Cross-Pacific Talks 3 | Cross-Cultural Communication in COVID-19

2020-08-25
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Feast your ears on an inspiring discussion

between top students from China and the US 

in the "Cross-Pacific Talks" podcast series.

Co-produced by China Plus, CISS and IMUSE,

it offers a unique perspective on topics related to COVID-19 !


The global pandemic keeps us away from each other. We are not with friends or relatives even living in the same city, not to mention someone far away from another culture or another country. For the third episode, we are joined by four students who are studying either in China or the US. We are focusing on how this crisis affected the cross-cultural communication and what legacy we are to have from such a global plague.


Who are they?

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Yanni LI


  • Recently graduated from Wellesley College with a B.A. in Art History and East Asian Studies

  • Next fall will begin her graduate studies in East Asian Studies at Stanford University with a focus on China’s contemporary cultural policies

  • Has lived in many cities - from Dongying to Shanghai, then Halifax and Toronto, and recently to Boston for school

  • Believes that culture cannot be defined by binaries and dichotomies

  • Believes face-to-face conversations are one of the best ways to truly understand the complexity of a culture


Muyang ZHAO





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  • Rising senior undertaking his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering at Tsinghua University

  • Vice-president of Tsinghua Canadian Students' Association

  • One of the three presidents of the Association of International Communication

  • To investigate China's economic miracle and to participate in the development of a modern Chinese society

  • Believes that only with mutual understanding between the world's great powers, can the people of the world truly prosper


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Linli ZHOU


  • Doctoral candidate at the Social Sciences and Comparative Education (SSCE) Program at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

  • Master's degree in Social Sciences and Comparative Education at UCLA

  • B.A. in Pedagogy from the Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University in Beijing, China

  • Focusing on the transformative cross-cultural learning experiences of international students from China studying graduate-level education at research universities in the United States

  • Research aims to promote comprehensive support for students’ academic, career, and civic development during cross-cultural learning


Byran





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  • Singaporean rising junior

  • Studying International Politics at Peking University

  • Expecting to gain a deeper understanding of China’s politics and culture.

  • President of the Singapore Students’ Association (Beijing) (Present)

  • Vice-President of Initiating Mutual Understanding through Student Exchange (IMUSE) 2020 (Present)

  • Delegate awarded Honourable Mention at the Peking University Model United Nations on the topic of Sustainable Financing Strategies for the 2030 Agenda (December 2019)

  • Conference Committee Chair at the 4th China-ASEAN Youth Summit on the topic of Advancing Clean and Renewable Energy Deployment in ASEAN (October 2019)

  • Internship at the Singapore Permanent Mission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).(August 2019)


Q&A


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Q1

1

Different countries have different ways to handle the crisis and therefore have different results. What is your opinion towards the different handling of the crisis?

Byran


China's handling of their Covid-19 crisis really impressed Singaporeans and even received a lot of praises from the WHO as well. I thinkit has to do with the political system. In Singapore we are centralized and we've always had a single ruling party for the last 54 years. So the government can utilize at a very early stage to facilitate contact tracing and it is mandatory to quarantine after you come back from an overseas country or you could be fined even just leaving half an hour before the quarantine. This kind of strict rules does make a difference. But I think there was some mismanagement in the dormitory cases. The rest dormitories were too crowded. That was one of the mishandling case in Singapore. 

Canada is sort of like a European country and because we have a fully public healthcare systemand the responsibility for all health concerns including Covid 19 falls on the provincial premiers. So the provincial premiers canlocalize their policies considering political opinions and also the economic situations of their provinces. For example, if you're implementing a policy of tracing Covid cases, the Alberta government might not implement something as intimate as the BC government because the Albertas value their privacy more. But like there's a problem to this because the statistics are measured differently in different provinces. For example in Calgary or in Alberta or in BC you have a Covid case on the records as soon as it's detected. But in BC after 14 days the patient does not show up for another appointment, they're determined to be clear. In Alberta they are only cleared when they come to the hospital for re-examination and they pass all the tests. So I want a more centralized approach like the top down approach by the federal government to solve the situation. 

Muyang


Yanni


For one thing I think China's response is very good. It locked down Wuhan really quickly, enforced the really strict stay-at-home order and was able to curb the spread of the virus really quickly. Now I'm really jealous of my friends in China who are able to go out to restaurants to eat and to go shopping and have a normal life. Right now in Canada we all still have to stay at home more. I think the political system and cultural difference both attribute to the different situations in China and the US. The US is highly bipartisan and a lot of citizens have a mistrust towards the government. Also the government's response has been kind of back and forth. The other thing is the idea of Americans valuing the individual freedom more than collective safety. Canada is similar to the US approach but the difference is that the citizens Canadians care more about what the government saying and they trust the government more. In that sense they are willing to follow the orders issued by the government. So I think we are able to reopen in a safer environment right now.

