CIICPD 2023

CI-narrative 6

Chinese Challenge 1 I spent almost 1 year traineeship in Singapore, where I have experienced and faced Chinese 2 culture. I was supervised by Singaporean with Chinese identity. Throughout my stay in Singapore 3 in the organizational context I was experience quite a lot of clashes with my supervisor, because 4 anytime I had to deliver presentation at work in front of her, I was interrupted and she was yelling 5 at me that I should stop speaking and I should be rather silent and that I should have provided 6 any arguments. My supervisor never wanted me to have constructive dialogue with her, but she 7 rather wanted me to be just silent and obedient employee. So, my feelings, emotions and status 8 were totally killed and hurt by my supervisor. Her body language was rather showing all her 9 negative emotions about me. Therefore, from management and business perspectives I struggled 10 with the Chinese culture, but from the life experience and perspectives, I had a great time in 11 Singapore for that almost an year spent there in 2015. “Chinese Challenge” was written by a staff member and covers a period of “almost 1 year” (line 1). It is clearly set in Singapore. The gender and origin of the narrator are not mentioned but the other actor (the supervisor) is identified as female and as a “Singaporean with Chinese identity” (line 2). The first two lines can be considered as an orientation. The description of actions (from line 2–7) is categorised as “clashes” (line 3) and “struggle” (line 9) and concentrates on the reaction of the supervisor on the delivered presentations. Even if the narrator summarises several events, which take place during the whole year, the highly emotional style corresponds more to a scenic-episodic representation: “[…] I was interrupted and she was yelling at me that I should stop speaking and I should be rather silent and that I should have provided any arguments.” (line 5–6)). A CI mostly refers to a single event. Narratives that are written more in the reporting form may contain, however, a long-term CI as it is the case in the present example. In contrast to the other analysed examples following the reporting representation technique, the narrator does not suggest any kind of solution. We can assume that it is for this reason that the summary is written in a dramatic style. This is evident from the dramatic description in the result (“So, my feelings, emotions and status were totally killed […]” line 7–8) and the conclusion (“Therefore, from management and business perspective I struggled with the Chinese culture […]” (line 9–10)) underline this assumption. In the conclusion, the narrator comes back to an undramatic representation, which underlines the relevance of the whole stay for the entire biography and is focused on the experiences beyond the situation at work, which remains narratively unprocessed. The narrative is marked to a high degree of difference between the two actors. The author positions him/herself as active but helpless and powerless over time. The supervisor is represented as an opponent during the whole traineeship without the potential to change, as indicated in the author’s remarks (“I was interrupted and she was yelling at me” (line 4–5), “[she] never wanted me to have constructive dialogue with her, but she rather wanted me to be just silent and obedient employee” (line 6–7), “Her body language was rather showing all her negative emotions about me” (line 8–9)).

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