Rewriting Cultural Psychology

Abstract

This volume is addressed to scholars as well as a popular audience, aimed to bridge the gap between academia and the general public. It deals with "who we are," concerning our sense of self and identity; and "how we live," concerning our ways of life in diverse cultures. It affirms that we may transcend our cultural-ethnic roots and redefine our identities, individual or collective. Transcendence opens the door not only to personal transformation but also to confront ethnic stereotypes and prejudices. Readers will gain fresh cultural knowledge from both the East and the West and be attuned to the theme of letting no ethnic group be alien to us.

This book is at once about the immersion of life in culture and the remaking of culture by human action--reciprocal influence at work. The idea of immersion underscores the powerful cultural forces that shape our perceptions, thinking, and emotions. Unlike other cultural psychology texts, this volume dwells on the accelerating alterations of culture by human action, and hence the remaking of our own being, in the age of the Internet.

In the author's own words: "I write with the passion of a person who has lived life from being marginal, neither Eastern nor Western, to being a world citizen; turned to English like a duck to the water, thus circumventing my handicap of Chinese orthographic dyslexia. I have two cultural parents, one Chinese and one Western, who transformed me into a thoroughly bilingual-bicultural person, empowered to build intercultural bridges. The East is rising, and the West can ill-afford to remain ignorant of the East."

WORDS OF PRAISE

This book shatters the foundations of contemporary cross-cultural psychology. Ho is the master in showing how culture organizes the human mind by linking the subjective and the societal features into one.
Jaan Valsiner, Niels Bohr Professor of Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University

This is an extraordinary book that leads to an informed transcendence of stereotypical cultural divisions. It should be required reading for any intellectual wanting to adapt to our multicultural world.
Michael Bond, Visiting Chair Professor, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

David Ho convincingly argues that a cultural self can only be properly understood as multiplicity-in-unity. As a bicultural East-West agent, he provides a fascinating demonstration of a dialogical self at work.
Hubert Hermans, Emeritus Professor, Catholic University of Nijmegen

Professor Ho enjoys an enormous advantage in East-West comparisons. I applaud him for bringing to our attention the richness of Chinese conceptions on topics such as shame and face.
Duran Bell, Professor Emeritus of Economics and Anthropology, University of California

About the Author

Professor David Y. F. Ho, the pioneer psychologist who introduced clinical psychology into Hong Kong, has held professorial appointments in psychology and humanities in Asia and North America. He has had extensive multicultural experiences as a consultant and clinical practitioner. Professor Ho has authored numerous scholarly contributions in psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and education. He was the first Asian to serve as President of the International Council of Psychologists (1988-1989). Author website at www.EasternTotalHealth.wordpress.com

Also see, Rewriting Psychology: An Abysmal Science? by David Y. F. Ho