2.1 Differences and similarities in cross-cultural story comprehension

It is often stated that language and culture shape the way people think. However, little research has been conducted to investigate how recipients in different cultures read differently and to what extent literature from different cultural areas has affinity rather than differences. Literature and culture are inseparable (Kramsch 1998). A reader constructs a world of meaning and values while reading literature. To establish the research field of cross-cultural literary comprehension, empirical investigations attempt to explore whether people from different cultural areas differ how and to what extent they judge figures, interpret plots and spatially imagine the same story (Zhang 2008; Zhang/Lauer 2015).

As there is no prevailing theory for cross-cultural comparative studies on literary comprehension, a well-established theory of the cultural comparative thinking model serves as a leading theory for assumption building. The psychological theory of cultural thinking systems can be employed to work in conjunction with cultural comprehension models for literary texts. There is a strong sense of collective interest in the East Asian tradition. Commensurate with previous research on collectivistic vs. individualistic reasoning across cultures (Singelis 1994; Markus/Kitayama 1998), it is assumed that cultural thinking styles influence the comprehension of stories, more specifically on the level of the situation model, i. e., judgments of characters, predictions of plot development and imagination of spatial or temporal settings.

The study combines literary categories with psychological theories. Based on empirical studies, the findings of cross-cultural psychology indicate that Westerners are more likely to foreground some focal objects and their causal contexts whereas East Asians are inclined to foster holistic imagination and therefore deemphasize individual objects (Kitayama et al. 2003; Masuda et al. 2008). Based on the contrast of self-identification styles, the study of cross-cultural literary reading proposed that readers in East Asia interpret the characters’ activities with more socially oriented tendencies, while their Western European counterparts do so with more individually-oriented tendencies. Transferred to story comprehension, the findings of cross-cultural psychology indicate that East Asians take time description more symbolically and are inclined to holistic spatial imagination, while Westerners have more concrete temporal and spatial perceptions.

As there are no previous studies on literary understanding in culture-comparative thinking patterns, the text sample should have a simple structure. Fairy tales are a popular literary genre worldwide and have a cultural function for the literary socialization of children. To investigate cross-cultural literary reading responses, research on the responses to traditional Chinese fairy tales and Grimms’ fairy tales was conducted with German and Chinese children. Traditional German and Chinese folk tales from the 19^th century were chosen as text examples through a series of pilot studies. The text samples were presented to the subjects in their native languages. Most research on cross-cultural comparison address the reading activities of adults, but few address children. According to Jean Piaget’s theory of children’s cognitive development, sample subjects for story comprehension in the study should be at the formal operational stage and are encouraged to do abstract logical thinking (Piaget/Inhelder 1974). In the study, German children were chosen as a sample representing the Western thinking model, while Chinese children were chosen to represent the East Asian thinking style. The participants were 111 German school children from the 6^th grade class (48 % female, Mage =12) and 101 Chinese school children at the same grade (55 % female, Mage=12). The German and Chinese participants are the representative sample of an average social group and are comparable in age, gender, and grade point average. The study uses a between-subjects design. Each participant only reads one story, either from their own culture or from the other culture, in their native language. A total of 212 participants were randomly assigned to read one story and fill out the respective questionnaire immediately after reading. The general construction of the questionnaires relies on the theories of collectivism vs. individualism. As there were no existing questionnaires for cultural comparison of literary reading, the development of questionnaires was based on the series of pilot tests with open-ended questions and multiple-choice of questions to extract the cultural characteristics in story interpretation. The items have been designed to correspond with the major categories of literary comprehension. The experiment employed a 2 (story) X 2 (culture) design. The dependent variables were the interpretation of the stories, which comprised the major categories of narrative interpretation: character judgment, plot reasoning and prediction, and spatial and temporal perception.

