Culture and apology: The Hainan Island incident

Abstract

This paper studies the dynamic relationship between language, culture, and ideology by examining the recent “apology controversy” between the People’s Republic of China and the United States over the US surveillance plane entering Chinese airspace and landing on Hainan Island and the loss of a Chinese pilot. The differences in cross‐cultural apologetic behavior, magnified by opposing ideologies, prompted China’s demand of a formal apology from the US, and the US refusal to such a demand. It is argued that apology should be viewed not only as a simple speech act, but also a discourse event, extending beyond individual behavior to national behavior. As a speech act, it bears many cultural differences, for example, Chinese language has a more complex system of apologizing vocabulary and a greater emphasis on assuming responsibility. As a discoursal event it is highly ideologically invested for both sides, in which the apology is negotiated, as well as the social norms that govern it. Following Fairclough’s framework of ideology and language (1995), the analysis shows that ideology is invested in all levels of the language, from producing and interpreting of the letter of regret to the distinct Chinese translations from both sides. Language becomes a combat field of competing ideologies. It is not only an outcome of such negotiations, but also the means to them. It is argued that an unequal power relation resulted in the acceptance of the US letter of regret by the Chinese in the place of an apology. Although the current interpretations tend to reinforce the existing ideology, possible ways to combat ideology are found.