Bollywood's Popular Culture in the South Asian Diaspora
The centre of the Indian movie industry is in the Indian city known as
Bombay, which has since been renamed Mumbai. Owing to the industrial
resemblance with the American movie city Hollywood, the Indian movie
industry came to be known as Bollywood. Bollywood is now an industry
of massive proportions, and far from simply producing cinema; it is
also closely interwoven with industries concerned with music, clothes,
magazines, DVDs, jewellery and cosmetics. Bollywood has become
popular culture, which is distributed worldwide and sells at a
phenomenal pace. The Bollywood film, far from its popularity being
isolated to India, has also found popularity amongst ‘Indians’ in Asia
(Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka etc), countries where Indians were
originally sent as indentured labourers such as South Africa, Jamaica
and Mauritius, and increasingly with the growing group of Indians in
western countries, especially Great Britain, Australia, Canada and the
USA.
The Swedish anthropologist Hannerz describes these groups of people
descending from one source culture and living across the globe as a
global ecumenicity. The concept no longer refers to the biblical
diaspora in which the expulsion of the Jews determined the image. The
present notion of diaspora is detached from its religious meaning and
now refers to physically scattered but, but still culturally related
communities, who all form a specific global ecumenicity. (R
Gowricharn, Professor of multicultural cohesion and transnational
studies at the University of Tilburg, The Netherlands)
In this sense, communities of Indian ...
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...t binding tool
for them This is why I believe the crossover films best encompass all
the attributes desired by the South Asian diaspora market – they
entwine two cultures seamlessly, creating a unique and individual
cinema that truly appears to reflect the emerging identity of the
South Asian diaspora.
Bibliogrpahy
Rajinder Dudrah : Vilayati Bollywood: popular Hindi cinema going and
diasporic south Asian identity in Birmingham (2002)
Jinga Desai : Beyond Bollywood: the cultural politics of the south
Asian diasporic film (2004)
K Moti Gokulsing & Wimal Dissanayake : Indian Popular Cimema: a
marrative of cultural change (1998)
Preben Kaarsholm : City Flicks: Indian cinema and the urban experience
(2004)
Manjunath Pendakur : Indian Popular Cinema: industry, ideology and
conciousness (2003)
The movie 'Ethnic Notions' describes different ways in which African-Americans were presented during the 19th and 20th centuries. It traces and presents the evolution of the rooted stereotypes which have created prejudice towards African-Americans. This documentary movie is narrated to take the spectator back to the antebellum roots of African-American stereotypical names such as boy, girl, auntie, uncle, Sprinkling Sambo, Mammy Yams, the Salt and Pepper Shakers, etc. It does so by presenting us with multiple dehumanized characters and cartons portraying African-Americans as carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, savage Brutes, and wide-eyed Pickaninnies. These representations of African-Americans roll across the screen in popular songs, children's rhymes, household artifacts and advertisements. These various ways to depict the African ?American society through countless decades rooted stereotypes in the American society. I think that many of these still prevail in the contemporary society, decades after the civil rights movement occurred.
The film industry has always influenced the way society views the world. In today’s day and age it certainly influences trends and the way people view the world. This is the reason the film industry and Hollywood has had a huge impact on society throughout the years. This impact has not always being a good one. If we try to go back and analyze the film industry through the years we can see that there has being a huge amount of misrepresentation.
fragmented by the interruptions of song and dance, lending a sense of unreality. I believe Mira Nair successfully achieved her aim to make a Bollywood film on her own terms. As a director, she effectively combined the techniques of sound, editing, costume, colour and location to produce a fairly unique Bollywood film. Her message of the continuing modernisation of India, and her criticisms of both the societies she illustrates in the film comes across clearly, as do the more controversial points she brings up that Bollywood, as a film industry, does not typically address. Its appeal and effectiveness can be measured by the huge range of global audiences it has attracted, both Western and Eastern, which indicates that she accomplished her goal of making a realistic movie, breaking the traditional Bollywood mould.
Hollywood has always been considered as one of the crown jewels of the entertainment industry. A true powerhouse of western cinema with a myriad of productions, each successful in the art of storytelling, and the maker of numerous directors, producers, writers and actors. With a reputation such as that, it’s no surprise that Hollywood is not only a symbol of success but also a beacon of hope for any aspiring newcomer.
...ent from the silent era of film, overt racism of ethnic minorities was blatantly apparent within the film medium. However, presently this overt racism however has shifted into a more subtle segregation of casting and racial politics within the film medium. It seems that both the problem and the solution lies in the Eurocentric domination within the Hollywood film industry – and it seems that it still remains challenged to this day.
This work is very important to me because it highlights the importance of cultural identity and how this is continually formulated in spite of the dramatic rate at which technology is taking over every aspect of my life. I particularly find it interesting that even with the proliferation of devices and new media, I am not able to completely let go of what I regard as memories that define my cultural identity. These memories come from experiences and development of oneself. Cultural learning, also called cultural transmission, is the way a group of people or animals within a society or culture tend to learn and pass on information. Learning styles are greatly influenced by how a culture socializes with its children and young people.
