International city branding as intercultural discourse: workplace, development, and globalization

Abstract

Although the communicative dimension of urban development has caught the imagination of urban studies scholars, the cultural, and intercultural, nature of this discourse has received less attention than it deserves. As a case study and illustration of urban development workplace discourse from out of a Chinese/Asian/developing-world context, the present article examines the properties, problems, and potentials of the global branding practice of Hangzhou, a renowned tourist and ancient capital city on the east coastal region of China. First, after critiquing tendencies in relevant communication approaches, the paper outlines a holistic, cultural concept of urban branding of the developing world – as a culturally saturated, development-oriented, workplace discourse. Then, based on ethnographic data collected from a plethora of sites and sources (the municipality, trade association, the Internet, interviews, newspapers, street posters, museums, and historical records), the paper studies, qualitatively and quantitatively, a variety of interlocking international branding practices (municipal management, expos, festivals, exhibitions, international tours, websites, foreign language use, award-winning, etc.). In conclusion, the paper draws implications for future research and practice on urban development and branding in the developing world.

摘要：虽然已有城市学学者从交际语言的角度对城市发展问题进行了研究，但这种话语的文化特性、跨文化特性尚未得到足够的发掘。本文以杭州这一中国东部沿海地区的著名旅游城市与古都为例，进行城市发展话语的研究，探索在中国/亚洲/发展中国家这一大语境背景下，杭州在城市品牌全球化建设过程中表现出的特征、问题及潜力。首先，在对现流行的主流研究方式提出批评之后，本文第一次从整体视角阐述了发展中国家城市品牌的国际营销概念——一种具有文化性和发展指向性的工作场所话语。其次，本文聚焦城市品牌国际化建设、传播、接受的实践活动，釆用民族志式的多渠道数据采集方法（涉及市政府、商业组织、互联网、采访、报纸、街头海报、博物馆、历史记录等），从质性和量性的角度就包括市政管理、博览会、传统节日推广、展览、国际旅游、网站、外语使用情况等在内的各种活动进行综合分析和评价。最后，本文就发展中国家的城市发展和城市品牌建设问题，对未来的研究与实践提出了建议。

Keywords:

• urban development
• mega-events
• discourse
• intercultural
• workplace

Acknowledgements

Support for the present research by the Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of the Ministry of Education [grant no.11YJA740075] is gratefully acknowledged. Gratitude is expressed also to the participants of my course, Cultural Discourse Studies, as well as my research assistant Xie Xiuting, at Zhejiang University, who helped collect much of the data used here. Meticulous comments and incisive suggestions by the anonymous reviewers and the guest-editors are greatly appreciated.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Shi-xu (Ph.D., University of Amsterdam) has been Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam, Lecturer at the National University of Singapore and Reader at the University of Ulster, UK. His books in English include Cultural Representations, A Cultural Approach to Discourse, Discourse and Culture, Chinese Discourse Studies, Read the Cultural Other (lead-editor) and Discourse as Cultural Struggle (editor); as well as books in Chinese Cultural Discourse Studies. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Multicultural Discourses and General Editor of Cultural Discourse Studies (both with Routledge) and serves on a dozen of international journal editorial boards. He is Changjiang Distinguished Professor, Qiushi Distinguished Professor, Director of the Institute of Discourse and Cultural Studies, and Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Discourse Studies (CCCDS), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou.

Notes

1. City branding is often defined too broadly or too vague; the following is not untypical: ‘the purposeful symbolic embodiment of all information connected to a city in order to create associations and expectations around it’ (Lucarelli & Berg, 2011, p. 21).

2. Relevant information may be found at: http://data.stats.gov.cn/workspace/index?a=q&type=global&dbcode=csnd&m=csnd&dimension=zb&code=A0101&region=330100&time=2012, 2012. See also 季靖, 陈静 2008, 《杭州》课题组 2008, 邹身城 2006.

3. http://hzfzw.hz.gov.cn/jjhz/myjs/201205/t20120507_315759.html.

4. See: http://www.xh-expo.com/zt/15th/xhexpobm/.

5. See http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/767/: ‘The World Heritage Committee has inscribed the West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou, comprising the West Lake and the hills surrounding its three sides, on UNESCO's World Heritage List.’ At the first West Lake International Tea Expo held in 2005, Hangzhou was awarded the plaque ‘中国茶都’ (China's Capital of Tea).

6. Reference information may be found at: http://hznews.hangzhou.com.cn/chengshi/content/2013-03/27/content_4667544_2.htm (with English page); http://lxs.cncn.com/70786-news-show-68859.html.

7. It has web pages in English and Japanese: http://www.teamuseum.cn/default.aspx.

8. Some other related websites in English: www.teavivre.com; TravelChinaGuide.com; en.gotohz.com (of Hangzhou).

9. It may be pointed out, though, that some websites concerning key aspects of the ‘quality life’ of Hangzhou are in Chinese only (e.g., Landscape and heritage site administrative committee: http://xhsy.hzwestlake.gov.cn/index.aspx; Xiling Seal Engraver's Society: http://www.xlys1904.com/; West Lake Museum: http://www.westlakemuseum.com/).