Whose Culture Is It Anyway - Essay Example

Whose Culture is it anyway?” According to the dictionary, culture is defined as “the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.” Culture allows people to experience the world and carry out daily functions based on their traditions. We often learn our culture from the people in our environment, such as family members, close friends, and our community. Culture consists of the foods that we cook and eat, living arrangements, communication with society, and our behavior. People in the United States are often part of various cultures. The American culture is collective, and many people practice the American culture along with their predominant culture. One example of this collective culture is America’s influence on China. Globalization is used to describe the transition of people, their knowledge, ideas, and global imports and exports. Through globalization, people have become connected economically, politically, socially, and culturally. When people think of the concept “globalization,” they think of economic globalization or the global marketplace, but globalization can occur in the social and political areas. The idea of globalization was meant to potentially generate additional income into the society, thus introducing knowledge and information to many people. In Britain, for example, it came about because the British government decided to sell “the world financial and business services where once it sold cotton textiles and machines. Shifting earlier and more decisively than most countries out of mass manufacturing, where it had few advantages over lower-cost competitors, to more easily defended high-value-added goods and services gave it an edge.”1 That was good for some countries. However, globalization has been perceived as an exploitation of the poor by the wealthy class of people. Globalization threatens people’s traditional cultures because it has a tendency to dramatically reshape their societies and economies. The negative aspect of globalization has sometimes been linked to terrorism. Although Globalization has this negative impact, such as terrorism, it has resulted in economic growth as a result of rising profits from exporting goods and services to other countries, such as China. Globalization is not simply about economics: it is also about the cultural and social shifts that accompany the reduction in tariff and the easing of travel, communication, and trade. It is about the way people from all across the world can come together to have a conversation and to collaborate on numerous projects and cultural products. Cultural products are commodities too and they can be exchanged more easily in an open marketplace. Economic globalization in the 1990s went hand in hand with the promotion of a new wave of American culture which found a receptive audience around the world. This led to the term: Americanization The Chinese, for example, have begun to become Americanized. For example, actively buying and selling in the stock market in an ordinary building on the Nan Dan Dong Road. Their buying is fierce and competitive as they wave wads of cash, similar to the buying culture of America. The Shanghainese fierce stock-market trading began in 1986. The buyers are chanting orders for buying the product called glister. The product called glister is a popular toothpaste brand in Shanghai. The people of Shanghai are investing a tremendous profit into Glister, and it is five times the price of Colgate, which is one of China’s best-selling imports from the United States. Other products that sell fiercely in the Shanghai stock market are the shampoo and dish soap. These products sell ten times more than comparable local brands, but why the premium? According to the Americanization of China article, the products are packaged in a real or metaphorical red, white, and blue. The color scheme coincides with the mission of the company name, Amway, which is short for the American Way. But just because American culture is popular in China doesn’t mean it is accepted as-is. The Chinese add their own spin to everything. For example: In his chapter, "All the Coffee in China," Wasserstrom visits Chinese Starbucks, comparing the coffee giants context in China and the U.S., and how its role varies between Chinese cities. In Beijing, controversy followed the opening of a Starbucks at the edge of the Forbidden City. But in Shanghai, Starbucks opened without fanfare around the corner from the location of the Communist Partys founding congress. With Japanese-style coffeehouses and artsy cafés abounding in Shanghai, Wasserstrom describes a growing nostalgia for the pre-Communist era that makes the new Starbucks seem to locals both "a novelty and a resumption of an old cosmopolitan trajectory that was interrupted for a time."2 Many say that the United States of America do not sell goods to China; however, Amway is a booming product in this country. The distribution of Amway in China began in 1995. The company has reported outstanding profits in a triple-digit quarterly increase as in the case with Avon, which was the first-direct sales company in China.3 Avon has approximately 