According to Rantanen, 'cultural studies cannot be seen as either media- or audience-centred, but instead tends to consider the whole process of communication as a cultural process'( 2005,p.2) That is to say, the flows of cultural is not only a simple question of people changing information but also a process of how people passing those information.
I made a phone call with my uncle who is working in China and asking him how globalization influences him and what is the biggest influence to him.
He told me the most inflective thing is cultural. When he left school he still felt confused about the real world, he said he has lived in the small village for a long time. So he left he town and went to a big city. At there, it was the first time he saw a tram, high buildings and people rushed into the bused to work. In the city, he realized that not only Americans speak English, people live the way they like, not only for living, they enjoy lives.
After 10 years, He was not the young man who came to a big city and surprised by everything. He learnt to accept know things. He studied English and Japanese, and signed up a computer class, he went to different countries for traveling, even finished his MBA. And now, he plays golf almost everyday.
I asked him why he wants to learn these things, he said, because the world is changing. People are influenced by different cultural. He told me, the first time he went to Japan, he was surprised by a driver in their tour group. The driver is a Japanese man, who is 63 years old. He didn't know if it's legal in Japan to let such an old man to drive but he told me that old man was once a politician, but he felt tired with people intrigue against each other and choose to be a common person. He went to Africa and lived in the forest for half a month, he spent weeks riding a bike to the nearest sea from his house. My uncle told me he admired this old man and decided to learn more afar that.
My uncle said, globalization is an attractive changing after all. It leads you to a another and told you there is still a huge world waiting for you. It will show you the world little by little, but it never ends.
Cultural flow is a, addition of globalization and also an important part of globalization.
Linrong Li
Reference
Rantanen T, 2005, ' Theorizing media Globalization', The media and globalization, Sage, London, p.2
Hi, Linrong
ReplyDeleteYour blog is really interesting. As I am a Chinese, I have some same experience of the influence from globalization with your post, like cultural flow. Based on the frequently information flow, it is easy to gather other countries’ culture. Because of cultural flow, you have mentioned that your uncle studies English and Japanese, and Chinese students have English class since primary school. In fact, I really want to study Japanese, I have attracted by its culture, including tea ceremony, makeup, food, and etiquettes. However, it is hard for me to start the learning of foreign languages.
Thanks.
Yudi Gao