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There is a clear power dynamic between the characters in the scene. To emphasize their position within the hierarchy, the characters diverged their speeches and used different linguistic strategies – involvement, and independence – that are typical of a hierarchical politeness system.

Intercultural dialogue, in which some interlocutors can exert greater power or take full advantage of their vantage point, needs to be combined with negotiation in this context (Viola, 2014). This is especially true for migrants who have abandoned part of their native national identity and need to adapt to their new identity and new linguistic norms through constant identity negotiation.

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Past Lives is ostensibly about a love story, however, the entire film depicts the conflict and cultural mobility of the female protagonist, Nora, as a new generation of immigrants with dual cultural identities in both America and Korea. Her husband Arthur represents the American cultural identity. In contrast, her childhood friend Hae Sung represents the Korean cultural identity, and when they reunite, Nora is forced to navigate between the two cultural identities. One out of every four people living in the United States had lived in other countries and integrated into other cultures before moving to the United States. Conflicts between biculturalisms often stem from their different cultural values, attitudes, and expectations (Benet-Martinez & Haritatos, 2005). Our group wants to further critically analyse maintaining a degree of politeness in transcultural incidents and the phenomenon of cultural identity in this bicultural context.

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Past Lives is a 2023 romantic drama film written and directed by Celine Song in her feature directorial debut.

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This scene shows Nora and Arthur being questioned about their relationship by the border officer at the Canadian and U.S. borders, which provides an opportunity to explore transcultural dynamics. We will analyze two key theories in depth: 1) Communication accommodation theory and 2) Positioning theory to critically think about the cultural identification of people in the context of different social powers and distances and the issue of impoliteness in communication.

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The interaction in this scene signifies a power dynamic in which Nora and Arthur are subordinated to the border officer, who appears to hold more power as an authority figure. Upon deeper analysis, it can be seen that a face, or politeness, system plays a role in the interaction. As Scollon et al. (2011, p. 52) suggest, the two elements of face relationships are “an unmarked set of initial assumptions and a series of negotiations in which those unmarked assumptions are either ratified or altered in some way”. In this case, the officer, though indirectly, made assumptions about Nora and Arthur’s relationship by asking “are you two related?”. They clarified this assumption in their response to the officer’s query, stating that they are married.

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Notion of large culture, a reason behind the impoliteness and condescendence

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Notion of large culture, a reason behind the impoliteness and condescendence

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One of the reasons behind the power asymmetry and the condescending attitude of the border officer might be his large cultural perspective (Holliday, 1999), a traditional interpretation of one’s culture and identity.

The notion of large culture separates people’s identities based on the entities in terms of ethnic, national, or international aspects, which has however been critiqued as one-dimensional (Holliday, 1999). In our current society, the loosened boundedness of geographical locations allows a more flexible and multifaceted cultural flow, which is not only restricted by traditional entities like ethnicity or nations. Forming a fluid and plural socio-cultural group is thus categorised under the notion of small culture, which is not subordinate to large cultures, going beyond the boundaries of nations, ethnicities, or other geographical entities (Holliday, 1999).

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The short interaction in the scene also exemplifies the notion of positions. It not only shows how Nora adjusts and expresses her multiple identities through the interaction, but also illustrates how speech acts reflect their positioning .

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The power asymmetry between two entities in a hierarchical politeness system.

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In this context, the characters have a plus power (+P) and plus distance (+D) relationship. Additionally, there is also a high weight of imposition (+W) in the interaction since the topic of discussion is of great importance to the characters. Based on these factors, it is clear that the politeness system occurring in the scene is hierarchical, where the officer uses linguistic strategies of involvement while Nora and Arthur use linguistic strategies of independence. Particularly, Nora’s silence in the scene signifies “the highest level of independence” (Scollon et al., 2011, p. 50). The interaction also exemplifies the notion of speech divergence, where the characters emphasise their hierarchical differences thus increasing their social distance.

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The stereotype brought by the Large culture

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The stereotype brought by the Large culture

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The large culture concept has also been criticised for its limitations regarding the narrow boundaries between various ethnicities or cultural groups (Holliday, 1999). In a globalised setting, factors like ethnicity, races or origins are not necessary in determining individuals’ identities. In the scene, the officer’s behaviour implied his mono-cultural characteristics. He defines Nora and Arthur subjectively and makes assumptions based on their appearances. Hence, the officer’s large cultural perspective generalizes culture groups into a singular entity, neglecting the diversity and inclusivity within cultures that appear to be more fluid and flexible in the current society.

