Cultural Diplomacy

I think Martha Bayle's article "The Return of Cultural Diplomacy" makes a good point about American pop culture in countries around the world and whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Being a foreigner to the United States I have experienced the impact of its entertainment in another country. I understand how watching shows like CSI and Desperate Housewives can cause a negative perception about Americans. I would like to think that people aren’t naïve enough to believe that Americans really live these lifestyles. However, those who have never been to America have no reason to not believe; this is the entertainment America is sending them about themselves, so why not believe it?

I think spreading jazz music during the cold war probably did help cultural diplomacy at the time. However, American popular culture is different now than it was back then. Music like rap contains a lot of profane lyrics, and the TV shows and movies have many unrealistic storylines that may confuse foreigners about what Americans are really like. I enjoy American music, TV shows, and movies. However, the majority of people around the world, especially in Muslim countries may not. Therefore, I think for entertainment purposes American pop culture is great. However, I personally don’t believe it's a good source for cultural diplomacy because a lot of the time popular culture is not a realistic representation of that society.

In regards to the ethnography presentations, one thing stood out for me and that's stereotyping. One of the issues we had to address was the stereotypes we had about the cultural group. I think whenever were outsiders to a cultural group we will have preconceived notions about them. Therefore, I think this may affect our judgment about them especially when doing a project like this. This is definitely something that I will be paying attention to while working on my project.

Responses to Some of the Cultural Diplomacy Readings

In response to one of the articles that we had to read for last week, “The Return of Cultural Diplomacy,” I think that they tend to underemphasize the impact that U.S. cultural products have. In one section of the article, they remark on how U.S. cultural products have been declining in popularity in certain areas of the world. However, I would argue that although some media forms that are exclusively in English are declining in popularity, the stories and structures of many of these media products are still spreading in use and have been effective in spreading American ideals. I know that a few years ago when I was on a student exchange trip in Russia, I was sitting in my host family’s kitchen when I suddenly heard a familiar tune wafting in from the living room. When I walked into the living room, I saw that most of the family was watching a Russofied version of the once popular show, “The Nanny.” The plotline was exactly the same as the American version, and the only big difference was that the characters spoke Russian.

Now, this Russofication of “The Nanny” might not necessarily spread American values or act as a form of cultural diplomacy, but its success shows that American products are still viable (albeit in different forms) in many parts of the world. The article also failed to talk about the success of a variant of “American Idol” in the Middle East. This show, unlike the example used above, does promote American values by giving usually disenfranchised people the chance to practice voting when they choose their favorite candidates on the T.V. show. Other shows that the article also failed to mention includes the show “Friends,” which was popular in Egypt and which is very popular in China now, which gives common people a largely positive view of the United States.

One more comment that I would like to make is in regard to the article about the Confucian centers being set up around the world to promote a positive view of China. Not only are these centers largely used to promote learning only the Chinese language (a shortcoming the article mentions), but also I believe the Chinese are going about cultural diplomacy all the wrong way. Confucian centers are limited in their ability to reach the general populace, and act more like a plethora of small embassies than anything else. If the Chinese want to be able to change a nation’s views on China, I believe that they will have to create cultural products like those produced by American companies now. I believe that this is the most viable form of cultural diplomacy because inherent in selling any product is taking into account local tastes and interests, thereby ensuring the widespread consumption of the cultural product. If a product is not widely consumed, no matter how effective it is on the few people who consumed the product, then the product is an inefficient use of resources.

What Do Culture and Cultural Diplomacy Mean to You?

I really enjoyed watching the first two ethnography presentations and seeing what cultural group they looked at. Both were interesting because they looked more at a cultural space, rather than a specific cultural group. This made me realize how hard it is to find a clearly defined cultural group. Even groups like Jewish people or Mexicans are not as obviously defined as we might think. There are some people that do not consider themselves part of the group, although they may fit all the criteria. For example, is a student that was raised Jewish, but does not agree with the religion’s beliefs considered part of the cultural group or not? What about someone who is not of Mexican heritage, but has lived in Mexico since they were a child, are they considered Mexican? This goes back to the topic of culture that we talked about in the beginning of the year. What is culture? How can we define it? These ethnography projects reaffirm that culture has many different meanings for many different people.

