Personally, I feel that many critiques and historians might agree that they are the result of America's influence, perhaps even forceful injection of American culture into the global community. In this case, particularly the Islamic community, whom are not be too happy with the way their culture had been diluted with the influx of western ideals. Hence, we see the formation of extremist cells that aim to spread their message through the use of terror tactics.
Of course... some might disagree...
Take a look at the below pictures, what comes to mind?
CULTURAL IMPERIALISM :
"The imposition of a foreign viewpoint or civilization on a people" - Dictionary.com
" ... artificially injecting the culture or language of one culture into another" - Wikipedia
I hope we can all agree that in the above pictures, together with a clearer idea of what cultural imperialism is truly all about, the western, if not American influx of culture into foreign communities is clearly evident.
We cannot deny that many traditional Asian communities, even China itself, has become "victim" to the diffusion of American ideals and culture. We see clear signs - where once used to be dignified local eateries, replaced by Macdonalds, Starbucks, Burger King and Pizza Hut. Children all over the world have the foundations of their childhood built upon the magic of Disney whereas school children and working adults alike don attire and footwear adorned with the ever so familiar Nike tick.
My friends, in case you haven't noticed, American already has "invaded" the world... the marketing world that is. But we should be truly concerned with the impact this will have on the local culture...
Nonetheless, the influx of one dominant set of culture might not necessarily be bad. In fact, the key argument that cultural imperialism effects - the Cultural Imperialism Debate, is actually as such:
Cultural Imperialism provides a one-way flow of international products and messages to outlying societies that might eventually benefit from it. However, this might prove negatively and impose messages of imperialism and possibly also ideological propaganda.
The point that I am trying to make here is that we cannot reverse or prevent the actual occurance of Cultural Imperialism. But we certainly can curb the impact it has on the extent of dilution of our traditional roots and culture. The fact is, we should not and cannot blindly accept all forms of seemingly "dominant" trends and ideals, fads even, as being the most correct way of life to adopt. In case you hadn't noticed, Americans have demographics that illustrate their rather unhealthy way of lives, with staggering percentages in obesity and other social problems. Not that other cultures do not, but the fact is that sometimes the "coolest" things might not necessarily be the best.
Still not convinced that American Cultural Imperialism can be demeaning? Take a look at the trailer of the movie below:
This movie is entitled The Wrestler and depicts the life of an American wrestler. The problem with this American production is that there is scene within the plot that illustrates how the main actor outright defeats an Iranian competitor by ramming an Iranian flag pole under under his neck. Talk about insulting!
Furthermore, most of us might remember last years epic, 300:
I dare say most of us were unaware that Hollywood had been slammed by critiques for the way it chose to portray the Battle of Thermopylae. Specifically, how it depicted the Persians as having been "ugly violent creatures other than human beings" Althought it is true that the West actually posses a Globally dominant media presence, but should the world merely sit back and perhaps allow the Americans to continue their onslaught on our cultures?For the full report: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3740936/Hollywood-film-The-Wrestler-insults-Iran.html
So you see, sometimes we ought to take a step back and realize that not everything popular might actually be good for us. Afterall, he who controls the media, gets to say something and will say it loud.
How then, can we prevent ourselves from succumbing to the ill effects of Cultural Imperialism?
The pressure of modernization has resulted in the forgoing of many traditional values thus paving the way for cultural imperialism.
ReplyDeleteIn a local context, I think the 'Speak Mandarin Campaign' is a fine example of this. The ethnic Chinese in Singapore are comprised of several dialect groups however the newer generations are largely unable to converse in dialect. As a result, dialects are slowly dying out in Singapore especially amongst the more highly educated strata of society.
Recently, a letter was published in the Straits Times by one of our ministers (forgot which, sorry) in response to why dialects are not encouraged and his reply was that our dealings with China would be made in Mandarin and hence it would be pragmatic to focus on Mandarin (and English) only since learning dialect may cause the standards of the other 2 to suffer.
Therefore, once again our pragmatic interests have triumphed over our cultural roots.
