6.2 Language Features in Contemporary Chinese Medi...
Using discourse analysis to study the details of actual conversation in Chinese mediation sessions can be very revealing.The advantage of having transcripts is that it is visible, and you can read the transcripts over and over again to study even the most subtle and nuances.From these interactions in the transcripts, we can better study the role of neutrality and power distribution, as well as consider the bigger picture driving these dialectical moves — the social and cultural indications of today’s Chinese society.Also, having transcripts allows the investigator to better evaluate the gaps between what mediators should do and what they really do, as well as what mediators say they do and what they really do.The study of first hand data, i.e.the audio-recordings and transcripts, provide us with a more accurate picture of what is happening in the real situations when compared with interviews with mediators and the interview transcripts.
Education, one sidedness, invoking authority and bringing in third parties would be strongly resisted by both the mediator and the disputants in the United States.These strategies have strong persuasive capacity.The mediator either dominates the turns or initiate turns to speak.It is not a way to facilitate compromise as in American mediation, but to implement their agenda which has been set prior to the mediation which has been determined by the mediator through investigation, talking to people in the community and collecting facts.The first step of mediation is for the Chinese mediator to find out who is right and who is wrong.This process is adamantly avoided by their American counterparts.Chinese mediators say that “only after establishing responsibility,can a discussion of suitable solutions begin”.When the other disputing party does not agree on a solution proposed by one party,they will turn to the mediator to let him/her to “solve the conflict for them”while in the United States, the mediators facilitate and open “the way for the solutions to emerge”(Halegua, 2007).Therefore, most mediators have an agenda in mind prior to the mediation or, at the latest, after the first stage of the mediation.
To implement the agenda, strategies are adopted, which need to be achieved through tactics; certain language features or patterns.Some are explicit and others are less so.Unlike their American counterparts, the Chinese mediators don’t need to worry too much about violating any neutrality principle, they would in most situations voice their views and their opinions about the situation openly.In contrast, the American mediators will need to disguise their message in the pretense of question(Jacobs, 2002).The disputants in Chinese mediation know what the mediators’ opinions are during the mediation and expect the mediators’ role to be that of advocate on behalf of the government and as an educator on the law.However, disputants do not want to be told directly what to do which is probably universal to all human beings.In such situations, the Chinese mediators will not hesitate to talk the disputants into accepting the agreement or solution plan.They will not shy away from adopting powerful speech styles including, assertiveness, directness, imperative sentences, interruption, assigning turns to the disputants and long lecturing speeches.These styles are typified in the cases of child’s sickness, the woods dispute, the disengagement dispute and the offspring support of parents.Again, the powerful speech style is backed up by their authority both in the mediation and from their administrative position.
In the case of the offspring support of parents, the major tactics are education and bringing in third parties, where the authority figures talk about social norms and expectations of taking care of one’s elders, the importance of harmony within a family, and valuing interpersonal relationship within a family.In the woods dispute, the disengagement dispute and the child sickness dispute cases, the mediators take sides after knowing the facts about the conflict.However, one-sidedness can cause backfire when used in certain situations.When that happens,balancing is an useful tactic to make both parties even in terms of face concern.In the case of the divorce compensation dispute, the mediator engenders the rage of the wife to the extent that she is not willing to cooperate and the mediator has to maintain the discipline of the mediation session.
That Chinese mediators favor caucusing is another interesting feature of meditational style.Chinese culture values relationships.A person is more likely to listen to others when s/he perceives that others are close to him/her besides their positional power over him/her.This is why third parties such as the disputant’s relatives, friends and somebody who know them well are often brought to a mediation session.If there is no third party to be brought in, sometimes, the mediator’s role becomes that of the disputants’ elder, friend, or even ally by using certain bonding language, such as, “zan men”(“we”in an in-group sense) and “ren jia”(“they”in an out-group sense), as well as vocal features to show care and concern.This role is easier to be played in a one-on-one caucus session rather than in the formal mediation session, as one cannot bond with both sides in front of the two opponents.This is an ongoing, dynamic bargaining process going back and forth between two parties in order to get them to meet each other in the middle or to conform to the prior agenda of the mediator.The typical cases of adopting the method of caucusing would be the workplace injury dispute, the pretrial Shijiazhuang divorce mediation and the dispute on wine payment.(https://www.daowen.com)
Altercasting is another typical Chinese language tactic in mediation.In Chinese culture, defining roles are important.How people should act is based on which role they are put in.In a collectivist culture like China, a person’s identity is not so much defined by their individuality as by his/her relations to others.For example, a woman is a wife, a mother, a daughter, a daughter-in-law and a teacher with all the responsibility brought in by each of the roles’ connotations, instead of a female individual who desires love, care, freedom and comfort as defined in western culture.Therefore, altercasting is a way to put people in the frames of these identities so that will direct their actions accordingly.Mediators can strategically frame the roles they cast on the disputant in any way they want to serve their persuasion purpose.This can be observed best in the case of workplace injury dispute and the case of child sickness dispute.
