An Overview of Intercultural Communication Studies at Home and Abroad
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intercultural communication refers to dissemination of information among individuals， organizations and nations of different cultures”. In the year of 1908， the famous German sociologist Georg Simmel brought up “stranger” as a group concept in one of his articles which is entitled The Stranger. The concept stranger” refers to an uncertain group of people who keep a certain distance with the local people， that is， the familiar ones. The familiar people tend to keep a suspicious and alert eye on the strangers， which results in a fact that the strangers become unable to fully incorporate themselves into the local society and culture. Based on the concept of “stranger”， Paul C.P. Siu puts forward two new concepts—marginal man” and “sojourner”—to expand the connotation of “stranger”. The concept “marginal man” has included those people who live in the same area with the familiar ones but actually linger by the border of society. On the other hand， the concept “sojourner” refers to those who are living in foreign countries but still hold on to their original group consciousness and cultural traditions. It is thus clear that the early studies of intercultural communication generally focus on human beings living in the society.
The accomplished American anthropologist Edward Twitchell Hall Jr. has combined “inter-cultural” with “communication” to lay the foundation for the subject of intercultural communication. Hall’s high context and low context culture theory， unconscious culture theory and his theory defining four types of physical distances people maintain in different social contexts still play a role of great value in intercultural communication studies up to now.
Distinguishing between high context culture and low context culture has set up a perspective that studies of intercultural communication activities can refer to. When people having long lived in one cultural context come into another cultural context， they are bound to be confronted with barriers in thinking and actions that are resulted from cultural conflicts. Without those barriers being overcome， it would be hard to understand meanings communicated in the process of intercultural communication， thus even resulting in mistakes in words and actions. On the one hand， the characteristic of the high context defined by Hall is—the designation of a language itself is not able to stand for the whole meaning of the speech. To explain the meaning， therefore， it is necessary to search for the answer in the context which is made up of this cultural community’s thinking， habits and unconsciousness. On the other hand， in a low context culture， the language itself is able to specify its meaning. Since the meaning of the language keeps a certain distance with the cultural group’s overall thinking，habits and unconsciousness， it is relatively more explicit （Hall， 1973）. According to Hall’s point of view， the culture patterns of China and Japan are different from those of European and North American countries. While the former ones are implicit， the latter ones are explicit. As a result， they two belong to different contexts. Following Hall， a number of research publications about intercultural communication have come out， among which Communication Between Cultures by Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter can be regarded as the best representative .
The leading American political scientist Harold Dwight Lasswell， one of the four pioneers in the filed of communication， holds the view that a complete communication process is comprised of five elements： Who （says） What （to） Whom （in） What Channel （with） What Effect. This pattern has clearly stated that any complete communication process should at least include five parts： subject of the communication， target of the communication， content of the communication， channels of the communication and effects of the communication.
With the research going deeper and deeper， intercultural communication has developed into a specialized field for research and inspired the formation of related academic societies. As a result， instead of being confined to the theoretical research of earlier times， the reach of research gets more extensive. Structuralism， linguistics， phenomenology and some other disciplines have been included into the research area of intercultural communication. Thanks to the participation of specialists from such fields as cultural anthropology， psychology， sociology and linguistics， studies of intercultural communication have been presenting qualities and thinking characteristics of an open and multidisciplinary dialogue.
Along with the Chinese society developing towards openness and intercultural exchanges increasing fast， studies of intercultural communication in our country emerged as the time required. In the late 1980s， some scholars began to introduce the concept of cultural communication into China from abroad. At the moment， however， it is still through a process where Chinese and foreign academic dialogues are pushing forward the localization of this discipline to carry out the exploration of practical problems and building of academic theories. Under the overall background of globalization today， the great ambition for Chinese culture to go international has further promoted the development of research on intercultural communication.
References
[1] Guan， S. Cross-cultural Communication [M]. Beijing： Peking University Press， 1995. （关世杰，跨文化交流学[M].北京：北京大学出版社，1995）
[2] Hall， Edward T. The Silent Language [M]. Schertz： Anchor Press， 1973.
[3] Hu， W. Culture and Communication [M]. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 1994. （胡文仲，文化与交际[M].外语教学与研究出版社，1994）
[4] Samovar， Larry A.， Richard E. Porter & Edwin McDaniel. Communication Between Cultures （Third Edition） [M]. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2004.