Huang, Z.M., Fay, R. (University of Manchester) and White, R. (University of Liverpool), The Knowledge Landscape of 念(niàn)/mindfulness: Intercultural Ethics for Transcreation. Paper presented at the 19th CultNet, hosted by Durham University, April 21st-23rd, 2016.

1. The Knowledge Landscape of 念 (niàn) /
Mindfulness: Intercultural Ethics for
Transcreation
Zhuomin Huang
Richard Fay
Ross White
19th CultNet Meeting
Durham. 21st-23rd April, 2016
1

2. Content
• The Conceptual Migration of Mindfulness
• The Complexities and Dynamics in the
Transcreation of Knowledge Landscapes
• Intercultural Ethics
2

3. 3
Some Terms

4. Knowledge Landscape
• A metaphor for the study of
the complex intellectual,
personal and physical
environment in which people
work (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995: 673)
4
• ‘a sense of expansiveness and the possibility of being filled with diverse
people, things, and events in different relationships’
• ‘understanding professional knowledge as comprising a landscape calls
for a notion of professional knowledge as composed of … relationships
among people, places, and things, we see it as both an intellectual and
a moral landscape’

5. Transcreation
• ‘Transformative Creation’
• The processes and products
of interthinking (Littleton & Mercer, 2013)
and inter-transformative-
thinking
• the inter-transformative
complexities of knowledge
development
5

6. 6
Part 1:
The Conceptual Migration of
Mindfulness

7. Mindfulness
Emptiness De-attachment Chan/Zen
The practice of ‘HEART’
niàn Stillness and Observation 7
East West

8. Mindfulness in the Orient
• The Origin of Mindfulness:
- Indian Buddhism (2600 years ago)
- ‘Sati’: ‘memory’ - the constant
presence of mind, meaning
‘remember to be aware of’
• Dimensions of Teachings
• Spreading (1st Century):
S.E. Asia: e.g. Thailand: สติ (saL dtiL)
China: 念 (niàn)
Vietnam (niệm)
Korea: 念/염 (nyem)
Japan: 念 (nen)
Religion
Morality
Psychology
Cognition
8

9. 2. Merged with Chinese Traditional
Philosophies (诸子百家) :
Cognition/Psychology
Mindfulness: ‘True Balance (禅定)’
-Yin Yang ‘Balance’ (阴阳消长)
-Daoism ‘Body + Energy + Spirit’ (形气神)
-D./Confucius ‘Man-Nature-Unity’ (天人合一)
Morality
Mindfulness: ‘Compassion’ (慈悲观)
-Confucius ‘The Study of Ren’ (仁学; i.e. Benevolence)
3. Gradually fading in the 20th Century
Mindfulness in China
1. The Chinese Character:
reciting and remembering by heart
(i.e.口吟心忆)
The
Hundred
Schools of
Thoughts
Buddhism
DaoismConfucius
(niàn)
9
释
道儒

10. Psychotherapies
• The late 19th and 20th: the ‘third wave’ of
refashioning the traditions
• Jon Kabat-Zinn (1982): ‘a process of paying
attention in a particular way: on purpose, in
the present moment, and non-judgmentally’
• The effectiveness of treating psychological
problems , especially for reducing anxiety,
depression and stress (Khoury et al., 2013)
10

11. Education
• Ellen Langer (1993; 2013; 2000: 220): a flexible state of mind
in which new information and new contexts are
actively engaged
• A mindfulness-approach to learning
• Example key qualities:
₋ openness to new information;
₋ continuous creation of new categories;
₋ implicit awareness of multiple perspectives.
11

