Power relations and change in intercultural communication education: Zhongyong as a complementary analytical framework

Abstract

Power relations and change have become two of the most important foci of intercultural communication education and research. This paper contributes to these two elements by problematising and operating an analytical framework from outside the ‘West’, the Chinese notion of Zhongyong (the ‘Golden Mean’). Based on a dialogical analysis of focus groups collected during an art course, the paper shows that Zhongyong can expand and complexify our understanding of interculturality, looking into how e.g. the students balance otherness with otherness (or not), as well as make use of reflectivity and criticality (or not) to implement potential change when cooperating.