Libro
Libro
Libro
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
MEDIA LITERACY AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE<br />
Strategies, Debates and Good Practices<br />
<br />
The Zhaocai Mao (Maneki Neko) as my new personal amulet.<br />
Change and cultural paradox in the information society<br />
Santiago Giraldo Luque<br />
Investigador Postdoctoral<br />
Departamento de Periodismo<br />
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona<br />
santiago.giraldo@uab.es<br />
Abstract<br />
The present text is a theoretical approach about how we can analyse and<br />
interpret the main differences between cultures that live in the same scenario.<br />
The possibility of finding in a small town anywhere in the world scenarios of<br />
evident multiculturality reveals the analytical need to understand the cultural<br />
process. With this purpose, the essay discuss –using the famous Chinese cat<br />
that every oriental bazaar sells in their stores- the assimilation of new daily<br />
rituals from different cultures present in the European cities. The text also<br />
presents the communicative dialogue of mutual recognition trying to establish<br />
origin of the intercultural communication process, where different actors develop<br />
a mutually dependent relation whose ultimate expression is staged in the<br />
exchange of symbols.<br />
Keywords: Intercultural dialogue, cultural paradox, information society,<br />
transcultural analysis<br />
1. The situation<br />
Living in a small village in Catalonia near Barcelona, where the majority of<br />
people use Catalan as their lingua franca, and find that one of the stores which<br />
had more economic growth in the last four years is the "Bazaar Zhong Yu"<br />
whose ownership, management and customer service depend exclusively on<br />
the family that I have as a neighbour (from China), may represent one of the<br />
main paradoxes of contemporary culture. The situation -brought by a greater<br />
freedom of movement for persons, goods and information- involves a very<br />
serious analytical exercise for understanding the adaptation of an Oriental<br />
family structure to a system of regulated work under the European capitalist<br />
economy.<br />
At the same time, it presents a bigger demand for understanding the daily<br />
dialogue among symbols which exist between the coexistence of objects that,<br />
for example, catalyze powers: a Colombian immigrant woman, who lives near<br />
my house, comes out of the Eucharist celebration in the Catholic Church and<br />
goes to "Bazaar Zhong Yu”. When she leaves the store, in which you can find<br />
all kinds of products for home, she carries in her hand her new charm to attract<br />
money: a Fortune’s cat (Zhaocai Mao, in Chinese or Maneki Neko in Japanese).<br />
59