This connects to our readings about cultural diplomacy. I think that there are so many disagreements about what cultural diplomacy should involve because cultural itself is so hard to define. What aspects of our lives as Americans can be considered our culture, and what parts of this “culture” do we want to share with others? Part of the issue with cultural diplomacy may be that there have only been serious efforts to export American pop culture, but this is only a small part of who we are. We need to try to show the world the more meaningful side of our culture, rather than just violent movies and pop music.

Its the Culture, Stupid

It is the culture, stupid. It always has been.

As a currently applicant for a Boren Scholarship, a Fulbright one-day-hopeful, and engaged student of International Studies, cultural diplomacy and the idea that communication through non-political means can bring about change from the inside of rigidly anti-American societies is my raison d'etre.

However, the conference we attended two weeks ago, and this article, highlight the importance of what has in the lag 1970s Moscow st decade been considered a diplomatic relic of the Cold War. This is abhorrent. What makes the story of Voice of America antiquated?

Dr. Schneider's article echos my sentiments exactly.

I encourage interested classmates to also read this Foreign Affairs article, which underscores many of the same sentiments: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/print/59359

On Gross National Cool

I found the 2002 Foreign Policy Article on Japan’s Gross National Cool intriguing, in how challenge us to reconsider the economic prerequisite for pervasive and persuasive international soft power.

The article highlights that in the 1980s, when Japan was at the peak of its 30 year climb from post-war destruction, its cultural influence on the rest of the world was minimal. Even though full employment and national pride were abundant, the country could not seem to reach out to foreign markets. The author of the article proffers that since Japan’s population was much older, youth culture and new ideas had no voice.

Now with an embattled economy, and the value of its much younger population—aptly deemed ‘child kings,’ Japan has found a way to become a regional and larger international influence. Nike, Sony, and Hello Kitty are examples of Japan’s success, and even though the countries hard infrastructure and economic portfolio have a loose footing, Japan has found a way to circumvent traditional power norms with mere aesthetics

Japan is obviously the greatest globalization success story, but maybe bits and pieces of its recent history could be adapted to the less powerful, fledgling democracies of the world. Maybe with a small amount of aid they can develop small a small infrastructure that can support. a niche into the international consciousness.

Hip-Hop Ya Don't Stop

After reading "Cultural Diplomacy: It's the Culture, Stupid" I now realize how much of a role the media plays in our perceptions of other ethnicities, religions, and cultures. In fact, I never really would have thought that media and culture would play such a large part in relations and perceptions of people in other countries. As far as media goes, I think it is really important for everyone, especially Americans, to understand how important the potrayal of cultures are. Our minds and opinions are so easily shaped around the images that we see on the television and in movies. It seems that whomever is our political enemy is, whether it be the Russians during the Cold War, or Middle Eastern Muslims during the post-September 11th period, they are also our cultural enemy, best represented in television and movies. There are very few examples that I can give where a Middle Eastern person is the protagonist in a movie or television episode, whereas I can give countless examples of Middle Easterners as "the bad guys."

However, culture and media can have a positive effect on cultural relationships as well. In the article by Cynthia Schneider she says that people in Egypt based their opinions off of the television show, "Friends." In this aspect, we can use media as an advantage to further our political and cultural aims across the world. We can show other countries that all Americans are not filthy rich money grubbers and power hungry tyrants. In the same aspect, Schneider claims that hip-hop and jazz can bring our different cultures together because everyone can identify with a similar struggle. We are not so different from Russians and Middle Easter Muslims, and we can used culture and media to bring us close together and further our understanding of each other.

Public Diplomacy Conference and the East Asian Wave

One topic discussed at the Cultural Diplomacy conference that I found interesting was if public diplomacy should be government mandated or something separate from the government. When people think of the U.S. government's relations with other countries they often think of things like wars, treaties or negotiations, but many forget the use of soft power can be just as important. If American can change its image and reception abroad through this kind of diplomacy, there may not be the need for hard power negotiations.

I think that the government should provide support for cultural diplomacy (through money, travel, contacts, etc.), but that these cultural diplomats certainly need not be members of the government. As the speakers at the conference talked about, ambassadors to the U.S. can be anyone from famous basketball players to dancers to study abroad students. In many ways these person to person relations can build much stronger connections than government to government relations can. As successful friendships and partnerships are built between Americans and citizens in other countries their views of America will hopefully begin to become more positive and in turn these positive images will spread throughout the country.

