Notes Introduction 1. Here let me mention that CAD draws in particular on cultural studies (for example, Ang 2001; Bhabha 1994; Hall 1992, 1996a, 1996b; Said 1978, 1993; Spivak 1988a; Young 2001), communication theory (for example, Carey 1992; McQuail 2000), critical linguistics (for example, Fowler 1985; Fowler et al. 1979; Hodge and Kress 1993), critical discourse analysis (for example, Barker and Galasinski 2001; Chouliaraki and Fairclough 1999; Fairclough 1992, 1995; van Dijk 1993a, 1993b; Wodak 1996), discursive psychology (Billig 1991; Edwards and Potter 1992; Wetherell and Potter 1992) and the work of Laclau and Mouffe (1985). 2. The Third World as used here is similar in reference and meaning to ‘tricon- tinent’ and hence ‘tricontinentalism’ as adopted by Young (2001), who follows the lead by Abdel-Malek (1981). 1 Discourse and Reality 1. A parallel view of identity can be expressed in Bakhtin’s (1981: 313–14) account of the authorial discourse in the novel, but I think it has general validity regarding discourse as a whole: The author manifests himself and his point of view not only in his effect on the narrator, on his speech and his language (which are to one or another extent objectivized, objects of display) but also in his effect on the subject of the story – as a point of view that differs from the point of view of the narrator. Behind the narrator’s story we read a second story, the author’s story; he is the one who tells us how the narrator tells stories, and also tells us about the narrator himself . Every moment of the story has a conscious relationship with this normal [literary] language and its belief system, is in fact set against them, and set against them dialogically: one point of view opposed to another, one evaluation opposed to another, one accent opposed to another (i.e., they are not contrasted as two abstractly linguistic phenomena). 2 Discourse and Culture 1. This universalist notion of (scientific) discourse is often even held in certain culture-oriented approaches to language, as in studies of intercultural com- munication, cross-cultural linguistics and foreign languages teaching (Shi-xu 2001). 2. A different variation here, though, is the notion of culture as a higher form of aesthetic achievement. 212 Notes 213 3. Drawing on the later Wittgenstein’s notion of meaning, Geertz (1973: 17) defines the notion of culture as social practice in this way: ‘it is through the flow of behavior – or, social action – that cultural forms find articulation. They find it as well, of course, in various sorts of artifacts, and various states of consciousness; but these draw their meaning from the role they play (Wittgenstein would say their “use”) in an ongoing pattern of life, not from any intrinsic relationships they bear to one another’. 4. Similarly, Harrison (2003: 9) suggests: ‘postcolonial studies in general may be characterised broadly and simply in terms of an attention to the history of colonialism/imperialism and its aftermath, and may in many instances be distinguished from traditional historical or political writing on the colonial or post-independence era by the particular attention that is paid to the role within that history of “representation” or “discourse”’. 5. It may be stressed here that, in this sense, discourse will be endlessly ideo- logical: any further descriptive discourse of a discourse will be yet another construction, hence an ideological product. 6. Fairclough (1992: 200) also suggests that discourse analysis has not paid much attention to the issue of change. In his own approach he registers discursive changes, such as ‘democratization’, ‘commodification’ and ‘technologiza- tion’, by identifying abstract patterns of discourse and analysing the interac- tion between these patterns. 3 Political Ethnography 1. Here I shall mainly focus on those strategies for data construction, discourse interpretation and new discourse promotion. For those on other aspects of discourse research such as sampling procedures, measuring instruments, statistical treatment of data, see, for example, Titscher et al. 2000; Wetherell et al. 2001. 2. There are other, slightly different versions of ‘social constructionism’; but because it is not a concern of the present work to tease them out, I shall stick to the version outlined here. Here in particular, I would like to highlight two dimensions of this social constructionist perspective on knowledge. On the one hand, knowledge is cultural in character. That is, every society has its own concepts, desires, values and outlooks, which render knowledge gender-, ethnicity- and class-oriented, for example. Especially in the late modern conditions of mass hypermedia and migration, factual and evaluative knowl- edge becomes more dynamic and contested, both globally and locally. It is essential then for intellectual work to be critically reflexive on the cultural dimension of knowledge production and to construct multicultural, pluralist perspectives that enhance the justice and freedom of humanity. Similarly, theoretical diversity is to be embraced: thus, discourse as the object of inquiry cannot be simply encapsulated in linguistics, communication studies, psychology, sociology, history, politics, cultural studies, or any other single or combined disciplines. 