Week 9: Chollywood!

According to Klein the cultural flow between the Asian and American movie industry is a two-way trade. While Hollywood is using themes from Asian cultures more and more, the Asian film Industries are in turn becoming Hollywoodized (Klein, 2004, p. 361)

We have seen countless of examples on how Asian movies are adapted to the Western market or how the Asian cultures are portrayed more and more in big Hollywood movies. Recent examples are movies such as ‘Pacific Rim’ or, a personal favourite of mine, ‘Only God Forgives’ by the Danish producer Nicolas Winding Refn with Ryan Gosling in the lead role.

Only God Forgives

In ‘Only God Forgives’ the setting of the movie is Bangkok and most of the supporting characters are local actors. 

The direct portrayal of the Asian culture and use of Asian actors are not the only ways in which Hollywood is trying to attract the Asian audience. 

Big blockbusters are adjusting their movies to fit the Asian market. This has been seen a lot recently. An example of this is with the latest James Bond movie, 'Skyfall', where the movie was edited for the Asian version with the cut out of scenes portraying prostitution in the Macau and the shooting of a security-guard in Shanghai. (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21115987)

Skyfall is not the only example on how major parts of movies are edited to concur with the Asian audience. This was also seen in World War Z where the origin of a virus outbreak was changed from China to South Korea and in Red Dawn, where the original storyline was changed from the Chinese invading and instead portrays North Korea as the perpetrators.

The Asian movie market is indeed big and Hollywood sees this potential. In the first half of 2013, the box office sales in China reached 1.79 billion USD. This was mostly from domestic films and imported films actually saw a decline in over 20% compared to the last year. (Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-up-36-583085)

On the top10 of highest grossing movies in that period in China, Hollywood is represented 6 times. The highest on the list, on a 2nd place being Iron Man 3, which also changed parts of the movies and added extra Asian actors to fit the market.

Chollywood: a term for the 'Asian Hollywood' as read in this article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10331411/Welcome-to-Chollywood-Chinas-richest-man-woos-Hollywoods-A-listers.html

References:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21115987

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2012/12/skyfall.jpg

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-up-36-583085

http://moviereviewworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/only-god-forgives-1.jpg  

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1602613/

http://imdb.com/title/tt1300854/

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaI8L-NJbiJiHkVsMT4VjjkHFI2e242h-EUagq3BGQLBzVm2yPJck6fPrEy4CHZ8OKBSd38dnMFp0M5gs9iOjZ8twGY759xH7CQvffH4c7GpEtbn3rAoieQqgWsGojoLfhbzjOtoKgnIMY/s1600/Iron+man.+23.+Avengers+series+

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10331411/Welcome-to-Chollywood-Chinas-richest-man-woos-Hollywoods-A-listers.html

Klein, C 2004, 'Martial arts and the globalization of US and Asian film industries', Comparative American Studies; An International Journal, vol. 2

Week 8: The specular economy

In the weekly reading, David Marshall describes the way we represent ourselves online as the same way when we look in the mirror. When we look in the mirror we see ourselves in our own image and we can see what we want to improve and how we can do so. 

With the use of online social medias such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, we are getting aware of how we portray ourselves and “We are constantly placing ourselves as with the simple technology of the mirror, into the picture and onto the screen.” (Marshall, 2010, p. 499). 

As I have done prior studies where I have analysed social media with theories from scholars such as Erwing Goffman, Joshua Meyrowitz and Nancy Baym, I am now aware of the importance of online portrayal and how important the way we portray ourselves online on sites such as Facebook is.

This doesn’t mean I am up-to-date on all the sites I do this on. I have not updated my LinkedIn profile for years and my Twitter-account is lacking info.

On Facebook I am very aware on how I portray myself though. I have set my privacy settings in such way, that I have to approve tags and things posted on my wall.

