D EV ELOPING H IST ORICAL M E M O R Y C O M P E T E N C Y FO R
I N T E R C UL T U R A L C O M M U N I C A T I O N I N T E R A C T I O N S
- How can the historical legacies of the United States and Russia produce discord and conflict? What is a contemporary example?
- How can a government use a nation’s historical legacy to generate popular support among the general population?
- How does national history play a role in shaping national identity? What is an example for the United States?
- During a state visit to China in 2010, the United Kingdom’s prime minister and his party were asked to remove the poppy flowers they were wearing to honor U.K. war dead, a national tradition observed every November 11. The Chinese indicated that the poppies might remind the Chinese of the Opium Wars of the mid-1800s, in which British forces defeated the Chinese. In your opinion, should the British representatives
have worn the poppies? Why?
- Can you think of examples to help explain the notion that Russia
remains in a transitional phase?
- How do Japan’s demographic separation, geographic isolation,
and sense of self-consciousness manifest themselves during inter-
action with strangers of other cultures?