Wednesday 23 January 2013

Intercultural communication: Whose fault was it again?

In an established multi-cultural society like Singapore, botches of intercultural communication to epic proportions would be a rare spectacle indeed. Hence, for this post, I would like to invite you, my dear readers, on a journey of spectacular failure, to Germany.

 First though, some background information. In the city of Cologne, Germany, a fierce competition between several top League of Legends teams from around the world had just concluded. (League of Legends is only the biggest electronic-sport currently, also commonly known as "just another video game" to the less informed.)

In the aftermath of the intense virtual bloodshed, one Korean team stood victorious. (Koreans winning video game competitions? Who would have thought!)

Of course, these victors were invited onto the event stage for their victory ceremony, where a big paper cheque is presented to them, and photos are taken to capture their glorious victorious moment forever. The champions for the night were requested to do a superman pose for the cameras, and this happened:

 
Ladies and gentlemen, you may notice a resemblance of their poses to a certain individual, namely Adolf Hitler, of World War II fame, and made in Germany no less!

Naturally, there was massive media backlash, and the team captain involved had since made a video apology trying to clear the arising misunderstandings. Presumably, the "Sieg Heil" pose was unintentional, but a completely unrelated victory pose only visually reminiscent of the now infamous gesture. Regarding the whole incident however, could it be that although these Korean champions lacked cultural awareness by engaging in their obviously provocative poses, the Germans (and internet) were also being hypersensitive, especially given that no sane man would want to relate themselves to Adolf Hitler?

Applying this more generally: would there be a point where cultural sensitivity becomes hypersensitivity and it is no longer reasonable to fault the offending party for infringing on hypersensitive cultural territory? If so, where would it lie and what should be done then, to ease the touchy hypersensitivity?
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7 comments:

  1. Author24 January 2013 at 08:10

    Hi Annis. I think to certain extent we could relate this back to world war II involving Japan and the Germans where Japanese were trying to be the king of Asia and Germans were trying to rule the European side. However, I believe in today context, we have since embrace the Japanese without bearing in mind what happened in history. E.g "going to their country, having japanese students studying in Singapore". Hence, when I was discussing with Daniel the other day regarding history, he also said we have since already "forgiven" Japan. Hence I do not think cultural sensitivity has become hypersensitive. However, it is still important to not generalise. The fact that you and I may have put the past behind does not necessary mean ALL of them does.

    There is really no way to ease such situation as what was done in the past cannot be undone. The only way to reduce such unnecessary cultural tension is to develop cultural awareness.

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    1. Joey Yang26 January 2013 at 04:13

      I agree with what you posted to a certain extent. The youth of Singapore might have "forgiven" (I am more inclined to think that the youth including myself just can't be bothered) the Japanese for what they did during WWII but I don't think it applies to the older generation. And I certainly disagree with what you wrote "However, I believe in today context, we have since embrace the Japanese without bearing in mind what happened in history". I suppose your "we" here refers to the Chinese people.

      You might want to read up on the senkaku island dispute. It is clear all is not well between China and Japan.

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    2. JiaHui27 January 2013 at 04:56

      I do agree with both of you that there are many in the world who have found it hard to move on from WWII.

      Though for a clearer illustration on the relationship between China and Japan resulting from WWII, I would suggest looking at the reactions when Japanese ministers visit the war shrine instead.

      Even till this date, whenever Japanese ministers visit the Yasukuni war shrine, there would be public outcries and even strikes from countries like China and South Korea demanding for a public apology from the ministers.

      (Perhaps this would count as an intercultural conflict too since the ministers involved were forced to 'choose' their culture or maintaining a diplomatic front.)

      I'm not entirely certain, but in my opinion, the Senkaku islands dispute arose out of political reasons more than cultural ones.

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    3. Zech Song27 January 2013 at 06:01

      Hey Sarah I'm not Annis I'm Zech!!

      Thanks for the comment and bringing in the point on forgiving and moving on where not everyone is able to do so. However, moving on may become less of an issue as time passes, even currently little of the population that actually experienced those wars are still alive. I do think that we're treading on delicate ground and cultural awareness is sorely needed but perhaps after so long, such huge reactions to cultural insensitivity of historical events just seemed a little odd.

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  2. Brad Blackstone25 January 2013 at 21:27

    Thanks you, Zech (not Sarah, right?), for this most interesting post. It is a fine illustration of how a simple gesture can provoke very different feelings in different people. You also express your ideas clearly and concisely.

    The only thing that confuses me here is the use of the word "hypersensitivity." That seems to suggest an exaggerated sensitivity. However, in the context of German history, perhaps the German media reaction to the Koreans "sieg heil" pose is not exaggerated at all.

    At the same time, your questions are quite general. Perhaps a question related specifically to the Korean team and its behavior would have been more suitable.

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    1. Zech Song27 January 2013 at 06:02

      Thank you for your comment Brad!

      I'll keep that in mind for the next post, look forward to it!

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  3. Unknown13 February 2013 at 23:30

    I find that the post is very well written. The following are some of my key thoughts:
    First of all, I find the post was very engaging. Zech did not merely report what happened. In fact, his use of rhetorical questions and choices of vocabulary make the readers feel that they are not just reading a boring report. It also prompts our thinking.

    Secondly, he gave some background knowledge before giving details of the issue. It prevents the users for getting confused and allows them to know the area of focus.

    Lastly, there is wide use of vocabulary. It prevents the readers from getting bored for reading the same words over and over again.

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