ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how a thorough examination of the unique and the incommensurably different has revealed commensurable similarities that can pave the way to making meaningful comparisons. The framework has also pointed to the need to reconceptualize differences and similarities as symbiotic, rather than dualistic if comparative research is to contribute to theoretical knowledge. The incommensurability/commensurability framework was proposed by Georgette Wang as a way to go beyond naive universalism as well as cultural essentialism in indigenizing communication research. The adoption of transliteration in research, e.g., guanxi to denote a particular aspect of Chinese relationships, and Wenyi as a genre for Chinese films, is a strong indication of incommensurable differences. Research on Chinese relationships began to abate after the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949, but three decades later, relation studies re-emerged in Taiwanese psychological scholarship as a response to calls for indigenous strands of social scientific research.