On a different, but somewhat related note, I think that the reading "The rising East Asian 'Wave'" could provide a framework of cultural diplomacy that America could follow. Rather than trying to spread its influence through policies, the South Korean government used pop culture and cultural diplomacy to spread the popularity of Korean culture. Korea took the stars of the country's most popular TV shows and music groups and transformed them into ambassadors of Korean culture. Now Korea TV shows and music are hugely popular throughout East Asia. This export of pop culture has created more tourism at home and also a better image of Korea abroad. America would be smart to follow this example.

Cultural Diplomacy and Disney's Appeal Abroad

I am still a little confused about the driving force behind cultural diplomacy and whether it is a coordinated effort by the government or simply a consequence of one country’s culture interacting with another. For example, there has been discussion in class about the ‘Korean wave’ and how the Korean government has sought to expand the demand of its cultural industries abroad. Although done for economic reasons, this cultural expansion abroad has led to increasingly favorable views about Korea in surrounding countries. This stands in stark contrast to American pop culture, which is primarily promoted by large, American multinational media conglomerates that produce cultural products in the U.S. with the express intent of selling the same content abroad. Thus, these media conglomerates facilitate cultural diplomacy by distributing American cultural products all around the world. Whether this has led to favorable views of the U.S. or not is debatable, but what is important is that the U.S. government has been largely hands-off when it comes to promoting American culture abroad.

Putting this issue aside for the moment, I would like to comment on one of the articles we had to read for last week. I thought the article pertaining to the movie, Mulan, was particularly interesting because it shows how multinational media conglomerates like Disney repackage other’s cultures for American (and others) consumption. In the case of Mulan, Disney took a Chinese myth, applied some Disneyfication, and produced a brand new story that blended several facets of American and Chinese culture. And, while the article focused on this blending of two different cultures to produce an entirely new cultural product, I found Disney’s Mulan movie an example of the company’s earlier attempts to produce a cultural product that could appeal to universal values.

I think it is interesting to note how the most famous Disney movies today are produced by Pixar, which, with the exception of The Incredibles, uses characters that are not human. By removing people from the equation entirely, I see Disney taking its original goal of trying to make a universally loved product to a whole new level. Sure many of the locales and stories have an American flavor (the movie Cars comes to mind), but the fact that they utilize non-human characters makes them just that much easier to love by a diverse group of people. This is relevant to the debate that came up at the beginning of the class which talked about values as being relative or universal. Given Disney’s success and its use of non-human characters, then, I would argue that Disney has found certain universal values that it can market to throughout the world.

Russian Culture-Cultural Diplomacy

I honestly had no expectations for the panel on cultural diplomacy that we saw on Thursday. To be fair, I wasn't even sure what cultural diplomacy was at the time. Through this class, however, I have come to understand that culture and perceptions are very important in relationships among nations. I thought the man spoke specifically on Russian culture was extremely interesting and informative. I think it is important for us to understand how other nations value their own culture, what they think of our culture, and what they think our views of their culture are.

It's important to point out what the Russians think about their own culture. It is not apparent to Americans that Russians value their culture so highly, and when we fail to appreciate it as much as they think we should, that causes problems between us. I, for one, have even been to Russia and did not realize that Russians value their culture so much. Unfortunately, however, Russia is not alone in their perceptions of Americans. The general consensus for many nations seems to be that all Americans are power-hungry and money-grubbing. This is why perceptions and cultural understanding is so important to international relations. We need to focus on cultural sensitivity as well as what our actions are being perceived as.

Popular Culture Around The World

I thought the discussion about popular culture was very interesting, especially the way it differs among cultures. Back home we pretty much watch the same shows that air here. People have gotten as addicted to Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, and Lost as people in the US.

I have to admit I got a bit excited when we started discussing Star Academy and the TV series Noor, even though I never watched either one of them. I remember when I was in high school and Star Academy first started. People went crazy. And with good reason I believe; it was the first time a show like that happened in the Middle East. I personally would have been more likely able to tell you who won American Idol, but the majority of people in Middle East were able to relate to this show more. The same goes for Noor. Turkey had been doing their own TV shows for some time. Noor was the first show that got dubbed in Arabic and it became a huge hit. It also led to a lot more Turkish TV shows being played in the Arab World. I think the reason people loved it so much was because they could relate to it.