As a people who are increasingly disconnected from the ways of our ancestors, who are absorbed in material wealth and pragmatic concerns, we are attracted to things that are glitzy and modern i.e. things associated with the West. Thus it is no wonder that we are vulnerable towards the effects of cultural imperialism.
A fortification of our cultural identity will not be easy due to certain factors,
Many traditional values increasingly appear to be irrelevant and superstitious,
some are even losing their charm as their more superficial aspects are focused upon while ignoring their historical significance.
Culture and tradition is passed down from one generation to the next, if a generation has matured while being ignorant of their cultural identity this presents a missing link that has to be filled by organisations like the state.
Substandard linguistic ability in one's mother tongue is an obstacle towards rediscovering one's roots.
I guess to prevent ourselves from succumbing to the ill effects of Cultural Imperialism, we must first know how to differentiate the right from the wrongs.
ReplyDeleteOf course, different people have different point of perception to the same event, for example the Iraq war. There is a handful who supports Bush idea, isn't it?
I believe culture and education is a key factor in education our future generation on choosing what to believe!
I guess American-ism offers us a somewhat simple lifestyle - it gets things done with minimal effort and naturally most would welcome it.
ReplyDeleteIf we had kept to ourselves (culture, traditions etc), we probably wouldn't have opened up to the new sciences and technologies.
I guess this is the price we pay for being 'connected' to the rest of the world.
Maybe it's not so much as cultural imperialism. I would use fusion. just like music, we can fuse jazz and rock, country and pop or even arabic jazz which my professor did. I do agree though that there is a little too much of american-ism. Even north korea opened its first pizza hut.
ReplyDeletebut there are also other countries involved. with reference to singapore, there are people who are crazy about jap food, jap music or even what the japs wear. There are people who needs to eat sushi or kim chi(korean) every other week. We used to snack on prata for supper every fortnightly.
I do not believe that there is cultural imperialism at the moment. yes, there may be macdonald's or pizza hut or too many of the western outlets here. then shouldn't japanese be criticised for bringing in all the jap culture? The media does play a big part in making things happen. for eg, people watch korean dramas and vow to eat some kprean food the next day.
lastly, i think we still have our cultures and traditions. we don't pray to macdonalds or pizza hut. neither do we have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner then starbucks for tea break. There's still char kway teow and rojak and many more to name. we are only vulnerable to the media. we tend to buy whatever the media portrays as good, fun interesting.
media's fault i say.
Hmm... to prevent ourselves from succumbing to the ill effects of Cultural Imperialism, why not drive away those Multi-National Corporations (MNCs). However, this could either probably result in a war or excommunication from the outside world, especially in the case of Singapore. For my case, I feel that Japanese, America etc., products or influence are fine, however, if we still have our cultures and traditions, we won't be affected by their cultures. They are just here to earn money and let us eat foot that we have not eaten before.
ReplyDeletehey! I like my starbucks!
ReplyDeleteBut that aside, yes, it's pretty undeniable that almost the entire world is caving into the American culture.
I have friends who have decided that if they aren't married by 30, they will simply adopt a child because motherhood is one of life's stages that they want to go through, with or without a guy. And there are others who go as far as rejecting their own culture and race simply because the minority have always been portrayed unfavourably in American media.
On the other hand... There isn't a starbucks in Italy because the people there are so proud about their strong coffee culture and quality, they refused to support Starbucks and the company had to close its only store there.
So, don't push all the blame to Cultural Imperialism. There are still places that remain untainted by it and it's entirely up to every individual to decide if they are willing to accept this imperialism.
Cultural imperialism has indeed serve its purpose to open up gateway in traditional culture. The things that we were not aware of are exposed and through this we actually gain knowledge from it. Last time, during our forefather's generation, many of them just worked as they were told as they did not know what was right or wrong, what was good or evil. Only the educated did well. They were more exposed and thus, giving them a head start. We got to give credit to that at least if not we might still be blinded by our ignorance.
ReplyDeleteHowever, like you said, there are the negative side too. Like for example, children think that violence is normal because it is shown on television (repeated exposure). Or bullying another person is cool because it makes me looks cool. There are a lot of other examples too but at the end of the day, I feel that every person has a choice to make whether to learn the good thing or the bad thing from it.