From a university levelperspective and observation, UCLA offers a lot of supports to students as well as TAs during the pandemic. I'm a teaching assistant and I teach my own course in the spring.I have been encouraged to adjust my online teaching like adjusting the time and the grading. During the black live matters protest, the university is encouraging students, especially those black students who have concerns, maybe they have to take care of their family, maybe they want to attend those protests in university, to take a positive standpoint to support the students. As a TA, I support that by making the seminary and the participation score optional. Generally I can see how UCLA is supporting their students and also TAs. And we have a psychological and mental health website. They are also encouraging students to wearing masks. I think people are recognizing this as a measure to protect themselves. The protests are just what social media is portraying. I'm not sure about the social media and people are attending the protest just because they don't want to wear masks. Maybe, I don't know. 

Linli



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Q2

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How do you see the impact of the pandemic on the cross cultural communication activities? People get online for meetings, for classes, instead of meeting people or friends. How do you see this kind of way?

Muyang


In my opinion, because in person meetings are canceled, we actuallylose a lot of cross-cultural context here. When I am talking to somebody across the internet, I cannot properly get their emotional reactions to things I say, and also people tend to hide behind screens, or they always talk in a more formal tone to each other. So right now, cross-cultural communication faces a lot of challenges because of this. But we really should continue cross-cultural communication, because it is truly very valuable.

As for the state of culture communication in the time of this pandemic, all the conferences are forced to move online, for example IMUSE had to replace its in person summer conference with an online program, which includes this podcast. But I think there are pros and cons to this new online format. Before the pandemic, you have to go to a place, you had to manage your time, you had to travel and so on. It is a lot of work to attend an in-person conference, but now it's easier. Recently I co-founded a US-China student organization called the US-China Better Relations Coalition. It is completely online, and I even met my co-founder online (we haven't met in person yet). But our programs, for example, exhibitions, interviews podcasts, research journals, newsletters and discussions are all online and I think that enables more students to take part in our programs. And another thing is, we're at the low points in US-China relations on a micro level. So the original aim of this organization is to improve this relationship starting with students. 

Yanni



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Q3

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Different countries have different cultures and respectively have different political stands and ideologies. As international students, did you ever meet any kind of cultural barrier or culture shock?

Byran


Technically speaking I am ethnically Chinese. In Singapore, 70% of the population is ethnically Chinese. So in that sense, we do share some similar cultures. But we also have the Malay and Indian population. So when I went to China, there are some similaritiesthat I notice from the outside, in terms of the things we eat, the language we speak. But there are many different things, too, like how we go about life, including our notions and political correctness. Although we share the same culture, going to China also allowed me to understand the differences and understand the culture in China better.

I came to China to learn Chinese culture and the reason for the miracle of Chinese economy. For the 3 years I have noticed many things. For example, China's education system is top notch. All the schools are highly funded, the students are very bright. The culture of it places huge emphasis on primary education. And it is certainly contributing to the economy through innovation and through the better skilled workers.Another thing I admire is China's political system, it somewhat intertwines with the economic system. The government lays out what they plan to do for the next 5 years, their general directions, and there will be policies supporting it. It brings a certain level of stability to the economy that a free market economy does not have. 

Muyang



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Q4

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During the pandemic, the media of different countries have reported differently, but they all plays important roles on leading people and serving the government. What’s your opinion on the impacts of media to people? From the perspective of cross-cultural communication, do you think media is acting positively or negatively? And what impacts do media have on portraying other nations’ images and promoting international communication?

Yanni


First of all, I think each country's media serves on interests. In the US, it's a highly bipartisan situation, where news outlets are either more Democrat or more Publican. These bipartisan views and how these news outlets present the news highly affect how the American public views the affairs. On the Chinese side, I'm not an expert on Chinese media. But just speaking from what I've witnessed on WeChat, I found that once a certain post goes viral, it easily sways the public opinion to one side or the other. There's a problem in both countries that people are getting snippets of things instead of getting the whole picture of a of an issue. I think the main problem is that people in China and people in the US, they don't get the news of each other's countries. What they get from media is a heavily mediated information. People are for profit, people have biases. I think it will be good if people in China can read more American news and people in the States can read more news reported from China.

In social media, it at first serves its own interests of that country.It's commercial and they want to earn money, so they report something that mostly follow the mainstream opinion instead of being independent or objective or reporting the truth. This is the reality and I guess it is very hard to change in this free market and economic neoliberalism, in this world. What is important from my opinion—because I study education—is to cultivate the critical literacy, like how can we read two different pieces of opinions with our own understanding and understand why they report this. What we are reading may not be talking about the truth, why we're seeing this and what are hidden, those are the things that the university can cultivate our students our next generation, or even the general public, adult education.

