Wild Swans in Relation to Understanding Intercultural Communication

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Wild Swans by Jung Chang in Relation to Understanding Intercultural Communication
Jung Chang's Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China is a best-selling novel that showcases the intimate and historical story of three generations of women in twentieth-century China. The three generations of women are Jung Chang's grandmother, mother, and herself. In Wild Swans, the manner that the differences in life events, traditions, and culture were conveyed promote an understanding of various cultural practices and behaviors while also breaking cultural barriers that are still present in the world today. Alongside Jung Chang's Wild Swan, Ting-Toomey and Chung's Understanding Intercultural Communication is a book that approaches intercultural communication in an inclusive and multi contextual way. In this paper, Jung Chang's Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China will be tackled with some of the concepts discussed in Understanding Intercultural Communication.
An evident connection between the two reading materials is the concept of culture shock. Culture shock is defined as an intense emotional experience, also about a taxing transitional period, that affects an individual's behavior and cognition (Ting-Toomey & Chung 93). This usually happens when an individual is placed in a new or unfamiliar environment requiring some form of adjustment or adaptation. It is also correlated to feelings of fear and vulnerability. In the novel, culture shock can be seen when Yu Fang, Jung Chang's grandmother, married off as a concubine of General Xue. Although this meant that there would be an improvement in the family's standard of living and social standing, it still did not prevent Yu Fang from feeling culture shock with all the changes and expectations that being the general concubine had brought her. True enough, being the general's concubine had many perks, such as being given a monthly allowance, pieces of jewelry, and servants in the place where she is staying. Still, Yu-Fang had no peace of mind, and she lived in constant fear and uncertainty. "The house was luxurious by local standards—and far superior to her parents' home—but my grandmother was lonely and miserable" (Chang 42).
A second exciting concept showcased in Jung Chang's Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China is the human perception tendencies. Specifically, the selective attention process and selective interpretation. Selective attention refers to the tendency of an individual to direct their attention towards specific cues that are somehow influenced by family, culture, and media (Ting-Toomey & Chung 159). On the other hand, selective interpretation is a part of human perception that enables individuals to connect meaning to the received...