Md Mukhlesur Rahman Akand writes on age of K-Pop and McDonalisation
CULTURAL cringe, according to Australian literary critique AA Phillips,Ìý refers to devaluing or belittling one’s native culture and, at the same time, an inclination to admire and follow the foreign cultural trends and products as superior ones. Culture is the summation of peoples’ way of life and as such, it is a living, an ever-changing phenomenon, having a swirling and speeding type of characteristics in all its forms and manifestations.
Yet, some traits of a culture, better known in the parlance of cultural evolution as heritage, cannot be swept away by the whirlpool of change. They are inherited by members of the younger generation from their predecessors within a cultural context and given time requiring inter-generational transfer of both tacit and explicit knowledge relayed by storytelling, dialogues and customary practices throughout their lives. These heritage elements come in wider verities — music, the culinary tradition of food, attire, sport and social code of interaction, only a few to mention — which the bearers and practitioners of the elements take pride in. In other words, they possess it as an inherited asset. These are the source of their livelihood as well as links that bind them in social cohesion.
But the sense of cultural cringe begins to lurk in minds of the individuals when they find their own identity-defining cultural values and norms are beset with foreign intrusion. They discover time and again that their language, style and the mode of expression and presentation and long-drawn societal values do not match with time and emerging needs any longer. On the other side, the newer foreign and encroaching trends and the way of life are admired by peers and peoples alike to socially advancing themselves in terms of reputation and enhanced networking. It takes time but happens certainly with certain degree of confidentiality at first and, then over time, the individuals lose self-restraints and are swept away. They begin to witness the glorifying and gratifying nature of newer horizon in the dominant, encroaching culture.
In this age of globalisation, it is a matter of a few clicks of a mouse of one’s desktop or a swipe and touch game with a mobile phone to access to any culture with all alluring features and the way of life from different advanced nations. Besides, promotional contents of cultural elements like music, dance, food and beverage are handy in mass media today. Countries such as South Korea and the United States are attracting millions of the members of the Gen Z with pop music and dance. K-pop now does not know its boundary. Stars and groups such as BTS and Black Pink are irresistible idols for many millions of teenage girls and boys both in South Korea as well as throughout the world. A number of recent studies in the issue in Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and India have come up with evidences of teenage population’s increasing attachment and affiliation with the K-pop sub-culture, posing serious questions to national preservation and promotional efforts of the century-old cultural festivities, norms and values fostered through traditional culture.
On the other hand, consumerism is at its all-time height when it comes to name the fast food culture of the global food chain McDonalds. In fact, be it in desert or at sea, the east or the west, the cosy street-side restaurant or large resort-type place in the midst of the busiest city, a McDonald’s outlet has the right menu ready for you to relish and snug with your buddies. This sub-culture of overwhelming food consumerism catered by a giant business venture has let consumers lose their memory of the past culinary traditions of each native land.
As cultural heritage bearing and advancing largely relates to inter-generational practices and priorities, it might shed some light to understand how the state has facilitated the learning of the members of new generation in the country over the years. In Bangladesh, most of the visitors to the national museum and other cultural heritage sites come from a section of population that does not have easy access to or have not exposed themselves to foreign cultures and environment. Analysing data for the past 10 years, it has been found that only students from lower- to middle-income group families have some interest in knowing about the past of their country — its history, tradition, heritage, folk songs, dance and their way of life and products. And those who demonstrate very little interests in these aspects of the national identity are composed of sections of young members of society whose families are comparatively well off, are learners of certain schools and do enjoy a vast degree of freedom to choose and pick in their lives regarding food intake, dress-up, social gathering and the way of life. They are fans of the latest trends of the day — be it music, dance, movie, dress, hair style, junk food or ultra-dietary food habit of any K-Pop star.
It is a question of affordability as well. Those who can just have it. They find it all right to live and follow the foreign cultural values. But they unconsciously transmit a sense of alienation among those who cannot afford them. As a result, the sense of social inequality creeps deeper into the societal fabric that obviously weakens the social cohesion that is supposed to be stronger and more robust if cultural values and traditions are uniformly practised within society. The oft-talked young people’s migration from Bangladesh could be also understood from this perspective of cultural clash and cringe. Because when a section of people find it demeaning to observe and follow their native culture and, instead, it ushers them to new identity and life following the outlandish but more progressive culture that they opt for going out there to bask in it.
Now, it might sound too conservative to cling to one’s own home- grown, home-spun culture only. Too much pride in national culture might lock people up within a narrow boundary to live and die which would again be contradictory to the concept of free movement and widening the mind to welcome diversity. Moreover, history has witnessed with horror before and during the two world wars the annihilation to other cultures that the extreme nationalistic policy for cultural protection adopted and practised in some European and Asian countries. Global forum such as UNESCO and its Convention 2005 on the protection and promotion of diversity of cultural expressions encourages the member states to safeguard the diverse cultural elements of different communities living in a state. There is also a message to promote convergence in the diversity of cultural elements so that people come close to each other in need and cooperation but not limiting or belittling the multifaceted nature of the communities involved. The whole gamut of cultural preservation and promotional efforts needs to be balanced with an aim to promoting social cohesion both within a population and beyond its geographical boundaries. Because we, different people on earth, are bearers of varied colours and too much inclination towards the spirit of the globalisation of cultures and their convergence might end up making all of us look like zebras with no stripes on them.
Ìý
Md Mukhlesur Rahman Akand is a joint secretary to the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry.
