Cross-Cultural Pragmatics in Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight

Abstract

This research examines how intercultural communication unfolds in the animated series Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight (2022), focusing on the pragmatic processes that corroborate meaning-making across cultural boundaries. Drawing on István Kecskes’ (2013) Intercultural Pragmatics as a socio-cognitive framework, the study investigates how both shared and personally internalized cultural knowledge influences character interaction as well as communicative strategies and interpretation in a dynamic intercultural setting. Employing Conversation Analysis to examine selected scenes, this research identifies how speech acts, politeness strategies, turn-taking, repair sequences, and implicit assumptions navigate intercultural negotiation. The findings suggest that the series serves not only as a source of entertainment but also as a platform for the co-construction of meaning, cultural adaptation, and identity negotiation. Therefore, the research highlights the importance of context, salience, and prior experience in fostering intercultural understanding.