Good-bye Kitty, Hello Chuang Tzu!

    Two articles in the People's Daily reveal, once again, the anxieties of maintaining "Chinese culture" in a globalized context.  The first, a front-pager in today's Overseas Edition, compares China's "culture industry" to that dominating producer of "American culture:" Disney:

    While China continues to welcome foreign cultural products, a "China wind" has still not stirred up much dust. China is unable to bring out cultural products that can compete or compare with the Korean drama series "Dae Jang-geum", or the Japanese cartoon "Chibi Maruko Chan" or any of Disney's animation efforts.

    China it seems remains passive in cultural exchanges, international competition and the culture trade.

    The second piece, a short report on the cultural tastes of contemporary Chinese, has an title Karl ("fetishism of commodities) Marx would love: "Consumption becomes young Chinese new way for self expression."  The full text below the jump:

China's active participation in world globalization process and its opening-up policy to the outside world are profoundly influencing young Chinese consumption patterns, according to a survey on youth development by China Youth and Children Research Center.

According to the survey, entertainments like TV series, music, movie, Internet games from European and American countries occupy a very important position in young people's lives; about 50% of youngsters like European and American popular entertainment programs, and more and more of them favor Japanese and South Korean TV series and Internet games.

Millions of young Chinese are perceiving life through TV, movie, MTV, Internet and Internet games, from which, they form their own value about life and the world, and of what is right or wrong.

Experts worry that young people of this generation lack sense of moderate consumption because more and more youngsters no matter from rural or urban areas show an obvious consumerism trend due to modern media's propagation.

     So, the "problem" is that globalization is swamping Chinese children in cultural products from other countries, thus undermining their identity as Chinese.  But the "answer" (as per the first article) is to be better in global cultural competition by developing Disney-like products that represent "Chinese culture."  Ugh.

     Of course, global capitalism will all but require the creation and exchange of Disney-fied "Chinese culture; that will happen whatever the cultural policies of the CCP.  It's just the way the world works (imagine, instead of Hello Kitty, we get Hello Confucius!).  It is inevitable that we will face the hollowing out and flattening of the rich and challenging philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism as these are turned into kitsch for display in yuppie living rooms.

    But wouldn't it be nice if a counter trend could be established.  Why not "market" Confucianism and Taoism as ways out of the increasingly infantalized and sexualized and commodified flow of global "culture/s"?  I know, I know, that might simply mean the commodification an "anti-commodity," ad infinitum.  But wouldn't it be nice to present these traditions as something other than Disney animation figures or a TV mini-series?  Maybe we should ask Imagethief to come up with a marketing campaign.  Something like:

     Confucius - the un-Disney.

   Or,

    Good-bye Kitty, Hello Chuang Tzu.

   Obviously, I would fail as a PR guy.  But let's tell the Chinese government that, if it wants to find a niche for certain elements of its cultural "traditions," that it might be smart to place its product as alternatives to Disney, et al., not just as one more cheap imitation.

Comments

[Bewildered Academic]

Interesting suggestion. I have two parallel examples that might shed a little light on how an anti-consumerist emphasis on Confucianism might work in a consumerist world.

Example 1: "Veggie-Tales". Home video series that uses computer-generated anthropomorphic vegetables in humorous skits about Christian values. Surprisingly entertaining without being heavy-handed. The series is oriented toward children but is sophisticated enough that even adults enjoy watching it. Considering that its popularity is mostly caused by word of mouth, it is has been pretty successful without becoming overly consumerist. All of the supplementary products they sell are oriented toward moral education (some more than others. Mostly coloring books, board games and other such products). It is definitely counter-cultural in a subtle way.

Example 2: "The Chronicles of Narnia". This one fills my heart with trepidation since the Chronicles have been some of my all-time favorite books. Now it is undergoing the process of Disney-fication (literally, as it is being produced by Disney). C.S. Lewis was a bit heavy-handed on the Christian allegory and since Disney is in the business of making money, I suspect that they will attempt to tone down many of the Christian themes to appeal to the broadest possible audience.

Worse, C.S. Lewis's message is getting further distorted by the rampant consumerism inherent in any movie promotion. I'm an avid videogamer myself, but I felt like sacrilege had been committed when they announced a "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" videogame (chock-full of violence, not that there aren't violent scenes in the Chronicles, but the emphasis on combat in the game completely undercuts the nuances of the books. It would be nice if there were some genuine moral dilemmas for players to figure out instead of just mindless hacking and slashing). There are already action figures available for children to buy so they can enact their own battle scenes. And on it goes. I think C.S. Lewis would roll in his grave if he saw his message being put forth like this.