[Reading Assignment 2] What is the relation between culture and globalization?

 

There is no doubt that the development of technology has also globalized the cultural realm. However, we need to think a little bit about whether "culture" is a complete "culture." The beginning is what culture is. According to the dictionary, culture is a major form of behavior or symbolic structure of a society. However, it is virtually difficult to define culture in one sentence, because culture has various meanings according to discourse. In the West, the word ‘culture’ comes from the Latin word ‘cultus’, which means cultivation or cultivation. In a broad sense, culture can mean things that humans have created. Before international exchanges became active, culture was intertwined with regional characteristics. However, technological advances have gone beyond the limits of the region. While the unique cultures of each society still remain, globalization of culture continues to progress. The globalization of culture, what a wonderful word to look at. But, really?    

Let's look at a representative example of the globalization of culture. A day of eating McDonald's, watching Hollywood movies and drinking Starbucks coffee is familiar to us. We can find one feature here. McDonald's, Hollywood, and Starbucks are all American brands. It is not a natural fusion of cultures from various regions, but a structure in which other countries accept cultures from large capitalist countries such as the United States. Scholars call it 'cultural imperialism.' Capital infiltrated the cultural sector and created the cultural industry. Large capital took control of the mass media, gained economic benefits, and destroyed the culture of underdeveloped countries, bringing about the uniformity of culture. All this is a multinational corporation's strategy to generate consumption in accordance with capitalist logic. Given the black-and-white logic of whether the globalization of culture has had a positive or negative impact on the development of the earth, it is hard to say that it is positive, given what we have seen so far. However, it was not entirely negative. There is also the advantage that positive consciousness such as democracy and equality of men and women in Western society is transmitted to the Third World. Therefore, it is necessary to balance yourself and look at the globalization of culture.

 

The most important thing that I thought about the globalization of culture was how to integrate it by protecting our own culture without being unilaterally eroded by Western culture. In the "Declaration of World Cultural Diversity," there is Article 11 of the establishment of cooperative relations between the public and private sectors and civil society. If culture is left to the private sector only, it is difficult to guarantee cultural diversity according to market logic, so state intervention is necessary. It is not that there was no cultural policy in Korea. However, the budget was not big enough, so it didn't make much progress. There was no continuity, even as cultural policies changed every time the government changed. Therefore, it is hoped that the government in the future will achieve a continuous policy that can maintain our unique culture and promote it to the world.

Meanwhile, I thought about the increasingly changing sense of gender equality as our country embraced Western culture. This is the case with the ‘Me Too’ movement, which has been a sensation in the world for some time. The movement, which started in the U.S., was able to take place in Korea as well because of SNS. I think this is a positive example of globalization of culture. In the past, Korea had severe gender discrimination due to Confucian ideas. However, it is changing day by day now. If you watch the drama that aired a few years ago now, there are some uncomfortable parts to watch now, depending on gender consciousness. This is not just a change in our country. A famous Indian actor even said that India is backward to women.  I think being able to say that is the beginning of change. FGM(Female Genital Mutilation) in Africa may also be a culture for them, but it could be publicized that there is a problem with globalization. In fact, in African Sudan, FGM was outlawed.

Source: Yonhap news

 

 The last thing I'd like to talk about together is how to preserve the country's own culture amid the globalization of the culture. Personally, I liked the modern interpretation of Korean traditional music, such as BTS Suga's Daechwita or the songs of the Leenalchi band.