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 Rights and duties in positioning theory

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 Rights and duties in positioning theory

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Positioning theory is centered around understanding the complex dynamics of how individuals in interaction continuously adjust and negotiate their identities through rights and obligations and interact with the positioning of others to shape social behaviors, and in this dynamic environment, the conversation can be the focus of analysis (Hirvonen, 2016). The customs scene in this text forms an arena for positioning, in which the customs officer has higher rights and obligations that dictate the modes of discourse available to him, accompanied by scrutiny and questioning. That is, he is questioning Nora and Arthur from a judgmental perspective, "Are you two related?" may imply that the officer believes that their relationship does not "fit" the stereotypical image of a couple's relationship. This raises the issue of cross-cultural relationships being questioned or misunderstood by outsiders.

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Benet-Martinez, V., & Haritatos, J. (2005). Bicultural Identity Integration (BII): Components and Psychosocial Antecedents. Journal of Personality, 73(4), 1015–1050. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00337.x

Debray, C., & Spencer-Oatey, H. (2019). ‘On the same page?’ Marginalisation and positioning practices in intercultural teams. Journal of Pragmatics, 144, 15–28. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.03.002

Hall, S. (1994). Cultural Identity and Diaspora. In Colonial discourse and post-colonial theory (pp. 392-403). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315656496-28/cultural-identity-diaspora-stuart-hall

Hirvonen, P. (2016). Positioning Theory and Small-Group Interaction: Social and Task Positioning in the Context of Joint Decision-Making. Sage Open, 6(3), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016655584

Holliday, A. (1999). Small Cultures. Applied Linguistics (pp. 237–264). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/20.2.237

Scollon, R., Scollon, S. W., & Jones, R. H. (2011). Interpersonal politeness and power. In Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach (pp. 45-68). Wiley-Blackwell.

Viola, F. (2014). Negotiation of identities and negotiation of values in multicultural societies. In Identity and migration in Europe: Multidisciplinary perspectives (pp. 29-36). Cham: Springer International Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10127-9_3

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 Identity negotiation behind the self-positioning

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 Identity negotiation behind the self-positioning

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However, when faced with the question "are you two related”, Nora claims the right for herself since this question signifies a doubt about their relationship. Considering that any specific speech act includes a position (self-positioning) and the position of other speakers (other-positioning) (Hirvonen, 2016), this question can be seen as the border officer questioning the position of their relationship, that is, other-positioning. As the one being positioned, Nora responds, “we're married.” Compared to her earlier silence, Nora ascribes rights and claim it for her, because Arthur is an American, and through the statement 'we are married,' Nora binds herself to this identity, thereby positioning herself as an American. Her clear position can be seen as the result of multiple identity negotiations, that is, Nora’s cultural identity at this moment is more inclined towards American identity rather than Korean identity.

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Q1: How does communication accommodation theory reflect the difference between power and distance of people's communication styles across different cultural contexts?

Q2: When individuals face different cultural backgrounds, how can they express or coordinate multiple cultural identities through language, behaviour, or other means?

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Please kindly leave your comments and feedback in this section!

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Within the cultural identity perspective, the officer's questioning reveals that cultural identity often reflects how outsiders perceive it. According to Stuart Hall's (1994, p.395) theory of cultural identity, identity is not only the result of self-identification but is also projected and reflected by others. The border officer's make assumptions about Nora and Arthur's relationship through their appearance with their historical understanding, reflecting how identity is perceived and judged by the outside world.

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What is more important to note is that the expression of Nora’s position in this scene. Nora is a Korean who immigrated to Toronto and later lived in New York. This mixed identity may make her feel the pressure of identity negotiation. She must balance her multiple identities while also responding to external expectations and the requirements of her identity. This process of balance is the core of identity negotiation, that is, how to find the coordination point between self-cognition and other cognition in a specific situation (Viola, 2014, p.29). In such context, when faced with a series of questions raised by the officer, Nora is less engaged than Arthur. The relative silence of the Nora might show the marginalization in transcultural communication (Debray & Spencer-Oatey, 2019). The reason behind this can be attributed to Arthur and the border officer having a greater advantage as native speakers than Nora's immigrant status.