"This edited volume gives voice to pluralised avenues from visual communication and cultural studies regarding the Global South and beyond, including examples from China, India, Cambodia, Brazil, Mexico and numerous other countries. Defining visual communication and culture as an umbrella term that ... encompasses imagery studies, the moving image and non-verbal visual communication, the first three chapters of the book describe de-Westernisation discourse as a way to strengthen emic research and the Global South as both a geographical concept and, even more so, a category of diversity and pluralism. The subsequent regional case study-based chapters draw on various emic theories and methodologies and find a complex arrangement of visuality between sociocultural and sociopolitical practices and institutions." (Publisher description) more

"In this chapter, Guo-Ming Chen portrays two faces of communication in Chinese culture. He thematizes harmony, one of the core Chinese cultural values, to paint a picture of the first face. According to him, in order to achieve harmony, Chinese people would (1) follow the principles of jen (benevole ... nce), yi (righteousness), and li (rite/courtesy), (2) properly adjust to shi (temporal contingencies), wei (spatial contingencies), and ji (the first imperceptible beginning of movement), and (3) strategically exercise guanxi (interrealtion), mientze (face), and power. This harmony-oriented communication can also be understood in light of other Chinese cultural concepts such as mientze (face), guanxi (interrelation), yuan (destined relations), keqi (politeness), bao (reciprocity), feng shui, and zhan bu (divination). Chen then moves on to paint a picture of the second face, which is the dark side of Chinese communication, that appears when harmony cannot be upheld." (Page 273) more