When the actual behavior of some group is evaluated from the point of view of a frame foreign to that group, this results in negative stereotypes, because all that it noticed is the way this behavior falls short of the ideals emphasized in this foreign frame.
Frames often influence a person's mind and speech indirectly and unconsciously, rather than being a matter of conscious thought and direct statement.
The influence of a frame on a person's mind is indirectly revealed by what this person selects as worth noticing and commenting on about actual behavior, especially what upsets or disturbs a person. We notice most and are upset most by things that conflict with our sense of the way things are supposed to be.
The influence of a frame is indirectly revealed by statements the person makes about what is "lacking" what is not present. Our remarks about what is absent indirectly reveal our expectations about what we think should be present.
The influence of a frame is indirectly revealed by the use of words with negative connotations to describe others. For example, using the negative word "elitist" to describe others indirectly shows the influence of a frame which emphasizes egalitarian values.
Pick out some sentences or phrases from the readings that you think are related to a clash in American and Confucian frames.
Pay special attention to the positive or negative connotations of words, or how words might take on positive or negative connotations within different frames. Negative phrases often represent negative stereotypes, showing how someone acting according to one frame looks when seen from within a different frame.
Show how understanding certain specific contrasts between the Confucian frame and the modern Western frame:
- explains why people influenced by a Confucian frame would have negative stereotypes of people influenced by a Western frame (as in Lewis Austin's Saints and Samurai).
- explains why people influenced by a Western frame would have negative stereotypes of people influenced by a Confucian frame (as in Pye's Spirit of Chinese Politics)
- would help people operating under the influence of different frames to understand each other.
The paper needs to show that you understand Confucian ideals as expressed in the Confucian writings assigned for the first half of the course.
Two readings to help you with this assignment
Understanding Confucian and Other Specific Sources of Current East/West Differences
Some explanations and examples of negative stereotypes
Example: Pye conveys a negative stereotype of people influenced by a Confucian frame when he speaks of "the unique Chinese belief in authority’s rights to arrogance."
A. Perhaps this describes some plausibly good behavior, but Pye doesn’t understand the reasons behind it:
A1. Imagine a situation where what Pye says describes the behavior of some people in authority who are acting according to some Confucian ideal that makes sense if you understand the ideals. But imagine an American witnessing this behavior, but not understanding the reasons behind it, describing what he sees as reflecting "a unique Chinese belief in authority’s rights to arrogance." Construct some hypotheses based on your knowledge of differences between American and Confucian ideals.
What might the behavior of the authorities be in this case? This behavior would be something plausibly connected to Confucian ideals, but would appear particularly negative when viewed from within an American ideal frame.
A2. What might be some good reasons motivating this behavior, good reasons connected to Confucian ideals presented in Confucian writings. What positive words or phrases might a Confucian use to describe this same behavior?
A3. What aspect of the American ideal frame might make this behavior appear particularly negative, prompting the American to use words with such negative connotations to describe this ideal, "a belief in authority’s rights to arrogance"?
An example of possible answers to these questions:
A1. A group of protestors comes to a government building to protest some government decision and demand discussions. Government officials refuse to meet to discuss anything with them.
A2. Possible good reason: According to Confucian ideals, anyone should be able to become part of the government, and government officials should concern themselves with the needs of the people. But ultimately government officials should rely on their own wisdom and professional training rather than yield to public pressure.
A3. Why Americans might see this as only "arrogance": According to the American ideal of "government by the people," government officials are servants of the people, and everyone should have some means of making their voices heard, influencing government policy.
B. Perhaps Pye is referring to genuinely bad behavior, but American and Confucian ideals would have different ways of correcting this behavior.
B1. Imagine a case in which the people in authority are acting very badly, i.e. being inexcusably arrogant. Suppose a wise American and a wise Confucian would agree that arrogance in officials is very bad, and that something should be done to correct this situation. But their respective ideals might lead them to propose different correctives.
