Culture

Watching and Hearing the Lines Blur

By Sean Nelson

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A common criticism of the globalization of culture today is that it ultimately erases difference and makes every culture more like every other culture. An issue such critics forget is that such cultural forces that we see today are hardly unique in history. In previous decades, anthropologists used to conceptualize of various nations' cultures as totally separate entities, almost as if they existed on different worlds. Today, it is more fashionable to focus on cultural change via cross-cultural interaction. However, just because a point of view is fashionable does not mean it is not true.

All art forms in any country are dependent on such cultural borrowing in order to incorporate the best elements from abroad to re-invigorate the arts at home. In some ways, music accomplishes this task most easily. As the composer Wu Zuqiang (吴祖强), formerly the Central Conservatory (中央音乐学院)'s director, said, "music is the least national of the arts. It crosses cultures more easily than anything else." With this quote in mind, I was pleased to read a recent article in The Washington Post about a performance of " Farewell My Concubine" (霸王别姬) at the China National Opera House sung in Mandarin Chinese but presented in the style of a European opera. Such a performance not only helps to introduce a foreign art form to a new market at a time when a growing number of educated youths are clamoring to hear more Western opera, but also helps to look at a 2,000-year-old Chinese story in a new light. In addition, as reported in The New York Times earlier this year, Western classical music recording labels are starting to look hopefully towards the Chinese market as sales lag in Western nations. The sounds of high culture are not the only Western sounds to find new life in China. Linkin Park has become rather popular and the Yeah Yeah Yeah and Trent Reznor of the Nine Inch Nails all have performed her successfully.

Such cross-cultural interaction is not only a one-way path, however. For instance, the respected Chinese artist Yue Minjun (岳敏君) has an exhibition of his art showing at the Queens Museum of Art in New York that runs until January 6th of next year. No film genre is more all-American than the Western. The last Western to win big at the Oscars was Brokeback Mountain, the touching and tragic story of love between two cowboys. Famously, the Brokeback Mountain's director who took home the Best Director Oscar was none other than Ang Lee (李安), whose new Chinese-language film Lust, Caution (色戒) is set to be the biggest moneymaker of the year in China. Similarly, Hong Kong's Wong Kar Wai (王家卫), whose newest film My Blueberry Nights (蓝莓之夜) was nominated for the Palme D'or (金棕榈奖) at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival (戛纳电影节), has become a darling of the independent film crowd in the United States. Stephen Chow (周星驰)'s films, especially Shaolin Soccer (少林足球) and Kungfu Hustle (功夫), have become popular in the United States, especially among those students of university age. The DVD's of these last two films are widely available in the major entertainment and electronics retail chains in the US, such as Best Buy.

Nearly a century ago, it was not uncommon to see theatrical adaptations of the American abolitionist novel Uncle Tom's Cabin performed in teahouses in China as an allegory for China's suffering under foreign imperialism. Every culture changes every other that it touches in unpredictable ways, especially in the arts. As such, the question of cultural ownership arises. One may ask, for instance, "are Zhang Yimou (张艺谋)'s films more Chinese or Western?" On the one hand he is a Chinese director working with stories set in Chinese history and has been chosen to direct the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. On the other hand, he has been accused of conforming to foreign tastes and will be working with Steven Spielberg to direct the opening and closing ceremonies. Does having a Chinese director make My Blueberry Nights a Chinese movie or does a Western cast make it a Western movie? Language is important to crafting a film and having its meaning be intelligible to the audience. However, a director does not shed one's life experiences and aesthetic values when they go abroad to make a film. While such questions may offend the sensibilities of many cosmopolitans, they should not be easily dismissed. National identities and cultures exist even if they are subject to change and outside influence. However, I cannot help but feel that such questions may become increasingly irrelevant to the point that generations from now, people may look back at such ideas as belonging to an age whose attempt to define art as "foreign" or "domestic" are unintelligible to an even more integrated world. Then again, after thousands of years of human history and many such predictions failing to come to full fruition, the future of cultural globalization is likely to bring about its own controversies.

Anthropology: 人类学 rén lèi xué
Cross-cultural interaction: 跨文化互动 kuà wén huà gōu tōng
Western opera: 歌剧 gē jù
Classical music: 古典音乐 gǔ diǎn yīn yuè
Film director: 电影导演 diàn yǐng dǎo yǎn
High culture: 高雅艺术 gāo yǎ yì shù

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