China Media Research - Vol. 12, No. 4

CMR 12(4)

Issue Vol. 12, No. 4 / October 2016



[Special Section]

Management, Leadership, and Rulership: A Chinese Perspective

Guest Editor: Tony Fang, Stockholm University


Introduction: A Chines Perspective of Management, Leadership, and Rulership

Author(s): Tony Fang

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[Tony Fang. Introduction: A Chines Perspective of Management, Leadership, and Rulership. China Media Research 2016; 12(4): 1-3]. 1

Six Aspects of Wangdao to Create Values: The Basic Mindset to Promote the Development of Human Civilization

Author(s): Stan Shih

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In this essay the author lays down the six aspects, i.e., direct vs. indirect, tangible vs. intangible, and present vs. future, of Wangdao, that aim to establish a more sustainable human society and civilization through creating new values, especially from the perspective of management in business organizations and enterprises. More specially, Wangdao is originated from Confucian thoughts with two key components: (1) to create social values, and (2) to balance the interests of stakeholders. The implementation of Wangdao is based on the author’s motto: “to challenge difficulties, to break through bottlenecks, and to create values.” [Stan Shih. Six Aspects of Wangdao to Create Values: The Basic Mindset to Promote the Development of Human Civilization. China Media Research 2016; 12(4): 4-6]. 2

Paradox Management Approach to Service: Empirical Study of Western Service Dynamics in China

Author(s): Ivana Beveridge & Johannes Kadura

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This paper assesses applicability of the Chinese paradox management model for the analysis of international service dynamics. We focus on the interaction between the paradoxes of cultural values and the paradoxes in service management, seeking new factors that could enhance service relationships between Western service providers and non-Western service clients. We present insights from the empirical research of Western service companies in China and their Chinese service clients, using qualitative and ethnographic research methods operationalized through participatory observations and in-depth interviews. Our ethnographic research empirically tested the framework of “eight pairs of paradoxical values” (Faure & Fang, 2008). Our findings suggest that paradox management approach to the analysis of cultural values can help understand and manage the inherent paradoxes in service operations. As a result, this approach can enhance service relationships for the mutual benefit of clients and service providers alike. We seek to demonstrate that the Chinese paradox management model could contribute to global theory building and management discourse. [Ivana Beveridge & Johannes Kadura. Paradox Management Approach to Service: Empirical Study of Western Service Dynamics in China. China Media Research 2016; 12(4): 7-17]. 3

Democratic Confucianism and Human Activism of Centrality, Mutuality/Co-creativity, and Competition in Transformational Holistics

Author(s): Victor Lux Tonn

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In light of holistics and with the framework of human activism embodying the dimensions of centrality, mutuality/co-creativity, and competition, this paper presents a non-capitalist and non-democratic approach to the general political system of the Chinese world in terms of structural and systemic transformations/iso-xystemism back and forth from the cultural basis to communications, to the economy, and then to the polity. In the grand top-down structures of the four systems of culture, communication, economy, and polity, there exhibit the characteristics of structural asymmetries in transformations between Hybrid System and System II, with the former comprising the latter as the non-central subsystem beside the central subsystem System I. With Renyi Hybrid Communication System as the socio-structural foundation, the modern Renyi Hybrid Economy-Polity is a distinctive proto-type economy-polity of the Chinese world by comprising the classical Jenyi Economy-Polity as the central subsystem and embracing systems of socialism/Legalism and democratic capitalism as two non-central subsystems. In the very long-term perspective, the large nation of the Chinese world is expected to evolve from a Renyi Hybrid Economy-Polity into a new renyi-freedom/zizhu system. This Renyi Hybrid Economy-Polity is not a version of state capitalism and democracy (i.e., modified System II Economy-Polity), but a system of democratic/capitalist Confucianism with strong elements of socialism. Nevertheless, in essence, this new hybrid system is consistent with the very spirits of democracy and capitalism. Moreover, as a concrete presentation of this Renyi Hybrid Polity, a three-dimensional polity as a representative model of democratic Confucianism is formulated. [Victor Lux Tonn. Democratic Confucianism and Human Activism of Centrality,Mutuality/Co-creativity, and Competition in Transformational Holistics. China Media Research 2016; 12(4): 18-36]. 4

Innovation and Copyright Protection in the USA and China: A Model for Cooperation

Author(s): Dexin Tian

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This paper introduces a model for the cooperation between the USA and China to resolve the recurrent disputes over their intellectual property rights (IPR). Employing the developmental and innovative model for innovation and the textual analysis of copyright laws as raw data, this study finds that a developing country like China tends to gradually update its IPR protection mechanism to meet the international standards and then encourage domestic innovation. With the implementation of IPR protection, innovation may first decrease but then will increase as the economy grows and the national technological capacity expands. Therefore, instead of pushing its one-size-fits-all IPR policies onto all other countries, the USA needs to adopt a stage-oriented strategy based on the developmental and innovative model to resolve its IPR issues with other countries including China. [Dexin Tian. Innovation and Copyright Protection in the USA and China: A Model for Cooperation. China Media Research 2016; 12(4): 37-49]. 5

The Application of Chinese Military Philosophy to Modern Political Leadership under Natural Disasters

