Cultural Imperialism: An Adequate Approach to a Complicated World?

In class we had a debate as to weather or not the argument of cultural imperialism is an adequate approach to studying the current state of our world, particularly with regards to the seeming American domination of global media and culture. It was a very productive and animated discussion which brought up many interesting and opposing points. However, after considering both sides of the debate, I have concluded that cultural imperialism is not an adequate approach to thinking about our world. Today's world culture is far too complex and integrated to simply use an overarching theory 'cultural imperialism' to attempt to explain all of the cultural and economic relationships. While aspects of cultural imperialism can be observed in some aspects of world culture, it by no means provides a definitive outlook on an ever changing and complicated world.

In our debate, it seemed as though people were interchanging the two separate ideas of cultural imperialism and globalization. McDonald's is a good corporation to study because although it began as an American company, it has now evolved into something much more global. It is too easy to say that because people eat at McDonald's in China, that they are being exposed to cultural imperialism from America. The fact is that McDonald's is now a global corporation which is taking advantage of advances in global communications in order to expand its business to as many parts of the world as possible. In fact, talking about the glocalization theory we discussed in class, these so-called American products are actually undergoing a transformation as they enter a new culture. Glocalization occurs when a product is altered to reflect the culture of a specific region. For example, McDonald's in China actually offer Chinese food and McDonald's in India offer Halal meat. Is a person sitting in a Miky D's in China eating local Chinese food and talking about Chinese issues being affected by American imperialism? It would be closer to imperialism if the American menu remained, however as it stands, each McDonald's restaurant is a franchise owned by a native local who can choose to offer local foods and decorations and is able to bring jobs and income into whichever area it resides in.

In our debating team, we discussed how other cultures often borrow American cultural frameworks, and simply input their own cultural attributes. For example, we discussed Bollywood and how they have made many so-called remakes of American movies. An advocate of cultural imperialism would argue that this provided a definite example of cultural imperialism at work. However, if a person were to study these remakes, they would not find anything familiar or American about it. They would find a film filmed in the Hindi language, with Hindu actors, in an Indian context (and supposedly much Indian singing and dancing). There might be some slight similarities in the way the plot is organized, however the overall impression is that of a distinctly Indian production promoting Indian values and culture.

The middle eastern 'Razann' dolls are another great example. While it may seem like these dolls are nothing but barbie imitations with traditional Muslim clothing and that this is another example of cultural imperialism, this is indeed not the case. People have been playing with dolls throughout human history and therefore does not necessarily represent America or American entertainment. Furthermore, even if the idea for these dolls came out of the desire to copy the commercially successful barbie, the fact remains that they are dressed as traditional middle eastern women and so represent a glocalization of the local culture.

It is important to remember that when dealing with cultural exchanges, there is a two way flow of information. For example, since Canadian's tend to love shopping for household goods at Ikea, does that mean that we are being subjected to Swedish cultural ideals which are degrading our Canadian culture? It is true that American media has tended to dominate the global culture, however that is because they have tradtioally had the most advanced networks of communication and distribution. Today, more and more countries are becoming technologically advanced and so are able to spread their cultural products just as the United States has been doing for decades. As the world continues to become more globalized, this two way flow of communication will only increase and we will see a more even distribution of world culture.

Cultural Imperialism makes sense on a macro level. One could say that American media and corporations are dominated global culture and that local cultures are being reduced. However, looking more closely at these situations and it becomes apparent that there is more at work than just a passive consumption of American products. Audiences are active, and they will engage with products and transform them in the process. It is naive to assume that they will sit back and be completly taken in by American culture.

In conclusion it can be said that while American culture has tended to dominate the global market, this is not in fact cultural imperialism, but simply globalization. Thus far, it has been American media and corporations that have had the means of creating extensive distribution networks and so have become prevalent throughout the world. However in most cases, the products have been transformed in the process and have incorporated many aspects of the local cultures in question. It is easy to say that the infusion of American products and culture into other cultures around the world is an example of American cultural imperialism, but in fact the argument is not so cut and dry. Foreign cultures have used American culture for their own purposes just as America has borrowed from other cultures. However, just because this exchange has traditionally been slightly one-sided, this does not imply cultural imperialism and it is not an adequate approach to studying a comlicated world.