3. It is common but mistaken to think that social constructionism denies the materiality of the world, as if it were saying that the objects in front of our eyes do not exist or the holocaust did not occur. Nothing is further from the 214 Notes truth. It merely says that the world of objects cannot exist independently of people’s experience and practice in particular time and space, such that both social structure and human action are interpretative in nature (Gadamer 1989). This notion of the relationship between the person and world can be traced back at least to Husserl’s (1931) concept of intentionality, that is, the world is not separable from human consciousness and vice versa. Or as Sartre (1949) has expressed it, ‘La conscience et le monde sont donnés d’un même coup’. It is easy and common to confuse social constructionism with relativism. Social constructionism is not relativism. For one thing, it does not subscribe to the infinite notion of variability of versions of reality, because it is not what real social life is like: there is no context-free version. Rather, the present version of social constructionism takes it that although knowledge is always subject to further interpretation and argumentation (which are encouraged here anyway), some version is always more justified in particular time and space than others. For another, more importantly, the present version takes up an explicit political stance, that is, to side with particular groups of people – oppressed and marginalized. 4. In cultural studies Hall (1996a: 337) has called for study of ‘the central, urgent, and disturbing questions of a society’. Indeed, racism, sexism, capitalism, ageism, sectarianism and so on and so forth can be recognized across many cultures as most urgent and pressing problems and have been important topics in discourse and cultural studies. But the present work is mainly con- cerned with cultural imperialism as one of the most prominent and pressing problems endangering world peace and future generations (Bhabha 1994; Hall 1996a, 1999; Said 1993; Wodak 1996). 4 Deconstructing the Other Place 1. There has been a number of other western social, cultural and political analy- ses of Singapore. Some of these can be found in: I. Buruma (1989) God’s Dust, A Modern Asian Journey, London: Vintage; P. Biddlecome (1995) Around the World: On Expenses, London: Abacus; C. Levine (ed.) (1978) Singapore, Singapore: Apa Productions. 2. There has been over a dozen recent Dutch travel books on China. 3. Metaphor, according to Goatly (1997:108), ‘occurs when a unit of discourse is used to refer to an object, concept, process, quality, relationship or world to which it does not conventionally refer to. This unconventional act of ref- erence is understood on the basis of similarity or analogy’. I use the notion broadly to include not only such classic metaphors, but also metonymies, similes. Further, I take it that metaphor can be realized through words, phrases and propositions as well as larger units such as narrative. 5 Reading Non-Western Discourses 1. Primary sources include People’s Daily, Wen Hui Bao, Bi-Monthly, China Today, South China Morning Post, www.english. peopledaily.com.cn, www.info.gov.hk/press, Ming Bao, Asiaweek, Notes 215 Asia Weekly, Wen Hui Bao Hong Kong (to distinguish from Mainland China’s paper of the same name). 2. Volosˇinov (1986) has called such symbols, or signs or discourse, ‘ideological’. 3. It is noteworthy, too, especially in discourses undermining China’s claims, that there is a good measure of acknowledgement of western, especially British, influence in administration and law. 6 Fanning the Sparks of Hope from History 1. Foucault (1972: 6–7) characterizes the interested nature of historical discourse in this way: ‘history now organizes the document, divides it up, distributes it, orders it, arranges it in levels, establishes series, distinguishes between what is relevant and what is not, discovers elements, defines unities, describes rela- tions. The document, then, is no longer for history an inert material through which it tries to reconstitute what men have done or said, the events of which only the trace remains; history is now trying to define within the documen- tary material itself unities, totalities, series, relations’. 2. These include especially the Belfast Telegraph, The Irish News, News Letter, the Sunday Mirror, The Mirror, the Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror, the Independent on Sunday, the Independent, Sunday World, An Phoblacht/Republican News, Belfast Agreement, www.uup.org/dtspeech.html. 7 Promoting New Discourses of the Other 1. The two interrelated foundational concepts of ‘intercultural competence’ and ‘misunderstanding’ have guided research and shaped education in intercul- tural communication.