Estre11az’s Weblog

Media globalistion from America seems inevitable and at times, part of progression. After all, Singapore has close ties with America and it seems natural for us to look up to the American society.

Our popular TV shows on Channel 5 are those from America, not locally produced ones. Well liked shows like, American Idol, Ugly Betty, Lost, Heroes and even Survivor, are all from America. Sad to say, it seems like there aren’t any well liked local shows. These American shows appeal to our wants and needs, where our preference in lifestyles are reflected in the shows.

We’re all searching to have lifestyles like those portrayed in the American shows, and we want to be westernized. It seems essential to me that our TV shows should start appeal to “who we really are” instead of “who we blindly want to be”. We want to be like the Americans, but we’re not.

A short clip on Americanisation:

We could see Americanisation everywhere around us – the food we eat (McDonalds), the junk food we enjoy (chips), Starbucks, Coffeebean. How did we come to be aware of all these things in the first place? Obviously, it’s through the media where advertisements on TV, radio and printed materials heightened our awareness of these American products. Sometimes shamelessly pushing them into our face as we get extremely frequent McDonalds advertisements on TV.

Instead of opening ourselves to so many American ways, I think it’s time to embrace our inner kiasu-ism instead.

The lecture we had on culture was rather interesting to me. After all, the society we live in (Singapore) has ensured that all races and cultures live together harmoniously.

Having lived in a multi-cultural society since birth, have we lost our individual sense of identity in terms of our cultures?

Edward T. Hall’s theory claims that “culture is an invisible control mechanism operating in our thoughts which kicks in only when we are severely challenged.” In the case of Singapore, where everyone’s individual culture and identity are respected, perhaps this theory does not apply very well here. There isn’t such a big threat to our individual cultures.

Actually, our cultures are accepted so readily by others that I think we start to pick up traits from other cultures. I think that over the years, our individual cultures (Chinese, Malay, Indians, Caucasians etc) have blended together to form what I think is the Singaporean culture. Although we each have our distinct differences, we also share many common aspects of our culture. Trentholm’s theory of where culture is learned, shared, dynamic and multifaceted seems to apply better to the context of Singapore.

Singapore’s most famous cultural trait: ‘kiasu’ (fear of losing) and ‘kiasi’ (fear of everything/ dying).

We even had comic characters drawn up for those traits.

I’m sure everyone remembers Mr Kiasu .