A Study Of Intercultural Communication From The Perspective Of Cultural Identity

The theory of cultural identity has exerted a far-flung influence on the studies ofsociety, history, politics and culture, according to Ericson, a renowned Americanpsychoanalyst.Culture and identity are shaped in different paradigms of time and space. Theproblem of “identity” arises first in intercultural encounters, which requires aconstruction process.Intercultural communication refers to communication of people between differentcultures.The identity among people is the key logo of cross-cultural communication,and intercultural communication is defined as the process in which people of differentcultures identify and advocate their respective cultures in cross-cultural encounters.This dissertation is aimed at exploring cultural identity and interculturalcommunication, examining and discussing intercultural communication from theperspective of cultural identity. To this end, the United States and the European Unionare used as two cases to illustrate the indispensable relationship between culturalidentity and intercultural communication.Cultural value is a necessity in guiding the intercultural communicative process.Multi-ethnic, multi-ethnic, various groups encounter on the American soil, anintercultural communicative process, gradually forming the Protestant culture thatemphasizes property rights, equal opportunity, and individualism, and shaping thecultural identity that stresses the republicanism including democracy and freedom, allof which constitute the American values.The American social and cultural identity has been a research focus for a longtime. The term “cultural pluralism” was coined by Horace Karen who maintains that“tolerance of difference itself is part of the ‘American ideas’, and should always be a‘different ethnic federal’”.2President Roosevelt also declared that an American has, infact, always been concerned with “emotional and ideological problems”, not “theproblems of race and ancestors”. Malinowski made a clear explanation as early as the1830s:“Culture can make the personality profoundly changed... to give up hisselfishness, because the relationships between people, not just rely on external forces,the reason why people may cooperate with each other due to a moral force generated by the personal feelings and loyalty.”3America’s cultural identity is the recognition of basic social values inherent in theAmerican culture.Thus, the cultural identity in the United States is an importantfoundation for national identity, and the one shaped in the interculturalcommunicative process.In the development of the European Union from the early European Coal andSteel Community to the EU, explanations with the traditional political, military, andeconomic theory or hard power become inadequate gradually, while cultural identitygained academic attention, a theory which had been neglected or ignored in the past.Jean Monet, the founder of the European Union once said,“If we start theEuropean Community again, we will begin from culture.” In the development of theEU, cultural identity played a key role. The cultural identity of EU is pertinent to theEuropean history and culture. The European culture has a rich history, experiencingthe Greco-Roman civilizations, Christian civilization, the Renaissance, theEnlightenment, and the industrial civilization. The basis of the European culturalidentity is the common values of Europe’s common cultural backgrounds. With avariety of cultures inherent in the European continent, a cultural value is shared, i.e.,Europe enjoys a common cultural development and a religious morality. With this,modern European cultural identity develops gradually.Growing numbers of Europeans began to develop a common sense of a unitedEurope, and European identity was shaped to promote intercultural communication,thus leading to the establishment of the European Union.Cultural identity is the basis of studying intercultural communication. What is thebreakthrough in this study is that cultural identity is explored from the perspective ofintercultural communication, and studied with interdisciplinary approaches.Cultural identity is related to various aspects, national identity or collectiveidentity, in order to achieve the success of intercultural communication, we muststrengthen the degree of cultural identity. Due to multi-disciplinary nature ofintercultural communication, first, we must understand each other’s culture and theimportance of cultural identity in the process of intercultural communication in orderto achieve success of intercultural communication; intercultural communication issuccessful or not, depends on the degree of cultural identity, which is research focus of this dissertation.