First and foremost, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Ms. Erica C. Wetter, Senior Editor in Media and Cultural Studies at Routledge, for her unwavering faith in our reader and Ms. Margo C. Irvin and Mr. Chad Hollingsworth, Assistant Editors in Media and Communication Studies at Routledge, for facilitating the entire process of planning and publication. Ms. Ros Woodward deserves special mention for her careful and thorough copyediting. She is unfailingly attentive and admirably efficient. We are also indebted to all the authors and publishers for granting us the permissions to reprint their works or for contributing original essays to our anthology.
We are most grateful to the reviewers of the first and second editions of our volume for their helpful comments and suggestions: Dr. Michael L. Hecht at Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Rona T. Halualani at San Jose State University, and Dr. Ralph Webb at Purdue University. Although we cannot acknowledge them by name, we are equally grateful to the anonymous reviewers who took the time to offer their thoughtful critique and advice.
We wish to extend our sincere appreciation to the following warm and wonderful colleagues who have given us a great deal of moral support over the years and who have kindly assisted us in the editing process in one way or another: Dr. Benjamin J. Broome at Arizona State University, Dr. Guo-Ming Chen at the University of Rhode Island, Dr. James W. Chesebro at Ball State University, Dr. Jensen Chung at San Francisco State University, Dr. Janet M. Cramer at Florida Atlantic University, Dr. Dennis K. Davis at Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Jingjing Z. Edmondson at Zhejiang University, Dr. Judith N. Martin at Arizona State University, Dr. William J. Starosta at Howard University, Dr. Corinne E. Shefner-Rogers at the University of New Mexico, Dr. Robert Shuter at Marquette University, Dr. Kiyoko Sueda at Aoyama Gakuin University, Dr. Xiaosui Xiao at Hong Kong Baptist University, and the late Dr. Donald W. Klopf at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
Last but not least, we are truly thankful to all the instructors and students worldwide for adopting this collection and sharing the joy and suffering of the intercultural journey with us. Without them, the second edition would never be materialized. We cherish the hope that scholars and students in the global village will continue to expand their culture-bound knowledge and explore intercultural communication through the selected readings of our reader.