By doing this, I can shape the online persona of me that is reflected to my ‘real-life’ identity. This can also have a negative effect though. Through my personal information, such as profile picture, updates, the way I write comments people build up their personal image of my persona. (Baym 2010, p 112)

By ‘hiding’ and adjusting information, I am in the risk of being ‘exposed. This can occur if people find information on my other places, e.g. on my out-dated LinkedIn profile or if I suddenly post things that don’t match my identity, or ‘line’ as Goffmann would describe it. This will hurt the credibility of my online persona will lose credibility I wouldn’t have lost if I was honest and didn’t filter information in the first place.

References:

Marshall, P.D 2010, ‘The Specular Economy’, Society, vol. 47, no. 6

Baym, Nancy 2010, ‘Personal Connections In The Digital Age, Polity Press

http://lipstickmakeseverythingbetter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Look-at-Me1.jpg

http://righttojoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Identity.png

Week 7 - Games

Gaming has progressed in the recent years. Gaming has moved away from the arcades back in the 80s and 90s to private homes, the internet and smartphones for the whole family to enjoy. For as long as I can remember I have been a ‘gamer’. I grew up with a Commodore 64 and learned to load games when I was only 4 years old. This led to me playing a lot of different games on the C64 and later on PC. A lot of these games have been defined as being “violent” or controversial.

In the text by Raessen he explores the domain of interpretation in video games. According to Jenkins, as citied in Raessen, Computer games have to be defined based on specific combinations of technical, social, cultural and economic characteristics and not on exclusive, essential one. (Raessen, 2005, p. 24).

Throughout the years I have played a lot of video games that would be seen upon as more or less harmless in Denmark, but had controversies in other cultures. An example of this is the latest game in “Saints Row” franchise that has been banned in Australia for the drug use and dildo-weapons (Source: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/07/saints-row-iv-is-very-banned-in-australia/).

Dildo-weapons and drugs? No go!

Because of the cultural understanding of the game in Australia, the game was banned. This is not the first time a game has been banned in Australia or multiple countries for that matter. The Grand Theft Auto franchise has some of the most well-known controversies in the new age of gaming and has especially been targeted in Australia and USA.

GTA III, Vice City and GTA IV have been released as censored versions in Australia, due to the mature content.

Once again, the cultural opinion of the game as seen upon by the Australian authority has caused a modification of the game compared to the rest of the world. The reasons behind this may be well-argued, but where is the limit? Even after a lot of research has shown us, that videogames are NOT to blame for horrors such as school-shootings, videogames continue to be under attack of censorship.

Maybe this will not be censored?

References:


Raessens, J 2005, ‘Computer games as participatory media culture, Handbook of Computer Game Studies, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, pg 373-388

http://images.lazygamer.net/2013/01/SaintsRowDildo.jpg

http://i1103.photobucket.com/albums/g461/TheTacoDefender/GTAAUS.png

Week 6: Blogging

Blog: a Web site on which someone writes about personal opinions, activities, and experiences (Marriam-Webster)

Blogging has seen an uprise during the new century, and you are able to find blogs covering almost every topic thinkable. People have different reasons for blogging, some may be doing it for personal pleasure where as others do it for a profit.

By blogging you add content and personal opinions to the blogosphere and, if you don’t limit access to your blog, something for the whole world to see.

This can have positive and negative impacts. By blogging on certain topics you can express your knowledge and by that advance your career-opportunities and in some cases even set up a lifestyle evolved around blogging. On the Internet you can see countless of examples of people who have set up a whole career based on blogging. This goes for a lot of fashion-related blogs, lifestyle, traveling.

It is not uncommon for employers to find potential employees through sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and by searching blogs.

As with everything you post on the Internet, it is important to

Think and plan on what the ramifications of what you post can have.

Having a fulfilling front stage of your persona on the Internet can lead to new opportunitiesis also seen, which is also seen in the research done by Richards and Kosmala, where for one blogger, it “led to opportunities for a new career” (Richards and Komala, 2013, p. 75).

References:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blog , Retrieved September 25, 2013


Richards, J., & Kosmala, K. 2013, ‘in the end you can only slag people off for so long: employee cynicism through work blogging’, New technology, work and employment, Vol 28, no.1