What does the concept of cultural citizenship bring to our analysis? It enables us to recognise the affective dimension of our relationship to politics and to media texts as a whole. Rather than simply using popular culture as a source of knowledge of the wider world (and of politics), we engage emotionally with popular cultural texts and that is precisely what makes us bridge popular culture and politics. As it has been argued, cultural citizenship is a deeply ‘affective relationship to the sovereign state’ (Miller 2007: 39) – it involves notions of bonding and belonging to an imagined community. Popular culture, as we have seen, addresses values, representations, and issues of social identity (Curran 2011: 63-68). Cultural citizenship, in turn, enables us to look at popular culture as a source of collective identity – whether it involves bonding and ‘commonality’, or distancing oneself from others (Street, Inthorn and Scott 2011: 350). It views popular culture as having ‘relevance for identity construction, ideology, and norms, aiding us to work through important [and might I add, conflicting] contemporary ideas and issues’ (Dahlgren 2009: 141). Popular culture allows us to engage affectively as well as cognitively in crucial issues, such as ‘how we should live (and live together) and what kind of society we want’ (Dahlgren 2009: 141).
Identity is an abstract, multifaceted concept, which plays of an essential role in intercultural communication interactions, because of globalization and diversity around the world. In this paper I will describe the basic types of identity, such as human, social, and personal.
Why is cultural identity important to us as people from different race and ethnical background? Identity is one of the most baffling, unpredictable, problematic, survival instincts of individual life in any society around the world. CulturalIdentity is that is aspect of individual that creates a distinguish characteristics and unique differences from one person to another. It can be looked upon in the different angles and spectrum depending on what the case may be. Identity can be analyzed in terms of way of life of people in a geographical setting.Culture is the back born of every identity, and then we can look into some subcultures like, music, language, and communication and perception.
Parsis form a dwindling community of fewer than 1,25,000 people worldwide, most of whom are concentrated around Bombay. (Vinodhini, 1) During the 7th century, they had fled Iran to avoid conversion to Islam. India had offered them a home free from religious persecution. Most of the small community rose to affluence by working as tradespeople. Under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s first term (1971-1977), India remained their safe haven, but they were marginalized as nationalized banks seized their enormous share of the banking industry. During this time period, Gustad Noble from Such a Long Journey finds the Parsi cultural identity intensifying his community’s problems, adding to the already anxious and insecure mood of pre-war India. Nevertheless, it remained the community’s great source of pride, with their strong devotion to Zoroastrianism guiding them through arduous times.
...rding to the US Economic Census, motion picture and video production in the United States as a whole generated revenues of $20.15 billion in 1997, with Hollywood alone being responsible for close to 60% of this total.” (US Census) Hollywood’s success has come with no great competition to push for more, and with the emergence of film globalization, it should be very interesting going forth seeing if they can maintain the ideal motion picture headquarters. Its unique pool of talent drawn from many different countries cultural impact of Hollywood films is now felt in all parts of the world.
The history of Indian music extends back many centuries. Traditionally in that period, there were various kingdoms, in which the power was held equally by the king and the temples. This was the division of music. The temples presented religious music to all that wanted it while the kings patronized the separate artists. Music also formed a major part of the theatre. It was very famous as nearly all of India's people had access to it. There were full scale musicals in the ancient Indian theatres. This tradition has been carried into till the recent days, where Bollywood (the Indian Hollywood) films are very music-friendly. Music is an integral part of the movies that are being made. But many movies are now being targeted at the Western society, movies with less music. This is killing India's musical background.
Satchidanandan, K. “Towards a Critique of Globalization and Culture Industry,” in Together We Survive. Delhi: FOSWAL, 2010.
Overcoming cultural borders put pressure on me when I first came to America as a ninth grader. Because cultural diversity is an essential part of the society, I want to embrace the difference by keeping the balance between Chinese and American culture. It requires active learning and long-time practice for me to cope with cultural shock and to adapt myself into a new environment. Although the transition can be both exciting and overwhelming, it helps me to have more effective communications because of my exposure to both high context and low context culture.
Westernization is the process in which regional or local cultures become heavily influenced by western culture and society, which in turn leads to cultural homogeneity. Many countries all over the world are affected by westernization, including India which is a land of very deep cultural roots. This raises the question of how can the process westernization affect the rich Indian culture? With India’s increasing modernization it has been difficult to ward off the effects of westernization. Westernization has the power to bring about many positive as well as negative changes in a society. In the case of India it’s culture it has been negatively affected through the adoption of western centric ideologies, which have led to a rapid loss of rich Indian culture. Some notable effects of westernization in India are its adoption of a parliamentary system, and the acceptance and incorporation of western technologies and clothing into