12. Intercultural Communication
• Stella Ting-Toomey (1988; 2007; 2010): a means of rethinking one’s
assumptions about oneself and the world by being attentive
and attuned to ‘I-identity’, ‘they-identity’ and ‘we identity’
• A dimension of Facework-Based Model of Intercultural
Competences: flexibility, openness, awareness, tolerance,
empathy and creativity in IC (Ting-Toomey & Kurogi, 1998).
• Other examples:
- Intercultural Competences (Gudykunst, 1993; Deardorff, 2009)
- Cultural Intelligence: a metacognitive process (Thomas, 2006; Earley &
Ang, 2003)
12

13. Migrations to and across the Occident
Mindfulness in Intercultural Communication:
Origins: Psychotherapy? Education? Oriental
Buddhism?
‘Mindfulness (Thich, 1991) means … According to Langer (1989; 1997),
to act mindfully, we should learn to…’ (Ting-Toomey & Kurogi, 1998).
An interview of Ting-Toomey (Perez Canado, 2008):
- the social psychological perspectives of mindfulness
offered by Langer
- ‘… actually taken from a very strong concept in Buddhism
… so it has a very strong Eastern philosophical root’
13

14. The Conceptual Migration of
Mindfulness
14
A map of the migratory complexity involving:
• Multi-lingual
• Multi-disciplinary
• Multi-directional
• Multi-ideological
• Multi-cultural
• Multi-chronemic
Perspectives

15. MigrationsthroughTime
East West
Indian
Buddhism
‘sati’
East Asia: e.g.
China 念(niàn)
Southeast
Asia: e.g.
Thailand
สติ (saL dtiL)
Tibet
Oriental Religions/Philosophies
Western
Disciplines
Intercultural
Communication
Education
Psychotherapy
Migrations across Space
Ancient
Recent
Future
Zone One
Zone Three Zone Two
Zone One: Migrations across the
ancient Orient
Zone Two: Migrations across
modern Western Disciplines
Zone Three: Occidental Oriental
Exchanges

16. Part 2:
The Complexities and Dynamics in the
Transcreation of Knowledge
Landscapes
16

17. Knowledge Flows
17
HICLMIC
Counter-flow
Dominant-flow
Dominant-flows: Knowledge
that originated from HIC and
that has influenced practice
in LMIC
Counter-flows: knowledge
that originated from LMIC
and that has influenced
practice in HIC
(White et al., 2014).

18. 18
HICLMIC
Counter-flow
Dominant-flow
Criticism: It may be that implicit and explicit barriers are
serving to limit counterflows. For example, it is possible that
prejudicial attitudes in HIC serve to inhibit counterflows.
(White et al., 2014)
Knowledge Flows

19. Counter-flow
19
(White et al., 2014)
Dominant
Power
Structure
Comparative
Lack of
Research in
LMIC
Challenges
of
measuring
counter-
flows
Prejudicial attitudes
towards non-western
approaches
Recommendation 1:
To maximize the potential for
counter-flows

20. Recommendation 2:
To foster common-flows
20
HICLMIC
Dominant-flow
(White et al., 2014)
Common Flow
Counter-flow

21. The Originating Orient to the
Appropriating Occident
• Appropriation flow: Western scholars adopted,
appropriated even, those ‘mechanics’ of mindfulness
which they could make knowable, operationalisable,
and measurable for the evidence-based culture of
Western sciences and related professional practices (e.g.
Psychotherapy) (White & Sashidharan, 2014):
e.g. practitioners from the powerful North/HIC have lifted
the concept from its traditional root (in the South/LMIC),
and transplanted it to a secularised context, and bent on
pragmatic purposes in which the (often English-medium)
academic and psychotherapeutic discourses of Western
approaches are privileged (Bodhi, 2011: 35).
21

