The programmed death of cultural diversity

[Ganbare!]

Cultural globalisation is threatening many indigenous cultures and not only tribal ones almost no one cares about. Around the globe countless cultures, lifestyles and traditions are disappearing.

Just in case you have been sleeping under a rock, Korean cinema is responsible for the past decade's most creative movies. Through a WTO dispute, the US are coercing the S. Korean government to undo its national screen quotas as well as its financial support. The goal is to flood the market with Hollywood films just like they did in Germany or Mexico where as of a result the local production is nearly non-existent today.

The problem is that Korean movies feature the country's rich and distinct culture, they promote themes, an outlook on life unique to Koreans but its industry cannot compete commercially with American billion-dollars blockbusters which means it will disappear in favor of the latter. At a larger scale this phenomenon is slowly killing minority cultures and will eventually lead to the rise of a global uniform culture based on a handful countries' vision, obviously that's great news for corporations since it means less localization costs.

Is a future where our all thoughts, possessions and actions only draw from a single cultural source really desirable?

[ahliang]

then again Korean movies are highly influenced by Western movies when it comes to story lines...but yes they have a distinct style...Razor TV (if anyone reads the Straits Times online you might have noticed the trashy Stomp link of Razor Tv which can bring decent clips...) recently had this "hyper-koreanised generation" clip showing how korean dramas had supplented taiwanese dramas and how "youth of all races in singapore" (and incidentally in other SEAsian countries) "breathed and lived through korean pop culture"...

which is funny because we actually witnessed it on EAN!!! i recall everyone in asia or with close ties to asia had seen My Sassy Girl back in 2001? ...EAN members who had seen the movies got addicted to Full House and then Goong and threads started and it had a snowball effect and many people got addicted... (and and and...)

if you go from an anthropologist s point of view, so long as we re human/hominids there will be culture...(because culture basically defines us as human...culture is learned though...our human condition being learned, it makes us "unfinished animals")

globalisation makes culture more accessible to us all but at the same time homogenises it...funny...that s what my graduating paper is about...if you re interested in the topic you might want to read Creative Destruction by tyler cowen...it s a REALLY quick read....as much as i disagree with many of his arguments he has really good points to make.

[Ganbare!]

^Korean film/drama industry is similar to the American production in the rest of the West, it develops powerful 'civilizational' values, cultural references and lifestyles, it's no wonder it is successful in SEA unlike Bollywood for example.

My concern is that mainstream culture is gradually supressing traditional/modern local cultures because of its universal appeal, easily-accessible nature. Economists will argue that because regional/local cultures are weak they must die but I consider diversity is necessary for mankind's survival. I'm part of generation Y, got a decent 'education' in pop culture and subcultures but I dread our ongoing evolution in this accultured globalized consumers/producers chimera. Globalized unapologetic capitalism, mass culture and I know it's controversial to say this here: race-mixing are slowly leading mankind into a souless abyss. We are sacrificing life quality, cultural diversity for quantity and uniformisation.