Cultural Imperialism
According to Dictionary.Com, cultural imperialism is when a foreign viewpoint or culture is imposed on a group of people. In the other hand, Martin in his book defined it as the domination through the spread of cultural products. Among all cultures, Martin has emphasized on the domination of US culture and how fast it has spread throughout the world. Regardless of Hollywood movies or its music, English spoken movies and songs are being watched and listened worldwide.
Nevertheless, because “English” culture is too common and already has strong English foundation in many countries, I think the best example to illustrate the cultural imperialism is K-Pop. K is referring to Korea. While there is K-Pop in existence, there is also J-Pop, Japanese Pop. Two areas that K-Pop is dominating are music and drama. Although many of you still do not know about this culture, I am firm that this is one of the most widely spread culture at the moment. One of most popular boy band, Super Junior has been making a World Tour including United States. Before I came to United States, I always thought that only Asians are excited with K-Pop but I was strong. Recently I have met a Caucasian American, who has K-pop boy band posters all over her room. It was pretty amusing. What is more, those who are not native Koreans and are crazy with this culture mostly do not understand any single word that the Korean actors or singers are saying. They just fall for it without understanding it. This people include me. However, I would say after spending three years getting myself immersed in so-called K-Pop, I think I can speak and understand some Korean words already. Without realizing it, when I went to Korea last year, I felt so proud of myself when I suddenly realized that I could actually understand what they are saying!
In future, I am still looking forward which culture is going to dominate the world after K-pop. Even J-Pop is unable to make a big hit like K-Pop. Also, I also need to change my perception that Asian culture can only be popular among Asians. Furthermore, I also wish to meet other Americans who like K-Pop. What I want to know from them is that, how they can end up loving K-pop or maybe other cultures. Even if we do not share the same culture, we might end up liking same culture of other people.
Reference:
Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5th Edition ed). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill.
I think that in America and many other countries, it takes more effort to learn about popular culture that is not American. It is fun to learn about other popular cultures and can really improve your communication with people from other cultures.
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