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CULTURAL GLOBALISATION: THE ROLE OF SOUTH, EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 115.248.73.67 on dated 27-Dec-2010 of the diaspora who have carried their love for kitschy, formulae thrillers to wherever they have gone. It is, however, unusual for a movie to marry the realism of Hollywood and the fantasy of Bollywood into one of international box office phenomenon”. Several Asian films are being made in English with Asian–Western appeal and storyline but global in business and audiences and are paving the way for cultural globalisation. In Hollywood, directors like Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki (Japan), Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong), Tsai Ming-liang (Taipei) have made a mark, as has Ang Lee (Taiwanese born) with his world renowned movies like Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Hulk, Sense and Sensibility and The Wedding Banquet. These directors are as much Hollywood directors as they are Asian. American audiences may not have boned up on Asian film history but after The Ring raked in $120 million, Hollywood got a crash course. Studios are now falling all over themselves to cash in—several Asian hits are being remade with big stars like Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Connelly. Mainstream America, if it has not already, is about to learn that when it comes to horror movies, Asian filmmakers are amongst the best. Unlike the recent wave of slasher and zombie flicks spooking American audiences, Asian imports—from filmmakers like Hideo Nakata (Dark Water and Ringu, the precursor to The Ring), Takashi Shimizu (the Ju-On series), Kiyoshi Reverse globalisation started when Shekhar Kapoor directed the Western movie Elizabeth in 1998, though Japanese and other Asian directors were already popular and had directed Hollywood movies. Kurosawa (Kaïro, about the strange happenings that follow a suicide) and the Pang brothers (Jian Gui, also known as The Eye, about a blind girl who sees ghosts after eye surgery)—go for chills over scares, stacking up supernatural themes, haunting visuals and creepy atmosphere. Films like The Eye and The Ring combine a cultural background filled with ghosts and the supernatural with themes of revenge, reincarnation and familial ties (available at, http://www.mtv.com). A panel of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Meeting March 22–25, 2007, examined “the concept of ‘transnational’ and its usage in the studies of East Asian cinema. ‘Transnational cinema’ or, more specifically the unified ‘East VOL 13 NO 4 WINTER 2009 WORLD AFFAIRS 29
K SYAMALAMMA AND P KRISHNA MOHAN REDDY www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 115.248.73.67 on dated 27-Dec-2010 Asian cinema’ stands as a convenient example of a shared cultural sphere in the age of globalisation. Both terms, however, have escaped qualification in terms of their actual meanings and causalities. Does the expansion in the multinational and multiethnic production, distribution and consumption of films automatically guarantee the cinema as transnational?” (Organiser and Chair, Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, Carleton University, Canada, “Scrutinizing the Transnational in East Asian Cinema”, Interarea Session 89, (AAS) Annual Meeting, ibid, available at, http:// www.aasianst.<strong>org</strong>). It must be noted that the transfer—not only of films but also in other fields—which so far had almost always been from West to East, has now begun to go in the opposite direction. European playing cards revolutionised the nature of gambling all over the world long before modern globalisation. Casinos in Europe and North America have been the main gambling centres with Las Vegas in the US leading in terms of revenue. In 2006, the Wynn casino in downtown Macau “outstripped the Vegas strip itself in gambling revenue” (Pallavi Aiyar, “Postcard from Macau – Neon Glow”, The Hindu, March 18, 2007). The concept of tourism until now had been from West to East, with visitors wanting to see ancient monuments. However, Westerners are now visiting Shanghai and Singapore more for shopping than for sightseeing, while Easterners with their growing incomes and self-assuring pride are visiting Europe and North America for “pleasure travel”. In the coming decade, medical tourism is poised to boom in Asia, especially in India, as thousands of Americans and Europeans visit every year. All these trends have started “reverse” tourism. Travel writing had so far been a forte of Westerners but an increasing number of Asian travel writers and journalists now have their reviews and reports published in leading Asian newspapers. Reading and Talking In the education sector, as thousands of Asian students, especially Indians are spread all over Europe and North America, a new enthusiasm for “Asian culture” has begun to compete and blend with “Western culture” resulting in an interesting “global culture”. As youngsters travel widely between the West and their home countries, they act as ambassadors and promoters of this global culture. Even former 30 WORLD AFFAIRS WINTER 2009 VOL 13 NO 4
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