B2. What correctives might come most easily to mind to a person under the influence of Confucian ideals?
B3. What contrasting correctives might come most easily to mind to a person under the influence of Western ideals?
Possible answers:
B2. (Confucian:) We get authorities acting arrogantly when they have not had adequate training, or when the selection and supervision processes fail to weed out arrogant individuals. We need to work on better sensitivity training of officials (training in Confucian li) so that they do not adopt an arrogant manner when dealing with the public. And we need better selection and supervision to weed out individuals who show a propensity to arrogant behavior. (From a Confucian point of view this is a question of manner rather than substance. A good Confucian would abhor an arrogant manner of treating others, but would not think that, substantively, citizens have too little power to challenge officials.)
B3. (American:) Authorities are arrogant when the balance of power shifts too overwhelmingly in their favor. They will become less arrogant if we give more power to citizens to challenge their decisions. (Americans would focus more on substantive power-relations rather than on manner.)
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The following paragraph from Lewis Austin conveys a negative stereotype of American businessmen, showing how they might look when seen within a Confucian-influenced frame of the Japanese businessmen he studied:
Because he lives in a world of atomized individuals, not in a community, he requires laws and rules to bind him to others, to make up for the lack of the cement of individual obligation and intimate respect. When the rules are violated, he is outraged: he cannot stand unfairness. Of course the unfairness he complains of is usually the sort that injures him. Unfairness to others can be easily excused as good tough competition, a slight excess of praiseworthy zeal in the glorious stick-bashing game of life.
A1. Imagine some reasonable behavior on the part of an American businessman that is being described here.
A2. What might be some good reasons behind this behavior from the American point of view, which the Japanese businessman does not understand because these good reasons have no place in his ideal frame. What is this ideal frame?
A3. The language in this paragraph conveys a negative stereotype of American businessmen. (They lack a sense of community and the bonds of intimate respect, they conduct business affairs like children enjoying "the glorious stick-bashing game of life".) We use negative language to describe the way in which people fail to live up to our sense of the way things are supposed to be. What does this negative language show about the Japanese sense of the way things are supposed to be. How is this sense of the way things are supposed to be related to traditional Confucian ideals?
B. Imagine some obviously objectionable behavior, but that the American and the Confucian frame would suggest different correctives.
B1. Imagine that some particular American businessman really is being unfair, insisting that others keep the rules, but breaking the rules when it is to his advantage. Other Americans, as well as Japanese, would agree that this is bad behavior and should be corrected.
B2. What corrective would most readily occur to someone under the influence of the American frame?
B3. What corrective would most readily occur to someone under the influence of a Confucian frame?
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Pick out any examples from the readings for the second half of the course that you think are helpful in showing this kind of clash of frames.
The following are just some suggested examples from Austin and Pye.
Some further negative stereotypes of Americans from Austin:
see their own "fulfillment" as an absolute value... fail to extend the same respect to the fulfillment of others.
extraordinary cultural stress on the individual blinds them to the most obvious virtues of cooperation.
Self-isolated... defend that isolation by... willful insensitivity to the nuances of personal contact.
reject or ignore an intimate relationship because it will stand in the way of getting the job done
His life is continual conflict and struggle, but you will insult him if you regard him as a soldier, disciplined, obedient, a cog in a machine.... his own deepest image of himself is "the lone ranger": tough, aggressive, capable, he fights for himself alone and rides on after each episode of his personal drama is done.
Some negative stereotypes of Chinese from Pye:
Organized pressures or demands on the part of particular interests, if openly articulated, were treated as rude threats to public order
unlimited faith in their capacity to persuade everyone of the correctness of their position and of the exemplary quality of their behavior
Chinese behavior characteristics... intense concern for form, ritual, and etiquette.... deep anxieties about social and situational ambiguity and uncertainty, sensitivity to status issues, acceptance of hierarchy, dread of social confusion and political disorder, constant search for belonging, for identification with groups, and for the security of success and power