1 Theorizing Culture and Communication in the Asian Context:

Any way of seeing, of course, is a way of not seeing, as Kenneth Burke has insisted. Thus any theory of communication, any dominant paradigm, any pervasively informing metaphilosophy, will have its limits, and its limitations. No alternative to a dominant paradigm would be perfectly limitless, perfectly unlimiting. Yet the dominant contemporary perspective is especially limiting of specifically human possibilities and criteria. — Lee Thayer (1979, p. 12) This theoretical essay is an initial attempt to lay an assumptive foundation in search of an Asiacentric terrain for culture and communication studies. The essay first clarifies what is Asiacentric communication scholarship in relation to U.S. Eurocentric communication scholarship. Second, touching on three central themes in Asian communicative life, it formulates three sets of philosophical assumptions for an Asiacentric paradigm of communication theory. Third, in accordance with the philosophical assumptions delineated, it sheds light on three core assumptions of human communication which suggest future directions in the study of culture and communication in the Asian context. The essay lastly addresses possibilities and challenges of Asiacentric communication scholarship in order to build and develop non-Western models of communication. Throughout the 20th century, the field of communication studies has been one-sidedly dominated by U.S. Eurocentric anthropocentered, individualistic, efficiency-oriented, positivistic theory and research (Ishii, 2001). Conventional academic views of communication have been skewed by Western frames of reference. They have not represented a sample of all possible conceptual positions from which the knowledge of communication can be adequately constructed. The world in the 21st century, therefore, needs a plurality o