Entertainment Media as a Record of Recorded History

Documented popular entertainment culture often provides some of the best sources of history in our world. Sources of entertainment often contain hidden or subtle meanings which are representative of certain ideologies or agendas of the time period of which they are a part of and therefore can be studied and analyzed in order to tease out these deeper meanings.

Historians do not always tell the whole story, especially if telling the whole story would be contradictory to the popular ideologies of the time. For example a historian during the cold war would not become very popular if they began to point out all of the problems which Capitalist America was causing as a result of their overly consumeristic habits. Indeed, that historian would probably be labeled a 'commie' and would not receive his or her research grant the following year. That being said, a content analysis of the popular entertainment of the time can provide an avenue for finding trends which were not explicitly stated during the time being studied.

Doing a content analysis of Disney's Latin American oriented films provides a means of uncovering some of the hidden meanings present in these seemingly helpful and innocent educational films. Put into historical context, these films were created at a time during the Second World War when America was at war with many European and Asian countries and realized that they could not afford to make any more political or economic enemies. They saw Latin America as not only a place where they could hopefully find friends and allies, but also as a convenient location to set up industries which would provide an almost endless source of cheap labour.

Disney's series of films were intended to serve two main purposes. The first was to educate the American people on the subject of their neigbours to the South. Disney created his Latin American themed films at the bequest of the American government. One of the films included was The Three Caballeros which documented Donald Ducks playful romp through Mexico and Brazil and depicted these places as beautiful and full of life and energy. It really only highlighted the good aspects of each society and some parts almost came across as an advertisement for tourism. It seems that this film was intended to make the American people feel at ease about the friendship being created between their government and those of Latin America, regardless of the corrupt dictators with who the United States was forging friendships with at the time.

Propaganda has been used countless times as a means of altering the state of the general consensus in terms of mindset and ideology that it is no surprise to think of Disney's government initiated as a form of propaganda intended to influence the thinking of both the domestic Americans watching Donald Duck trump through Latin America, to those Latin American's themselves who were watching Disney's educational films. A historian during this time of intense political tension might not have accused the American government of trying to use propaganda to make its actions seem more favourable and expected to the public. However, a content analysis of the work from the perspective of the future can reveal the true colours and purpose of the said artistic or entertainment project. Much can be learned about the cultural, political and economic aspect surrounding Disney's series of Latin American themed films however, for the purposes of this argument, the point is that a researcher can in fact use such mediums as a provider of actual recorded history, capable of being studied academically.

Cartwright, Lisa and Goldfarb, Brian. "Cultural Contagion: On Disney's Health Education Films for Latin America". CMST 4D03: International Communication. McMaster Universty Custom Courseware 2008. 7-13.

Lucky Native English Speakers

People who speak English as their first language often forget how lucky they are that they conveniently are able to perfectly speak the world's most important language. English speakers take for granted the fact that they are fluent in the international language of business, the international language of computers, technology and the internet and the dominant language in mainstream television, music and books. English speakers can not imagine having to learn an entirely different language in order to become internationally successful in business, entertainment, or science.

Beginning with the domination of the British empire of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, and more significantly with their domination of the telegraph industry, English became widely spread and spoken in many parts of the world. Just as Britain began to lose it's foothold, thereby threatening the proliferation of English as an up and coming world language, the United States emerged as a new world superpower who conveniently for Britain, used English as their dominant language.

At the forefront of technological innovation, world commerce, and entertainment, the United States solidified the use of English as the worlds most popular and most widely spoken language. It remains the international language of communication and it is expected that by 2016, over 2 billion people will be learning or speaking it.

However, as the world economy begins to shift from West to East, Mandarin may be in a good position to shake the foundations of this English speaking empire. Currently by numbers, there are more people who actually speak mandarin and it is expected that this number will only continue to grow as the Asian economy becomes more and more important on the global stage. An interesting thought is expressed in the Thussu book when it suggests that the emerging global English of the future may have an Asian inflection to it.

Thussu, Daya Kishan. “The Historical Context of International Communication.” International Communication: Continuity and Change. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 163-166.


**Special Note**
This issue is especially important in my life as I will be traveling to Taiwan in May to teach English as a foreign language and learn Mandarin Chinese. My Uncle is head of languages at school of continuing studies at University of Toronto and has been studying Mandarin from the age of 7 years old. Currently my cousin lives in Shanghai where she has been living for 3 years working with an NGO (the Jane Goodall Foundation) and learning Mandarin Chinese.