idealist philosophy of history in the 1930s that committed itself anew to the dominant politics. In the 1930s, under the guise of idealism, Greek neo-Kantian intellectuals were claiming an objective historical narrative of the traumatic experience from 1922 onwards, which fit into the structure of an idealized ahistorical and mythic past, and which, as a hegemonic discourse, excluded its political enemies and propagandized the political struggle towards the fulfillment of the nation's historical and spiritual mission.
文摘The tradition of the west defines its modernity as a radical rupture with endless possibilities for egalitarian futures; yet western modernity was rooted in the genocide of indigenous populations, transatlantic racial slavery and colonialism. Moreover, as the war on terror demonstrates, racial/gender violence continues to be linked to the formation of western identity, culture and politics in the early twenty-first century. This paper examines how the histories of race and coloniality feature in the contemporary formation of the west, with a particular focus on US nationalism and Canadian multiculturalism. These nation-states are most often defined as antithetical, with the latter confirming that western society has transcended its originary racial/colonial politics. I begin with a brief discussion of the reformation of the west in the mid-twentieth century as the USA became the dominant western power. I then move to compare the contemporary national politics of the USA and Canada to highlight the divergence and convergence in their ddineation of their identity and values. My study demonstrates that although the white supremacist discourse that presently constitutes US nationalism is at variance with the multi- culturalism that shapes Canadian identity, these discourses can be defined as twin aspects of the racial/colonial politics that continue to give meaning to the idea of the west.