Intercultural communication ethics: an Asiacentric perspective

Ethical issues in international and intercultural communication have garnered a considerable amount of scholarly attention for the past four decades. Most debates and discussions, however, have been confined to the pros and cons of ethical universalism and relativism and to Eurocentric philosophical discourse. The present article takes an Asiacentric approach to theorising humanity, diversity, and communication, explores Asian cumulative wisdom as a resource of ethical ideas and insights, and formulates five principles of intercultural communication ethics: (1) recognition and respect; (2) reaffirmation and renewal; (3) identification and indebtedness; (4) ecology and sustainability; and (5) rootedness and openness. These ethical principles of intercultural communication from an Asiacentric perspective are preliminary in nature and remain subject to reflection and revision. They need to be further substantiated in comparison with those from other Western and non-Western premises and practices of ethical communication. Nevertheless, they will offer new parameters and systematics for the ethics of communicating across nations and cultures in the global community.