Linli



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Q5

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The World Health Organization has played a very important role in handling this a global pandemic New Corona Virus, by organizing——collective efforts from different countries to fight to the pandemic there. And also U. N. sector general Antonio Guterres also called on all countries to cooperate and to support to the W.H.O. How do you see the effects of these international organizations in international corporation? In against of the virus, is there anything they need to improve?

Linli


The International organizations are so important. They consider not only themselves but from an international perspective, especially during this US-China rivalry. We are not able to know the true situations in 2 countries because of different reports from social media. I'm a Chinese but I live in the United States and the social media around me is all about how China is bad. Well in China my parents are sending me all Wechat posts about how US is so dangerous and they worried about me a lot. So it's very contradictory and controversial stuff to talk about. And international organization, I guess they can play a important role of adjusting those relationships and provide a plan maybe probably that is of mutual benefits for different countries.

Ideally you would look at government speakers and you would see how the pandemic is. But  truly it does not tell you enough about the pandemic in certain region. The international organization could send people or their own representatives to investigate the pandemic, but that could interfere with government operations. So really  there is no true solution for this problem and that really brings me into the limitations of international organizations. But generally for organizations like the World Health Organization, we have many different countries at the same table, working just on the common issue. But one problem is that many of the countries are of different sizes. For example, the big country like the US and China and Russia, they have a greater voice and  some of the smaller countries could be bullied by the big countries to do something that is not in their interest.Donald Trump pulling out of the World Health Organization feels more like a political move than anything else. The World Health Organization was really highlighting how poor the US’s controlling of its own epidemic situation. And Trump really did not want the World Health Organization to do that because it might interfere in the election results. So he pulled out in an effort to undermine the World Health Organization and also decreased the funding available to them.

Muyang


Yanni


I think America's leadership is not as strong as that before Trump’s term. America took leadership a lot of areas. But after Trump got elected I think the US is driving back from a lot of these initiatives had taken before. Smaller countries are the ones who need those international organizations more than big powers like the US and China. And these powers have those obligation or responsibility to support these networks to fund or give a direction  so that we can live in a world where countries co-existing in peace. So I think that we would definitely need to see more international organizations. And I think for the US, its policy depends on the upcoming election results. During Trump's term America turning inward. But we don't know if a different party comes to power, they will again turn their gaze to the outward or not. 

I think Singapore, as a small country, will always want our bigger partners and bigger countries to be in all these international organizations. Because from the standpoint of the small country these international organizations don’t work without countries.That's why in the United Nations although many people have called for the reform, there is no action. Technically speaking, it's very hard for international organizations to operate without the leadership or lack of funding from bigger countries. So in that sense, we would love to see the US to go back and join all the international organizations that it had chosen to pull out.

Byran



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Q6

1

In such a time, do you have any planning for your future career? Is the international or domestic situation impacting your personal planning or career development?

Linli


Now the word“networking” is maybe the most important thing when you want to find a job, and the pandemic is making social networking very hard. For example, I want to be a scholar and previously I need to take classes with the professor, make more intimate relationship with a professor and also my classmates. But now I don't have a chance to meet with them face to face and have the opportunity to build a more intimate relationship with them. And also in terms of conferences, on the positive parts, I can just stay at home and attend a lot of conferences virtually now. However, practically speaking, it is hard for me to network with those conference attendees. Previously I physically went there and I coincidentally meet a stranger and we can talk, and we find we share the same research interest, and we can then networking, like follow up and stuff. While now we just attend a seminar while I have no chance of those “stranger talk”, so that's a barrier.

With regard to future plans, honestly I'm going back to the states for master in Stanford next year, and originally I wanted to work in the states at least for a couple years after I graduate from school. But now, I have seen so much policy change. I'm not sure if I want to do that, because there's no sense of security. One day the policy might be this way, but a couple months or a year later, you might no longer be able to work in the US. Our companies don’t sponsor visas, so there is a lot of barriers for me to work in the US. So now I’m thinking about coming back to Toronto in Canada to pursue something or maybe like Japan in Asia. I'm not sure.

Yanni


Muyang


As far as I know, the policy of the US limiting Chinese nationals funding higher education in the US affects a lot of people around me. I personally think that each country should develop their own education system, their own primary education system to be better and less rely on foreign migrants for higher education.

In general, at this time most people are unsure about their job. In the future, whether their career path is still there. ButI think there is confidence that we have to move into this new age of telecommuting, be overseas without being overseas. I think that is a new advantage that we can look into in the coming years. 

Byran




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