For each story sample, the collected data were assessed in three steps. First, an item-based analysis was conducted to identify those with the most different interpretations. The item analysis uses the Bonferroni correction to control the cumulation of the alpha-error. For the interrelations among the items, an exploratory factor analysis with a rotated component matrix was conducted to extract the categories in the interpretation of the narrative story. Based on the driven categories, the data of both cultural groups were compared to observe the structural differences and similarities. The data indicate that Chinese children are more familiar with the theme of the German story. Familiarity with the storyline also largely facilitates the prediction of story development. Based on the factor analysis of the German story, the ANOVA test outcomes indicate similar responses to character judgment (r=.702, F(1, 99)=.020, p<.888), emotional reaction (r=.616, F(1, 99)=2.370, p<.127) and spatial imagination (r=.591, F(1, 99)=.831, p<.364). Highly significant differences exist in plot comprehension (r=.526, F(1, 99)=16.215, p<.001), intensive inference-making in plots, character and spatial (time) settings (r=.533, F(1, 99)=19.195, p<.001), which demonstrates the effective influence of different culture-based thinking models on inference generation in story comprehension, namely, on the level of the situation model. There are more significant differences in the interpretation of the Chinese story sample between the two cultural groups. The results of factor analysis are as follows: Factor 1 “character judgment” r=.619, F(1, 109)=15.283, p<.001; Factor 2 “plot comprehension” r=.699, F(1, 109)=89.266, p<.001; Factor 3 “emotional affection” r=.561, F(1, 109)=4.377, p<.039; Factor 4 “spatial imagination” r=.410, F(1, 109)=.000, p<.993; Factor 5 “deep inference on characters, plot & space” r=.467, F(1, 109)=57.682, p<.001. The ANOVA results for the factors, such as “character judgment”, “plot comprehension” and “deep inference on characters, plot & space”, demonstrate highly significant differences (p<.001) between the two cultural groups. In contrast, for Chinese and German stories, the extracted factor “spatial imagination” displays a similar result for the reception of the two cultural groups.

The main goal of the study is to explore similarities and differences of story interpretation in cross-cultural contexts. The study of the cross-cultural comparison is conducted within a psychological framework. The results show in which categories of literary comprehension the reading responses differ, or share similarities. Apart from the influence of culture-specific thinking models, reading experience also plays an essential role in differences in meaning formation. The statistically significant differences can be traced back to the cultural tradition and knowledge of literary schemata in readers’ long-term memory. That is, readers comprehend texts under the adjustment of the schemata in their minds, making it a schema-driven thinking process. The empirical results indicate that the reading experience is based on the familiarity of schemata or motifs. The findings demonstrate to what extent culture shapes literary reading.

2.2 Cross-cultural appreciation of classical poetry

Literature reading cognitively and emotionally engages readers. Literary appreciation requires in-depth empirical research. A cross-cultural empirical literary study should uncover more about the common ground for cross-cultural literature appreciation. Poetic lines can arouse rich imagination, exposing readers to an intensive aesthetic experience during reading process. To investigate the reading experience with classical poetry, an interdisciplinary study on cross-cultural poetry reading has been conducted in China and Germany (Zhang 2017). Starting from the previous findings of cross-cultural research on literary reading (Zhang 2011), this study assumes that the key to aesthetic and emotional involvement in cross-cultural literary reading lies in embodied cognition, which is connected to readers’ common experiences.

The study adopts a psychological approach to design the questionnaires to evaluate the reaction and involvement of readers in literary works. As a supplementary means to support the investigation with questionnaires, the study adopts the central neural electrophysiological data acquisition method. During the entire process, the real-time raw brain waves of the participants were recorded, and the quantitative monitoring of brain function was evaluated to reflect different brain states at different reading stages. Using portable EEG monitoring of brain function to achieve a certain level of reading effects requires a certain amount of time for reading a poem. After a review of many anthologies, the study landed upon traditional Chinese and German ballads as reading materials. The selected classic poems from China and Germany have comparable themes and lengths. They were created by poets of great stature in the respective countries. The study was conducted in both Chinese and German universities. The participants were 45 students from China, 60 % female, aging from 18 to 30 (Mage=22), and 44 students from Germany, 68 % female, aging from 19 to 30 (Mage=23.6). The classical ballads were presented in participants’ native languages. The translations were made by professional and renowned translators.

