East & Southeast Asia's Pop Culture: Historical Overview & Global Impact, Exercises of Japanese Language

Download East & Southeast Asia's Pop Culture: Historical Overview & Global Impact and more Exercises Japanese Language in PDF only on Docsity! 1 9 0 0 to P re se n t Asian financial crisis of 1997. Ramos’s successor was the movie actor Joseph Estrada, who turned out to be something of a joke and was impeached in 2001. !e outcome of the impeachment trial was incon- clusive, and when the Supreme Court declared the presidency vacant, the vice president, Gloria Maca- pagal-Arroyo, the daughter of Diosdado Macapagal, became president, serving a rather undistinguished term until Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, the son of former president Aquino and the martyred father, was elected president in May 2010. President Aquino had himself served nine undistin- guished years in Congress and three as an even more undistinguished senator. !e huge outpouring of grief at his mother’s death convinced politicos to run him for president. Despite this inauspicious begin- ning, President Aquino seems to be an honest person and his presidency shows some promise—going after, for example, big-time tax evaders. Filipinos, however, have, over the years, become rather disa"ected with their government and its corruption. Robert Lawless Wichita State University See Also: Japan; Women; World War II. Further Readings Martinez, David C. A Country of Our Own: Partitioning the Philippines. Los Angeles: Bisayá Books, 2004. Salonga, Jovito. Presidential Plunder: !e Quest for Marcos Ill-Gotten Wealth. Manila, the Philippines: Regina Publishing, 2001. Setsuho, Ikehata and Ricardo Trota Jose, eds. !e Philippines under Japan: Occupation Policy and Reaction. Quezon City, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1999. Wol", Leon. Little Brown Brother: How the United States Purchased and Pacified the Philippine Islands at the Century’s Turn. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961. Popular Culture Popular culture is an integral part of daily life through- out east and southeast Asia, and reflects the ethnic, linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic diversity of the region. Commercial popular culture has devel- oped fastest during peacetime, supported by media proliferation and the growth of market economies. It can be distinguished from elite and folk cultures by its relatively frivolous, consumerist, and ephemeral nature, the large size of its audiences, and its circula- tion through the mass media. Western popular cul- ture, although widespread, competes for attention with local pop industries, whose artists and products cross national boundaries and contribute to a sense of regional identity. Popular culture has been criti- cized in some countries for distracting citizens from concerns such as education and religion, and govern- ments have both censored and mobilized popular cul- ture to further their ideological goals. Popular culture produced in east and southeast Asia often reaches a global audience, and impacts the popular cultures of many parts of the world. Historical Overview In the first few decades of the 20th century, during which time most east and southeast Asian countries were either colonies of the West or Japan, or were involved in domestic and international conflicts, com- mercial popular culture was limited to large urban centers and treaty ports. Cities such as Shanghai and Tokyo provided access to newspapers, popular music, dance halls, and movie theaters. Elsewhere, particu- larly in rural areas, there was a continuation of folk traditions such as local operas, shadow puppet plays, song, and dance. By the 1950s and 1960s, many east and southeast Asian nations had begun to develop their own popular culture industries. Countries with authoritarian governments (Vietnam, North Korea, China, Cambodia) or in a state of political transition (Indonesia, Burma) were exceptions, where repres- sion and strict media control limited the development of popular cultures. !e modern history of east and southeast Asian popular culture begins with the end of political and military upheavals such as the Vietnam War and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and a gradual thawing of diplomatic relations from the late 1970s to the 1990s. Widespread cultural liberalization, improvements in living standards, and a rise in incomes meant that there was a wider range of popular culture on o"er, and people could a"ord to spend more on leisure and entertainment. Popular culture phenomena were able Popular Culture 345 1 9 0 0 t o P re se n t to move more freely across national borders: Taiwan- ese singer Teresa Teng performed in multiple lan- guages and was adored throughout Asia; Singaporean singers Zhang Xiaoying and Lena Lim were big hits in Malaysia; and Japanese anime, television dramas, computer games, and karaoke became lucrative cul- tural exports. Since the 1990s, the region has experienced a bur- geoning of media channels, continued urbanization and economic growth, and close interaction with other parts of the world. Popular culture has flour- ished accordingly, and now circulates widely, and often globally, through all media. Cultural Flows !e pervasiveness of Western popular culture is com- mon to most east and southeast Asian nations. Korea was Asia’s biggest importer of Hollywood movies in the 1920s and 1930s; !ailand was an avid consumer of American film musicals in the 1950s; hits by the Bea- tles and Frank Sinatra have long resounded in karaoke clubs from Mongolia to Vietnam; and each Harry Pot- ter novel was eagerly anticipated in the 2000s. Some Western pop culture has been more successful in this region than at home. Danish band Michael Learns to Rock has won millions of Asian fans with its easy-lis- tening rock songs and American saxophonist Kenny G’s song “Going Home” can be heard across China on trains and in shopping centers at closing time or the end of long journeys. Western popular culture’s reach into east and southeast Asia has met with varying responses. Some have condemned its corrosive influence upon local traditions, considering as a hindrance to the develop- ment of national culture. People in the Philippines, for example, bemoan the “hamburgerization” of Fili- pino culture and daily life. American fast-food joints are popular across east and southeast Asia, enticing patrons with their Western-style decor, free Internet access, collectable gifts, and sociable atmosphere. !e infiltration of Western popular culture has resulted in many hybrid cultural forms and practices. Burmese rock (“stereo”) features Western pop mel- odies set to Burmese lyrics; Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou mixes hip-hop beats and aesthetics with refer- ences to traditional Chinese and Taiwanese culture; and British television formats such as Pop Idol have been adopted in many countries, including Indone- sia, Vietnam, and Singapore. Regionally produced popular culture is often funded by transnational capital and targets multiple audi- ences. Japanese popular culture was the most widely consumed during the 1980s and 1990s, although its popularization was hindered in some countries by anti-Japanese sentiment stemming from the country’s colonial past. More recently, South Korean pop songs and television dramas, known as the Korean Wave, have become hugely popular throughout Asia. Both South Korea and Japan are known for their productive popular culture industries, which churn out commer- cial pop acts like Korean boy bands Super Junior and Mandarin-speaking Super Junior M, and all-female Japanese supergroup Morning Musume. Countries with smaller populations, less a#uent pop industries, or which are seen as less fashionable, tend to be big- ger importers than exporters of popular culture. 346 Popular Culture Asian popular culture has spread worldwide, as evidenced by this Hello Kitty float in a 2010 parade in Santiago, Chile.