Cultural Imperialism
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Cultural Imperialism
Cultural imperialism is always with a certain apprehension that the problem of imperialism is approached. This generic concept has too often been used with ill-defined meaning (Tomlinson, 2001). This misconception has come about because the cultural critics have pointed out that the Western powers were trying to impose their values on others through political and economic control, in order to weaken the resistance of the imperialism expansion. And it is likely that the domestic culture will be eliminated by the invasion of Western culture.
Since the Renaissance, European powers have cultivated various cultural exchange programs. For example, British enforced to send its own culture to India and the Middle East “as a powerful tool to strengthen trade, commerce, and political influence and recruit elites for their own purposes” (Gienow-Hecht, 2006).
As time goes on, cultural critics began to focus their criticism on the United States. As everyone knows, hip-hop is often presented as an American musical culture that has exploded across the world. The reason perhaps is that “its street cultural and largely improvised origin, rap appears to be particularly conducive to the process of cultural reterritorialization” (Pritchard, 2009). As hip-hop culture has made “great invasions” into popular culture worldwide, it is easy to overlook the importance of the local cultural forms.
Whats more, many politicians and cultural critics around the world lament the gross invasion of U.S. movies nowadays. European representatives thought about their cultural will be dispersed and concerned that they have already lost lots of their audience to American products (Gienow-Hecht, 2006). Therefore, those European countries have to constantly explore the road to promote the domestic film industry.
However, cultural imperialism could also be understood that the public is initiate to or willing to receive foreign culture. Besides, a better understanding of the culture will not only develop over time, but also move with the times, “with reciprocal influence from other cultures, rather than one nation or people changing another one” (Gienow-Hecht, 2006). Thus, instead of assuming that changes are bad, please assume we will benefit from cultural diversity.
The profit margin of most American TV programs, especially Hollywood films, depends on the foreign market. Moreover, the affected country usually has some policies or incentives, which encouraged practitioners to adopt foreign technology and the corresponding software (Crabtree & Malhotra, 2000). More importantly, the appropriate operation of the local distributor can benefit the audience and sponsors. The audiences have more choices at a better price.
John Tomlinson, an American sociologist, argues that the loss of local cultures may similarly be caused