A lot of controversies followed both TV shows. Star Academy was based in Lebanon which is a somewhat more liberal country than others in the Middle East. However, many religious figures thought it was an outrage that both the girls and guys were living in one house. I actually remember my grandmother commenting on it too. Also, they didn’t approve of the way some girls dressed on the show. But I don’t find it surprising; I guess it just kinda comes with the territory.

In addition to younger people watching the American TV shows, there are many Arabic soap operas that are extremely popular. I believe it is because they can simply relate to it more than they would with Gossip Girl, for example. When Noor became popular, tourism definitely increased in Turkey, like Professor Hayden mentioned. I personally know people that wanted to go see the house were the show was filmed. I also remember my dad telling me how some woman went so far as wanting to get married there.

All in all, I think entertainment, whether its TV or music, or popular culture in general exists all over the world. However, I think people view things differently, and therefore it can differ depending on what people would relate to or simply like.

Fighting Back Against American Pop Culture

One thing I find interesting is that it is viewed differently around the world. It is undeniable that American pop culture has a worldwide influence, but many countries, especially ones whose culture is very different from American culture, are beginning to fight back. This can be seen in Korea, with Hallyu and the growing popularity of Korean cultural exports in much of Asia. These countries are rejecting the influence of America, and instead seeking pop culture references that more closely reflect their own lifestyles. Unlike American pop stars, the stars of Hallyu recognize their position as ambassadors for Korean culture and they make a conscious effort to portray Korea in a positive light and to reach out to fans in other countries. These stars even learn the languages of countries where they have a large fan base so when they perform there they can sing in the native language and make a connection with the fans. This mutual appreciation is not something you see in American pop culture.

Another example is the news broadcaster Al Jazeera in the Arab world. Rather than allowing their news to come from an American station like CNN where the news is designed for American, not Arab audiences, Al Jazeera was created as a regional source of news. Now Arabs can hear their news from a network that understands their culture and knows what they are interested in hearing about. Regional media and production centers are being built all over the world to allow countries to create movies and TV shows that reflect their own culture, rather than American culture.

When talking about these topics in class, I remembered hearing about a similar movement that is going on in France, relating to French radio stations. In 1994, the French government passed a law saying that 40% of the music played on all radio stations must be French-language. This law was passed in response to fears that French culture was being diminished by the infiltration of a large amount of American music on French radio stations. To help make this law possible, the government also urged French record companies to increase their production of French music that would appeal to the young generation and compete with the popularity of American rock music. This once again illustrates how countries around the world are fighting back against the influence of American pop culture and trying to create their own brand of pop culture that will eventually have a global influence.

Ahh, Globalization of Culture

I grew up in rural/suburban Pennsylvania, where the difference in cultures is not very wide-spread. Neither of my parents have ever been out of the country and neither of them really have the desire to do so. I'm not saying that given the opportunity to venture out in to the world, that they wouldn't do it, but both of them are quite content with the way things are in York, Pennsylvania. I, on the other hand, have always been intrigued by different cultures and countries. Ever since I was little, I always enjoyed different cultures, languages, and trying ethnic food. Therefore, given the opportunity to venture outside America, I took it.

During my senior year of high school, instead of attending my senior homecoming, I was taking a tour of a Soviet Siberian political prison. I was given the chance to go on a mission trip with my church to Moscow and Tyumen (Siberia), Russia. This opportunity gave me the chance to experience a country and culture completely different from my own. One of the things I remember telling everyone when I returned was that I couldn't believe how many TGIFridays I saw in Russia. Then, last semester, I was given another opportunity to experience another culture for an extended period of time. During the spring semester of 2009, I spent over four months living in Prague, Czech Republic. I think I was even more intimidated to venture to Prague that I was when I went to Russia, only because this time, I was travelling alone.

However, when I landed at the Ruzyne airport in Prague, I was greeted with signs in English and Czech and massive advertisements for KFC and McDonalds. Then, throughout the semester I was constantly surrounded by "Americanness." I couldn't escape the musical talents of Katy Perry and Lady GaGa. The television, of course, had its Czech channels, but there was not a time when I couldn't find "America's Next Top Model," MTV spitting out the latest (and not-so-latest) American and English music, and American-made movies dubbed in Czech.

I loved my time abroad in Russian and the Czech Republic, but I can't help but wonder what the time spent in these countries would have been like without all the American influence. Would it have been much different or would it have been surprisingly similar?