Author(s): Pei-Ling Lee

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This paper explores the leadership characteristics suggested by Chinese military philosophical classics and uses them to analyze modern war-like circumstances, in particular natural disasters. The paper is divided into two sections. The first section identifies the leadership guidelines derived from Seven Military Classics. Then, these leadership insights suggested by Chinese military philosophy are applied to four cases of natural disaster in order to enhance the intercultural comparisons of governmental crisis management. The four cases are: (1) Jiji earthquake of the September, 1999, in Taiwan, (2) Hurricane Katrina that struck Louisiana in the United States in August, 2005, (3) the May 2008 Sichuan province earthquake in China, and (4) the 2011 Tohoku earthquake of March, 2011, in Japan. The related statements and actions by national leaders during the above disasters immediately after the natural disasters are analyzed to examine the leadership characteristics recommended by ancient Chinese military philosophy. [Pei-Ling Lee. The Application of Chinese Military Philosophy to Modern Political Leadership under Natural Disasters. China Media Research 2016; 12(4): 50-58]. 6

Maintain the Flesh-and-Blood Ties with the People: Xi Jinping’s Rhetoric on Mass Line

Author(s): Shaorong Huang

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With accumulative achievements of 35 years of reform and opening up, China has created huge wealth and has become a booming economy which is the second biggest in the world. However, Chinese people, as well as their leaders, are facing quite a few serious problems including a widespread unease about mounting income disparities, the environmental pollution, and the rampant cadre corruption. It is obvious that more and more Party leaders and government officials are alienating themselves off from the masses, and that the traditional flesh-and-blood ties between the Chinese Communist Party and the broad masses are at risk. In order to regain people’s trust and to save the Party, the central leadership headed by Xi Jinping tries to revive Mao Zedong’s mass line so as to rebuild the Party’s legitimacy among the people. Xi sees the mass line as the lifeline of the Party and the basic line of work. He wants his Party to focus on the need to serve the people, to be down-to-earth in work, to uphold integrity in office, and to guard against the “four forms of decadence” (formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance). This paper analyzes Xi Jinping’s rhetoric on the mass-line educational campaign of the Party from June 2013 to October 2014. [Shaorong Huang. Maintain the Flesh-and-Blood Ties with the People: Xi Jinping’s Rhetoric on Mass Line. China Media Research 2016; 12(4): 59-67]. 7

Understanding China through Understanding Volvo Cars: The Case of Volvo Cars in Swedish Media - A Research Note

Author(s): Dina Chimenson & Tony Fang

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In this research note, through an examination of how Geely’s acquisition of Volvo Cars in 2010 was reported in Swedish media during the media-intensive years of 2009-2014, we show that the mainstream Western media can make mistakes when it comes to the scenario analysis of the vision, ability and future outcome of China’s outbound direct investments (ODIs). We discuss how China and the West can understand each other better through cross-cultural interaction, adaptation and learning. Future research as well as managerial implications from both Chinese and Western perspectives are also discussed. [Dina Chimenson & Tony Fang. Understanding China through Understanding Volvo Cars: The Case of Volvo Cars in Swedish Media - A Research Note. China Media Research 2016; 12(4): 68-74]. 8

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The Impact of Cultural Cringe on Consumer Behavior in China

Author(s): Yue Hu & Guo-Ming Chen

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China’s market with a huge demand and limited supply has been attracting international companies since 1976. This study examines the impact of cultural cringe on consumer behavior in the P.R. China by using Nike and L-Ning, representing a Western and a Chinese sports brand respectively, as examples of the comparison. An online questionnaire survey with 36 questions is conducted in a comprehensive college in the P.R. China. Participants are 314 students from different majors. Results show that the increase of cultural cringe leads to the increasing likelihood of buying Nike’s products. Limitations of the study and the direction for future research are also discussed. [Yue Hu & Guo-Ming Chen. The Impact of Cultural Cringe on Consumer Behavior in China. China Media Research 2016; 12(4): 75-84]. 9

A Dialogue on Traditional Medicine: East Meets West

Author(s): Adam Roth & Hongxia Zhang

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This dialogue, between Adam David Roth (an international historian and theorist of rhetoric and Western medicine) and Hongxia Zhang (a Chinese scholar who works on traditional Chinese medicine), reveals striking parallels between Traditional Western Medicine (TWM) rooted in ancient Greece and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Commonalities and differences between traditional Eastern and Western philosophies of the body and approaches to healing are discussed in this dialogue. The discussion includes how, and in what ways, traditional healing practices and their attendant philosophies of health have changed over the centuries. As the dialogue unfolds and the questions emerge, readers will discover that the connections between Eastern and Western medicines may be greater than you might imagine them to be. [Adam Roth & Hongxia Zhang. A Dialogue on Traditional Medicine: East Meets West. China Media Research 2016; 12(4): 85-92]. 10

Theoretical Perspectives on Culture and Communication: An Asiacentric Bibliography

Author(s): Yoshitaka Miike

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The purpose of this Asiacentric bibliography as well as its three predecessors published in China Media Research (Miike & Chen, 2006; Miike, 2009, 2011) is to inform scholars and students of theoretical advances in Asian communication research. The present fourth bibliography locates over 280 items on indigenous insights into Asian cultures and communication. These publications, which were not included in the previous three bibliographies, appeared in a wide range of scholarly journals and books within and outside the communication discipline during the 1959-2016 period. It is hoped that this Asiacentric bibliography will provide an impetus for more international and intercultural exchanges in the Asian region. Asian researchers who are prone to direct their attention only to communication scholarship in their own respective countries, Western Europe, and North America should bear in mind Rhoads Murphey’s wise counsel: “The fruitfulness of the tree of learning is a function both of the number of branches and of their organic unity and interaction” (“Presidential Address: Toward the Complete Asianist,” Journal of Asian Studies, November 1988, Vol. 47, No. 4, p. 754). [Yoshitaka Miike. Theoretical Perspectives on Culture and Communication: An Asiacentric Bibliography. China Media Research 2016; 12(4): 93-104]. 11


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