Just Do It

Hooters in Beijing. Nike in Beijing. It's as if Beijing is being transformed into another America or something. Beer, girls, playing ball...is China being culturally imperialized by America? I know Beijing still has the Chinese culture, history and heritage, but small things like this, like the Hooters down the street or teenagers living through an American basketball brand, I can't help but wonder whether these intrusions of Americanism will (in the long term) detriment or benefit the Chinese culture, disrupt traditions or create new and positive types of change.

I learned in my communication/sociology/development classes at CUHK that globalization is bringing cultures together whether they like it or not. Cultures are hybridizing (the east with the west, the north with the south) and new types of cultures are being created. Some people reject and protest the changes globalization brings to their cultures while others embrace it because it's different and new and more contemporary than the traditional way of thinking. I don't know exactly where China is just yet. It seems like it wants to embrace the change because it wants to get a better global reputation, but at the same time, it doesn't want globalization to change the way its people think (maybe because they're concerned it will eventually lead to greater democracy in the country).

It's weird because Americanization is on the one hand embraced in China, while on the other hand, it's kept at a distance. If there's anything I learned from my classes at CUHK, it's that there is really no telling which way a culture will go. There is no way to determine how cultures will be affected in the long run by other cultures, and that's why China is so nervous. It just doesn't know where it's going to end up.