Decoding yuán and duyên across Chinese, Vietnamese and other Asian cultural practices

In this chapter, we explore the cultural concept of yuán in Chinese or duyên in Vietnamese, and its equivalent or comparable concept(s) in a number of other Asian cultural practices, including Japanese, Korean, Burmese, Indonesian and Indian. We adopt the lenses of Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, in particular, the analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics and the relationship between local cultures and World Englishes. The data for this research consists of three interrelated and extended ‘conversations’, based on the substantial input from the two researchers of this chapter as cultural informants, and interactions with other informants from a number of Asian cultural backgrounds. The analysis of the ‘conversations’ and the interactions shows that the cultural concept of yuán or duyên exists widely in Chinese and Vietnamese societies, and across other East Asian and Southeast Asian countries. The analysis also shows that the cultural meanings of the concept(s), albeit certain similarities, are heterogeneously distributed across different cultural and speech communities. We also explore the implications of this research for intercultural communication, and for relevant research in World Englishes and Cultural Linguistics.