Study On Timothy Richard's Missionary Activities And Strategy Of Cross-Culture Communication

Cross-cultural Communication is a historical and cultural phenomenon developed with human growth. The core issue is to study how to build a bridge of communication by people with different culture background so that they can communicate freely. Since 1980s globalization becomes increasingly prominent in the world and this is also one of the basic features of the era. Therefore, dissemination, communication, conflict and understanding are becoming the key issues of globalization. Cross-cultural Communication has been an inevitable reality. It is not only the inner motivity of culture development but also an indispensable part of dissemination of country power. Thus, it is important to study Cross-cultural Communication.Timothy Richard was born in England in 1845 and became the believer of Baptist Churches after baptism at 14 years old. In 1869, he came to China and did missionary work for forty to fifty years. With his pious beliefs, strong body, nature of love and persistent beliefs, Timothy Richard used the method of localization and combination of mission and daily affairs to transmit both Christianity and western civilization to China. He got trust from China's government officials, intellectuals and the public and became the famous scholars, propagandist and politicians, who left an indelible mark in China's history. Timothy Richard has contributed too much to the communication between China and western countries. His strategy of communication is a good example for us.At present, there are few studies about Timothy Richard. The articles which are written about his missionary activity are ignored by most of the scholars. This article introduces the Timothy Richard's strategy of communication and gives suggestion to China's present strategy. Although the aim of western missionaries is to conquer by religion, they also disseminate western culture, which has positive affect to China. Cross-cultural communication is a coin with two sides and we should find both advantage and disadvantage of the western culture.In 1950s, cross-cultural communication study appears after Edward Hall put forward cross-cultural communication. There appear three forms of cross-cultural communication, namely the Behavioral Model of Intercultural Communication, the Cognitive Model of Intercultural Communication and the Interpretive Model of Intercultural Communication. Understanding these three forms helps to analyze Timothy Richard's success on cross-cultural communication. From the point of Behavioral Model of Intercultural Communication, Timothy Richard succeeds because of his knowledge, good communication skill, language skill, coordination ability and so on. From the point of Cognitive Model of Intercultural Communication, Timothy Richard's succeeds because he overcomes anxiety, prejudice, fear, rigidity, loneliness and joins in the cross-culture communication. Form the point of the Interpretive Model of Intercultural Communication, Richard's succeeds because has strong ability of understanding and mental capability so that he keeps a positive attitude to his work.The activity of western missionaries is a phenomenon of cross-culture communication. Timothy Richard's missionary strategy can be seen as the strategy of cross-culture communication. There are four aspects. First one is the localization of missionary work, including Sinicization of Christianity and himself and Legalization of missionary work. The second one is to find someone to do the text sermon. The third one is to combine the Gospel and daily affairs, including Medical sermon, helping the Victims, spreading the western culture and so on. The fourth one is never to be an enemy with other religion and to find both advantage and disadvantage of Christianity.As a background for cross-communication, globalization is not only a reality but also a trend of development. It brings asymmetry of culture conflict and culture dissemination, but we cannot refuse globalization. If a country does not pay attention to the heritage and dissemination of their local cultural but absorbs foreign culture only, it is possible to lose their own culture. Therefore, we should find some strategy of cross-culture communication, which takes full advantage of the global resources but do not lose the characteristics of national culture. We get a lesson from Timothy Richard and realize the cultivation and revival of traditional culture. The teaching of overseas Confucius Institute is improved, accelerating the establishment of fast, wide coverage communication media.