At the beginning and after finishing the intensive reading of each poem, the participants completed the anxiety inventory questionnaire (STAI) and rested for a few minutes. Under all conditions, including the pre-reading and post-reading of all texts, the state of anxiety of German participants displayed a statistically significant difference. There was a significant difference between the initial state and the state following the reading of the Chinese poem (p<.001). It should be noted that the anxiety level of the German participants significantly declined after reading the Chinese poem.

After the poem reading, the participants immediately completed the reading experience questionnaire (cf. Lüdtke et al. 2014). To investigate the involvement of readers in literary works and the reading experiences, the study developed a multi-dimensional reading experience questionnaire on poetry reading, containing such factors as imagination, concentration, emotional involvement, ease of understanding, familiarity, and aesthetic enjoyment. Each of the factors from the reading response questionnaire showed a high reliability value, demonstrating the high correlation between the items for each factor. MANOVA was conducted to analyze the poetry reading reception data. The German participants exhibited a significantly higher degree of imagination when reading the traditional Chinese ballad than when reading the traditional German ballads (p<.001). There was no significant difference in imagination between the reading of two German poems by the German participants. Similarly, compared to the two German poems, the Chinese poem had a significant effect on the Chinese participants (p<.014). The Chinese poem can stimulate a greater degree of imagination in both cultural groups, especially among German participants. Accordingly, the German readers’ emotional involvement when exposed to the Chinese poem sample was significantly higher than that of the German poems (p<.001).

The results demonstrate that the Chinese poem sample brings significantly more aesthetic reading enjoyment than the German poem samples. Chinese readers maintained a better focus on the German poems; however, they enjoyed the Chinese poem much more (p<.001). Comparing the two German poems written by famous poets such as Goethe, the German readers showed no significant difference in aesthetic enjoyment (p<.872). Nevertheless, German readers enjoyed the Chinese poem more than the German poem (p<.040). Among the ballads, the German participants were mostly focused on the Chinese poem and showed a significantly lower degree of concentration on the German poems. Different poems bring significantly different levels of understandability. German readers had a significantly better understanding of the Chinese poem than the two poems from their own culture (p<.001). The statistical analysis indicates that the German readers completely understood the translated version of the classic Chinese ballad, while the original version of the classical style in the traditional German ballads might create difficulty in comprehending the poems of the late 18^th century. The results of the reading reception questionnaires correspond to the changes in the state of anxiety.

As a supplementary means for empirical research, the study analyzed the data of brain function monitoring in the electrophysiology of the central nervous system. The experiment employed the technique and equipment of a multifunction composite cerebral monitor, applied a brain wave signal acquisition terminal, and conducted cloud computing based on wireless internet for real-time operations (Zhang 2017: 859–861). Participants’ brain activities were monitored and evaluated by analyzing the recorded EEG data of participants under different reading conditions. Various wavelet indexes of brain function were acquired and evaluated during different stages of the study. A series of brain function indexes were formed based on the big data collected over decades. With the wavelet indexes reflecting brain functions, EEG equipment expresses a series of indexes to investigate the changes in the available parameters of the brain states in different reading conditions. Comparing the data recorded after reading poems, the significant increase in the “cognitive efficiency” index (p<.007) and the significant decrease the in the “mental somnolence” index (p<.016) indicate the brain is more efficiently prepared for reading the poem from the readers’ own culture, which indicates the familiarity of narrative schemata embedded in the literature from their own culture. Comparing the data of reading the Chinese poem and the German poem, the Chinese participants showed highly significant differences in the “left/right brain hemisphere utilization” index (p<.001), the “attention” index (p<.001), and the “introspective intensity” index (p<.001). The statistical analysis of the EEG data shows that the Chinese participants were more immersed in imaginative scenes when reading classic Chinese poems and accordingly more relaxed, indicating reduced levels of internal anxiety.