A Short Anecdote about Popular Culture

Last week I was working busily at my desk at my internship, and decided to do something bold.

My desk is located directly across from the office of a former ambassador to the Middle East, who writes and edits for our magazine. Everyday since I have started, our dialogue has been minimal--"hey," "hello," and that's pretty much it. My desk is also located close to the coffee machine, an area of the office he frequents. For my own selfish reasons--the fact that I am applying for three National Scholarships and could use the recommendation--I decided that I should enhance our discourse and strike a conversation.

He is in his late 50s, I am 19. He is from the Deep South, and grew up on a farm. I grew up in South Jersey and entered the work force at a Cold Stone Creamery in a strip mall. He has negotiated the trade of oil and prisoners between hostile governments. I, well, have not.

Last week as the ambassador was pouring himself some coffee, and said to, seeing that I was eating a black and white cookie and said "That looks good." Now what I could have said was "It is thank you." But what I did say was:

"The key to eating a black and white cookie is you want to get some black and some white in each bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate. And yet, still, somehow racial harmony eludes us."

I quoted Seinfeld.

Bold, right? Now, quoting Seinfeld is second nature to me, but I think I should have caught it and stopped myself in the work place, this could have backfired horribly. In my defense, I was overtired and had spent the entire night studying for an economics exam I had taken that morning. However, his response was surprising.

"If people would only look to the cookie," completing the quote.

We both laughed and, like the pivotal moment in every episode of House*, I had an mini-epiphany. Popular culture is really the preeminent forum for people with wide disparities of personal experience to connect with one another and communicate. Although me and the ambassador both speak English, are both working and living in Washington, DC, and are both interested in United States foreign policy in the Middle East, without the help of Jerry Seinfeld I would not have made this connection.

*any anecdote about popular culture should not be without its own reference.

Good Citizens and Wikipedia

For this past week’s discussion, I found two different concepts particularly interesting. The first topic that I found interesting was the idea that people often spend more time watching T.V. than participating in local organizations. Although I had been aware that people often do not care about what happens in local situations (given how low local voting turnouts usually were), I had never really considered what the implications of this situation were. For instance, I imagine that many people who watch television spend a lot of their time watching entertainment shows or the national news. This is not necessarily a bad thing, except that the time spent watching these programs could be time spent on improving the local community. Now, I am not advocating that people drop all of their leisure activities to work on improving the local community, because that is unrealistic and people should have time to unwind. However, I feel like these activities that occur on the television push many people to neglect issues that might be facing the community. So, people that are engrossed with their television every night might be really concerned about the Iraq war, instead of worrying about the credentials of local candidates running for office. Thus by being good national citizens in being aware of national issues, these same people are neglecting their duties as local citizens in not properly serving their community.
The other topic that I found interesting this past week was the issue of media convergence. The anecdote about the differences between the quality of the Star Wars movies and the Lord of the Rings movies was a good one, because a lot of parts about the former were lacking when compared to latter. Now I know one of the big reasons why this was the case. I think this is interesting because this appears to be a classic case of how self-proclaimed ‘professionals’ pretend to know what is ‘better’ than people part of the average community. Although I am sure many experts are far more qualified to speak about a variety of issues than is the every day person, I still think there are some areas where experts should not pretend to be so high and mighty.
I feel a good example of this is Wikipedia. For just about every single class that I have taken here at AU, without fail, I have had a professor tell me that I should not use Wikipedia. They are always equipped with the story of how they found some article that was grossly inadequate, that the information can be tampered with by ‘just about anybody,’ and that because it is not maintained by professional scholars it can not be a trusted source. I know that anybody can change the content on the pages but I do not believe the information on the site is as terrible as some professors make it out to be. I know that a lot of students and professors alike go to Wikipedia as a good starting point for research, and that even Supreme Court justices visit the site to get themselves acquainted with particular topics for cases. I also think that in many ways, Wikipedia is superior to other encyclopedias. Wikipedia is constantly being updated so that it contains the latest information, which is something no printed encyclopedia can accurately claim. And, I would bet that the few pieces of information on Wikipedia that are wrong are often corrected in a short amount of time so that the whole issue is just really overblown. Academics should not be annoyed/scared that people without visible degrees are encroaching on their intellectual territory, but should instead embrace this high-minded project more readily.