85,000 agents selling products from door to door. The sales from this company were $68,000 in 1996, and today, sales are expected to increase to $300 million in 2009. In addition, Mary Kay opened a plant and began selling cosmetic products in Hangzhou, China. Many people in China have become cosmetic consultants of products, such as Amway, Avon, and Mary Kay. The entrepreneurial cosmetic spirit has boomed greatly in China because many want to become richer, thus acquiring an irresistible commodity, an American Association. Other industries, including the food industry, have seen a huge impact from Americanization with McDonalds’ booming business in China. The effects of Americanization of China is from exporting American goods into the country, the potential for making money from exported products from the United States, and the idea of the people in China wanting to become richer through entrepreneurship. The American products’ success has forced many people in China to recognize how greatly the impact of selling cosmetics has created a new way of life for many people in China. Products, such as Amway, Mary Kay, and Avon, have generated huge revenues for the people in China. The American stock market has provided for a huge boom in trading various products, and China has decided to get in on this idea with their own stock market as they buy a product called glister. The sell of the American cosmetics in China has influenced many people in China to become entrepreneurs of these products, which would generate more money into the economy and allow the people in China to become richer. However, the effects of Americanization have forced mixed American and Chinese opinions about the actual effects of Americanization on China. According to American, Harvard Professor Watson, "Whos to say its American culture? Why not Japanese culture or Chinese culture? Kids grow up in China and recognize Ronald McDonald as part of Chinese culture." With the help of researchers in Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul and Taipei, Watson completed a study of the globalization of pop culture and consumerism. Using McDonalds as a model, his conclusions are to be published as a book, Golden Arches East; McDonalds in East Asia. "For families in China, McDonalds is just part of the world experience, part of the internet and all the rest of the modern world," he says. "Its maybe not for the older generation, but there is a feeling that if their child can eat at McDonalds then he can go out in the world and succeed." According to Zhu Wenhui, a research associate at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University’s China Business Center, Many Chinese see in this cycle of consumption a devious plot. "The American image has penetrated into China, especially with the young." The influence is not just from foreign films and mass media. "We often use American books in Chinese schools and many of our teachers are educated in the U.S.; the teachers who go to the U.S. to study teach what they have learned," Lee says. "Its an accident and a plan, this exposure to the American Way. This is all part of selling the American Way in the larger picture. Its like a weapon." Culture has shaped people around the world to practice traditions, beliefs, and ideal ways of life. The American culture has influenced the Americanization and globalization of exported products. Americanization is the result of introducing ideas or culture into different parts of the world and allowing people to become influenced by it. Globalization is the transition of people, knowledge, ideas, imports, and exports. China has experienced the Americanization way of life, and it has become influenced by American businesses, such as Amway, Mary Kay, Avon, and McDonalds, which has influenced China’s interest in buying and selling American products. Works Cited Christine Byrd. “China’s Brave New World Explored.” U of C Newsroom. July 17, 2007. http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/9352 Definition of culture. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. 30 Mar. 2009. . “Columbia Encyclopedia: Americanization.” Answers.com. 30 Mar. 2009. © Copyright 2009 Answers Corporation. . Gluckman, Ron, et al. “THE AMERICANIZATION OF CHINA.” 30 Mar. 2009. . Plinge, J. Walter. “What Causes Americanization?” © Copyright 2002 31 Mar. 2009. . Saverino, Joan. “The Americanization of Immigrants.” Exploring Diversity in Pennsylvania History. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania with THE BALCH INSTITUTE FOR ETHNIC STUDIES. 1 Apr. 2009. . Smith, Mark K. and Michele Erina Doyle. “globalization.” © 2002. Infed. 1 Apr. 2009. . “Avon profit, 2008 sales outlook send shares higher.” REUTERS. 5 Feb. 2008. 31 Mar. 2009. . Teaching Guide for “Globalization” Essays. SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL. 31 Mar. 2009. . McGrew, A.M.. (2005). “The logics of globalization.” in J.Ravenhill ed. Global Political Economy. Stevenson, Merril. “Britain and globalization: a good marriage.” OpenDemocracy. February 2, 2007. http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-britannia_redux/good_4314.jsp Read More