Combined with textual analyses, the empirical findings indicate that the key to immediate involvement may lie in the imageries, which are intricately connected to the embodied experience of the readers. The textual analyses of literary studies demonstrate that the embodied common experience inspired by the poems is the major reason why poetry, even after translation, can resonate with readers worldwide. The results from the various empirical measurements in the study suggest that the aesthetic imagination of the classical Chinese ballads, compared with classical German ballads, can significantly reduce internal anxiety and trigger more aesthetic enjoyment. These empirical findings shed light on the central issue of cross-cultural poetry reading, namely, the poetic elements that remain in the cross-cultural reading to cognitively and emotionally engage readers to enter the aesthetic world the classical poetry represents. The study explores semantic properties that bring poetic function into play and that are successfully transported into other cultural contexts. The results provide strong evidence for the key elements on the common ground of literary aesthetic involvement in cross-cultural literary reading. These findings can open new perspectives for future theoretical construction in poetic and literary imagination.

2.3 Emotional responses in poetry reading

Whether reading literary texts in their original or translated versions can trigger different intercultural implications. Readers’ background knowledge in understanding second language literature increases the level of literary awareness (Burke et al. 2016). The empirical study on readers’ emotional responses sensitizes readers to the implications of using translations. Diverse cultural groups might react differently to the source work and its translations. Chesnokova et al. (2009, 2017) conduct empirical studies on poetry reading in original and translated versions in Brazil and Ukraine. The series of studies examine reading responses to two poems by Edgar Allan Poe in English and their translations into subjects’ mother tongues and compare the emotional responses to the poem in respective mother tongues with the reaction to the original English version. Each participant reads one poem: Poe’s “Annabel Lee” (Chesnokova et al. 2009) or “The Lake” (Chesnokova et al. 2017). The studies aim to investigate culture, literature, and language from a multicultural perspective.

In a series of studies, the poems were chosen according to the criteria of individuality and emotion. The selected poems were commonly anthologized with translation by renowned translators. The participants evaluated their emotional reaction with a questionnaire of adjectives on a five-point Likert scale. The adjectives for the questionnaire were derived from the pilot study. A total of 495 university humanities students responded to the poem “Annabel Lee”. The results of the Kruskal-Wallis test for the comparison of responses to the poem in English shows that eight out of ten variables have significant differences and indicate how distinctively different cultural groups respond. Comparing the response to the original version and its translation in the respective mother tongue, the significant results of the Mann-Whitney test indicated that the Brazilians evaluated the original English version of “Annabel Lee” as sadder (p<.009), more touching (p<.002) and warmer (p<.020) than the translated version in Portuguese, while the Ukrainians consider the translated version in Ukrainian sadder (p<.004) and more sensitive (p<.004) than the original English version.

In another study, five hundred language and literature students from Brazil and Ukraine responded to Poe’s “The Lake”. The results of the Mann–Whitney test show that the Brazilians interpret the original English version in a more negative light and that the Ukrainian subjects have a more positive attitude to the original version (p<.001). Comparing the responses to the translations in the first languages, the Kruskal–Wallis test results show that the Brazilians find the poem in Portuguese darker, more nostalgic, and duller than the Ukrainian participants who read it either in Russian or in Ukrainian as their mother tongue (p<.001). The comparison suggests that the Russian translation was the most positive translation. Comparing the original English version and the translation in their mother tongues, either in Russian or in Ukrainian, the Ukrainian readers regard the Ukrainian translation as more lonely and gloomy. The findings demonstrate that the original version and the translation trigger differentiated emotional responses.

Translated literary works differ from the source text on a range of parameters, which include phonology, prosody, vocabulary, grammar, and style. The empirical findings indicate that readers’ reactions to translations may not correspond to those obtained when reading the original. The cross-cultural empirical literary investigations conducted in a foreign language learning environment yield not only discoveries in terms of cultural differences, but also further pedagogical implications. Teaching literatures across the world may bring more awareness of what happens when students read in their mother tongue or in a translated version. The results have offered empirical data and verified that there is cultural implication in poetic reading.