Monday, March 16, 2009
do we critque racism too much?
I would like to raise a question about the racism we talked about in class. It is so easily to find racism in many cultural products: Lord of the Ring, King Kong, Crusoe, Tintin...I knew that racism in history have caused holocaust and genocide, so racism is dangerous and has to be get rid of people's mind. However, for those mild and subtle racist residues, what attitude should I have? Is the racism critique going to far?
To clarify, by mild racism, I mean the subtle implication of the superiority of the West and the inferiority of others, as indicated in the films we mentioned in class.
It is very often that those being racialized are unaware of racialization. My elder sister told me that Tintin was quite popular in China as cartoon books in the 1980s, although there are some chapters about Tibet and China, the readers did not protest against it. Instead they liked it very much. According to Fiske, people make meaning for themselves about popular culture. They did not interpret the way the Western audience did. Actually, the Chinese readers easily identified themselves as Tintin, or any other good people in the film. therefore, no problem at all. Another example, I have never heard Chinese or Mongol saying Tolkein's a racist against the Mongol. Or anyone question why the elves all look white instead of yellow.
It is interesting that while the West is self-criticizing racism but those "victims" did not care. Maybe one of the reasons is that they are not sensitive or "educated" enough, and too obsorbed in the plot of the movies. But honestly, who cares? I found out that despite the racist criticism, Robinson Crusoe is still being made into movie in 1997 (Germany) and TV show in 2008 (NBC). I did not watch the whole thing, but I scanned the video on youtube, I did see the portrayal of the primitive Friday.
Many country authorities are wary of imported Hollywood movies because they are seen as cultural imperialism, promoting American value and lifestyle to the world. However, in the individual level, many believe that the supriority of the America over those countries is a fact, especially technologically, and audience naturally gravitate towards the more advanced. Take China as an example again (I grew up in China), the Chinese audience do not think anything wrong about the Hollywood films. Why bother to think about racism since the movies are more pleasurable to watch and more imaginative? If the non-West do not care (I assume), why would the West care about it?
To clarify, by mild racism, I mean the subtle implication of the superiority of the West and the inferiority of others, as indicated in the films we mentioned in class.
It is very often that those being racialized are unaware of racialization. My elder sister told me that Tintin was quite popular in China as cartoon books in the 1980s, although there are some chapters about Tibet and China, the readers did not protest against it. Instead they liked it very much. According to Fiske, people make meaning for themselves about popular culture. They did not interpret the way the Western audience did. Actually, the Chinese readers easily identified themselves as Tintin, or any other good people in the film. therefore, no problem at all. Another example, I have never heard Chinese or Mongol saying Tolkein's a racist against the Mongol. Or anyone question why the elves all look white instead of yellow.
It is interesting that while the West is self-criticizing racism but those "victims" did not care. Maybe one of the reasons is that they are not sensitive or "educated" enough, and too obsorbed in the plot of the movies. But honestly, who cares? I found out that despite the racist criticism, Robinson Crusoe is still being made into movie in 1997 (Germany) and TV show in 2008 (NBC). I did not watch the whole thing, but I scanned the video on youtube, I did see the portrayal of the primitive Friday.
Many country authorities are wary of imported Hollywood movies because they are seen as cultural imperialism, promoting American value and lifestyle to the world. However, in the individual level, many believe that the supriority of the America over those countries is a fact, especially technologically, and audience naturally gravitate towards the more advanced. Take China as an example again (I grew up in China), the Chinese audience do not think anything wrong about the Hollywood films. Why bother to think about racism since the movies are more pleasurable to watch and more imaginative? If the non-West do not care (I assume), why would the West care about it?
# posted by Dong Su @ 7:07 PM 
