Work

How do Japanese and Chinese view each other? Understanding the meaning of low‐context culture in intercultural communication

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Although Easterners are assumed to have a high‐context culture, Yamashina found that Japanese believe the Chinese to engage in a low‐context cultural communication style. We interpreted her results as follows: the Chinese whom Japanese know are likely to engage in intercultural communication that is used in low‐context cultural situations (code‐switching). To test this interpretation, we used a 17‐item online questionnaire on context dependency for participants (Japanese university students, Chinese university students, and Chinese international students living and studying in Japan) to score the self, average Japanese, and average Chinese. Hence, the design was 3 (culture) by 3 (object). The results showed that both Japanese and Chinese students rated people in their counterpart countries as having a low‐context communication style, supporting our interpretation. However, this effect was not evident among Chinese international students. These results confirmed that low‐context cultural situations may arise when people engage in intercultural communication.

Source: Global Networks

DOI: 10.1111/glob.12440

Authors: Changyi Wu, Hiroshi Yama, Norhayati Zakaria

Institutions: Osaka Metropolitan University, University of Sharjah

Language: English

Topic: Language, Communication, and Linguistic Studies

Subfield: Communication

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Awards: A cross-cultural study of context dependency and the acceptability of abbreviated syllogisms., Religious moral reasoning in the frame of dual process approach: Cultural differences in religious moral reasoning and thinking style.