22. Dominant Flows from the Occident
to the Orient
• Since 2009
• Western understanding of
mindfulness
- A psychological (meditation) tool
for improving negative emotions
(e.g. stress & depression)
- A modern pursuit: Mindfulness
for Success (成功学)
‘approved by the West’
‘a high status in the West’
‘influential in the West’,
‘popular in the West’
‘a Western psychotherapy’
“正念疗法，已被西方医疗界所肯定多年，。。。现已成为西方
身心医疗的方法之一。 ”— 《正念》
“正念修行在西方世界拥有崇高的地位和广泛的影响力，。。。
它是西方国家最为普及、最爱关注、最有影响力的佛教修行体
系。”— 《图解正念：成功者必有正念》 22
Gaining credentials and
reinforcing the privileges

23. Acknowledging Sources/Credentials
Western favoured/privileged 23
Eastern perspectives
‘approved by the West’
‘a high status in the West’
‘influential in the West’,
‘popular in the West’
‘a Western psychotherapy’
Western Perspectives
‘Mindfulness-based stress reduction
(MBSR)… removed the Buddhist
framework and eventually downplayed any
connection between mindfulness and
Buddhism, instead putting it in a scientific
context’
‘… mindfulness is not itself Buddhist at all
but really a universal pathway to sanity
and well-being…’
‘Historically, mindfulness has been called
“the heart” of Buddhist meditation…’

24. Counter-flows from the Orient
• Clarifying the Western-based understandings of
mindfulness:
‘non-judgemental’?
‘present-centred’?
• Defending ‘authentic’ (typically Buddhist)
understandings of mindfulness from the
distortions, misunderstandings, and dilutions of
Western understandings of the concept (e.g. Dreyfus &
Thompson, 2007; Bodhi, 2011; Varela & Shear, 1999)
24

25. The Promise of Common Flows
• Further explicated flows of responses, and potentially
conversations (Bodhi, 2010; Kirmayer, 2015):
Inconsistency? Unauthenticity?
OR
Creative ‘Misreadings’? New Possibilities?
• Hyland’s (2011): ‘the origins, nature and functions of
mindfulness - from its roots … to modern secular,
therapeutic perspectives - have established a foundation
upon which to examine various conceptions of mind …’ (p. 37).
25

26. MigrationsthroughTime
East West
Indian
Buddhism
‘sati’
East Asia: e.g.
China 念(niàn)
Southeast
Asia: e.g.
Thailand
สติ (saL dtiL)
Tibet
Oriental Religions/Philosophies
Western
Disciplines
Intercultural
Communication
Education
Psychotherapy
Migrations across Space
Ancient
Recent
Future
Zone One
Zone Three Zone Two
①
②
③
④
①: Flows from the Originating Orient
to the Appropriating Occident
②: Dominant Flows from the Occident
to the Orient
③: Counter Flows from the Orient to
the Occident
④: Opportunities of conversations and
the promise of common-flows

27. Part 3:
Intercultural Ethics
27

28. A call for Intercultural Ethics
• All ‘transcreators’ of knowledge landscapes should
be：
informed about, and respectful of, the origins of
the ideas they use;
accepting of the co-existence of other ways of
seeing and understanding things; and
open to the mutually enriching interconnections
between these different ways of thinking
• A collective wisdom of discipline(s) (e.g. Asante, Miike & Yin,
2013)
28

29. Intercultural Ethics
• Resonances with e.g.: awareness (Ting-Toomey, 1988),
decentred-attitude (Holliday, 2013) and responsibility (Guilherme
et al., 2010; Phipps, 2013)
• Phipps (2013): to ‘work within conceptualization and
critiques of globalization, democracy and human rights’
(p. 11), and to frame the knowledge-work with ‘justice and
equality… and take their work towards an embrace of
complexity and open-endedness; engagement with
what is … believed to be restorative, collaborative,
participatory, sensory, even healing; to allowing for
methodological creativity and artistry…’ (p. 14)
29

30. Intercultural Ethics for Knowledge-Landscape
Transcreation
• Important role for intercultural ethics in the evolving
knowledge landscapes of all disciplines, and in the
transcreational processes through which they develop
• Our transcreational knowledge projects: e.g. mindfulness,
intercultural communication, global mental health, education 30

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