Genre is Culturally Specific
One of the more counterintuitive ideas in writing studies has to do with the nature of a genre. The simplest definition of the genre is a style. From the common use, the genre can be described as a form of discourse recognizable sets of structural and thematic qualities. For instance, people can talk about a detective novel as a genre different from romance novels. We can also recognize nonliterary forms as genres, such as scientific articles (Kamberelis, 2018). The development of a genre is not an instantons process, and it does involve not only writers but also the readers. The expressions developed by the readers contribute significantly to genre development. While the development of genre does not have a unique process, employing necessary writing features is akin. To add on to this idea, I believe that genre is culturally specific. Since genres are habitual responses to recurring socially bounded situations, the fact that different culture produces different social situation makes genre culturally specific. Even the most common genre, romance for example, would have different meanings for readers in different culture.
Everything is about genre is different culturally. In the very beginning, while writing studies materials, the writer employs methods that provoke the curiosity of readers. Different culture have different points of curiosity. For example, gay literature in China is specifically targeted toward female audiences who are looking for porn text, which is really different from that of the U.S. Thus, developing an effective topic depends on the political and cultural environment of the writer as well as the readers. In this case, porn is illegal in China which caused gay literature to emerge as a outlet for female sexual fantasy needs. In any genre, after developing a good topic, the writer then combines the available information and resources to support the selected topic. Almost every resources the writers can gather are from the life around him/her, which is heavily immerse in the culture of the nations he/she lives in. Even science fiction are heavily culturally specific given that science are universal. The nine-time winner of the Galaxy Award winner of the 2015 Hugo Award is a Chinese Author Liu Cixin, whose science fiction novel “Wandering Earth” has just been made into film that hits the highest box office even in the United States theaters last month. In his science fiction, the approach toward using science to save humanity is completely different from that of the Westerners. He is redefining what is science fiction for China, even for the whole Asia. It is because of the same reason, most writers fail to selects the appropriate writing styles suitable for the topic because they lack a cultural base and proceed too politically correct. A writing styles that has a cultural DNA and attitude provoke readers to continue reading a piece. A piece that lacks proper styles demotivates reader even when the topic is exotic (Kamberelis, 2018). Therefore, this threshold concept encourage writers to be aware that genres are developed by writers who need to be immerse in a specific culture while delivering a piece raising genuine issues. Otherwise, it is like a body without soul and can merely be count as a successful genre.
The textual structures are akin to the fossil record left behind, evidence that writers base employed familiar discursive moves by reader expectation, institutional norms, market forces, and other social influences. One of the critical decisions that writers need to consider should make is the types of writing structures to include while writing. Most Chinese writings do not require grammer, thus creating a wide range of genre. For example, there are hundreds of sub-genre just for the genre “poem” itself. There is a wide variety of writing on a particular concept while only fewer writers turn to be effective. The difference occurs in the ability to employ proper writing skills, concepts, and styles to evoke cultural emotions. That’s why science fiction “Wander Earth” is so successful because it is authentically Chinese writing style that can be made into a unique film that is unlike the cliche of Hollywood script. While writing to convey a particular message, it is important for the writer to pay attention to the readers' reactions towards the styles employed. Traditionally, writing has been considered as an open method of presenting a message while ignoring the concept of proper styles. In the past, the audience could read a piece of writing without paying more attention to the stylistic behaviors of the writer. However, it has emerged that readers will pay more interest in writing if it has employed proper language, literature styles, and cultural taste.
According to Carolyn Miller (1981), genres are enacted. Mikhail Bakhtin (1986) influenced the argument of Miller and has been developed over the last thirty years by some scholars studying writing in organizational settings (Rose, 2017). Miller holds that genres are developed from habitual responses such as the readers' emotions after reading an article or novel. A piece needs to have textural regularities which insight a unique experience among the readers and these repeated instances of action, reinforced through institutional power structures make a genre. It implies that writers employing certain writing traits, forms, themes, and textural form construct genres. Therefore, genres can be described as efforts of groups through writing time using the implicit or explicit institutional or organization sanctions powers. This perfectly explains why genre is culturally specific: it is an efforts of group, of a nationality, of a culture.
Below are some examples of genres that are culturally specific to Chinese readers:
- WeChat post: it is a bit like twitter but with unlimited word count. It is popular among people above 30 years old. You need to write it on a computer so the content generator/writer is very separated from the reader. It is often not user generated materials since most people text and post on their phone.
- Weibo post: very similar to twitter, has a word limit of 450 characters. People view it as a news outlet for celebrities.
- Romance: writers are targeting Chinese middle schoolers thus almost all romance genre are very easy to read and cliche. Adults often see these kind of literature as brainless, useless literature.
- Science Fiction: it used to be considered as useless fantasy in casual magazine with over dramatic stories that doesn’t make sense. It has been redefined in recent year through Liu Cixin’s series of work.
- Time travel: time travel is not considered as science fiction in China. It is an genre by itself since most author in this genre do not inflict science for the time travel but instead use mythology. It is often linked to modern girl traveling back to ancient Chinese palaces.
Reference
Kamberelis, G. (2018). Genre Development and Learning:" Children Writing Stories, Science Reports, and Poems". Research in the Teaching of English, 403-460.
Rose, D. (2017). Writing as linguistic mastery: The development of genre-based literacy. The SAGE handbook of writing development, 151-166.