The strategy to soothe or soften the adversity is commonly observed when a face-to-face session is held.Chinese want to avoid confrontation as much as possible (Ting-Toomey, 1988).Friedman et al.studied Chinese — American differences in conflict— avoiding and suggest that the high tendency for Chinese to avoid conflict comes from Chinese expectations that direct confrontation will hurt the relationship between the two disputing parties (2006).Therefore, confrontational interaction in conflict situation is extremely uncomfortable to the Chinese.Therefore, the mediator becomes the peace maker in such situation.Balancing is adopted to make both parties even in terms of face concern, despite that the mediator has already made his/her judgment about the situation.In wood dispute and engagement dispute, the tactic is salient which is locally and colloquially called “stirring the mud”(“和稀泥”).Traditionally,the Chinese mediators are called “peace maker”(“和事佬”), which is quite self explanatory of their roles in conflict resolution.The mediator will not tell who is wrong and who is right explicitly.Neither will he/she propose constructive solution.He/she will simply make both parties feel respected and the opinions on both sides valued equally.This is very much like what the American mediation scholars call “therapeutic”approach (Jacobs & Arkhus,2003).At the mean time, the mediator will try to minimize the difference and maximize the commonality, or bring in external reasons.He/she could alleviate the adversity by emphasizing the accomplishment the two parties have worked together to achieve,and facilitate the compromise by reminding the husband and wife of considering the welfare of their child.This tactic is typical of the moves used by the mediators in the cases.Dispute between Owners’ Committee and the Management Committee, the case of child sickness dispute, as well as the case of the woods dispute.
Confirming the studies by some scholars (e.g.G.M.Chen,2000; Jia, 2000; Chia, et al.2004), respecting face and avoiding face threat and face loss are very important values in Chinese conflict resolution and management.In such face-threatening situations as mediation, the Chinese mediator will actually use this to their advantage.They would push the reconciliation by asking for the consideration of avoidance of face threat to the mediator or any other people involved in mediation.This also provides the disputants a way, without losing face, to overcome their pride, which is oftentimes the obstacle towards compromising.The pre-trial divorce mediation and the case of the wine payment dispute demonstrate the tactic well.This kind of ideology or value based tactic is also reflected in emphasizing common goals such as the welfare of the kid or aged parents as observed in child sickness dispute and Shijiazhuang divorce mediation.The consideration of another’s feelings and sacrificing one’s personal interest for the in-groups’ interest, especially that of the younger and the elder, are highly valued in Chinese culture.While prioritizing the child’s interest has to be stipulated in the mediation regulation in the United States, Chinese mediators simply have to suggest the course of doing good for the children and for the aged parents in order to awaken the disputants’conscience cultivated through years of education, because these are widely advocated and accepted social norms.However, in the mediation of the Offspring Support of Parents, even though it is the Chinese tradition and social norm to support one’s aged parents, the son rejects this responsibility, in spite of the pressure from every person present — the officials, the father and the mediators.This exception reflects the changing values among the younger generation of Chinese people, even in rural areas in contemporary China.Traditional Chinese society highly respects the position and welfare of its older people.However, recent economic development puts the younger generation in heated competition for jobs, salaries and basic necessities like decent shelter, which leads to the negligence of older people.Furthermore, due to the “One-Child Policy”，children become the focus of the family, who also compete with the older people for the attention of the middle generation of the family, the major bread winners.These reasons all contribute to the son’s rebelliousness against supporting his aged parents, rendering the mediators’ attempt in vain.
Chinese media often describes modern Chinese society as being in a transitional period (社会转型期).The impact of this transition is far reaching, and has implications for mediators, who are also dealing with cultural transition.Linguistic tactics and strategies not only reveal how the Chinese resolve conflict through modern mediation techniques, but they also tell us important things about cultural norms and traditions of Chinese society, as well as the imprint from Mao’s period.We can also observe the problems caused by China’s fast-changing pace.While the old views, such as being collectivistic, respecting one’s elders,and emphasizing harmony in interpersonal relationships are still appreciated and upheld by the government, new values such as individualism and pursuit of freedom are developing, and actually becoming more and more popular credos for many people.Individuals still need to conform to dominant and socially acceptable roles, but can simultaneously pursue his or her personal goals.In this aspect, this more updated study provides a more accurate view on Chinese society and culture compared with relatively recent studies (e.g.Wall and Blum, 1991, Diamant, 2000,Jia, 2000).