Our hero Wang can't be wrong! A case study of collectivistic image repair in Taiwan

Abstract

Asian culture is often characterized as collectivist, as opposed to the individualism of Western culture. To extend the implications of collectivism, the current study applies the Theory of Image Restoration to analyze Taiwan's news reports of Taiwan-born Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Wang Chien-ming. Due to his outstanding performance in MLB, Wang has been styled by Taiwanese media as Taiwan Zhi-guang, “the pride and glory of Taiwan”. Each of Wang's wins in the MLB becomes the top story of major newspapers in Taiwan. However, it is also routine that Taiwan's major media engage in collective efforts to repair Wang's image when the national hero loses a game. The most common methods of image repair of Wang in the press are evading responsibilities and reducing offensiveness through 15 tactics of repairing rhetoric. In this case study, the Chinese concept of guang (meaning pride, glory, honor, and face) is elaborated upon, and the implications of third party apologies are discussed.

Keywords:

• Asian culture
• collectivism
• image repair
• third party apologies