CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland

Impact of Globalization on Language and Culture Sessions

Organiser: Norio Ota

Local/Global 1: Language, Culture, Internet and Film

Vihalemm, Triin (University of Tartu, Estonia) CAN THE GLOBAL REFERENCES MAKE THE LOCAL MEANING?
Two linguistic communities - Estonians and Estonian Russians - have lived over 50 years side-by-side, but in separate cultural and communicative spaces. After Estonia regained its independence, the North American pop culture became commonly consumed via video films, Internet and TV. Some authors have even raised a thesis about English as a new lingua franca and safe choice for the members of both communities in mutual interaction. The impact of English and English-based pop culture to the formation of cultural identity of Estonian and Russian youth, will be explored. On the basis of conversation analysis and interviews, the paper argues that via the English-based global discourse, the Estonian and Russian youngsters may discover new uniting lines. Thus, the common meaningful space might form in the future. The question whether this process leads towards bigger unification or formation of new local-cultural niche, will be discussed as well.

Tart, Indrek (Tallinn Pedagogical University, Estonia) THE INTERNET AND MOTHER TONGUE
Culture is an important actor in shaping human development. Entering the Internet age sharply shows the inclusion/exclusion tendencies: the wealthier and the well connected are in an advantageous position. What language(s) are they using for communication? What does that practice mean? Why does e-mail function mostly in a mother tongue, but homepages may contain large parts in foreign languages? Is that a borderline between the inner and outer parts of life-worlds, or does it even mark cultural resistance? Is that related to the smallness of the nation? Is the Internet developing semiotic personality characteristics? Does that mean abandoning of national attitudes after entering the Net, but maintaining hidden national signs? Or on the contrary, the invasion of national languages into the Net will be foreseen in the near future? What happens to the habits of primarily written cultures? Comparable data of statistics and Internet research from Baltic and Nordic countries will be used to find answers to these questions.

McIntyre, M Kelleen (Scripps College, USA) VIVA LAS VENICE: DO THE "PLACE-THEMED" CASINOS OF LAS VEGAS ACT AS VEHICLES IN U.S. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM?
The proliferation of American ideologies, 'culture', mass media, consumer goods, etc. has long been criticized as an agent in the watering down and 'Americanization' of much of the world. If the exportation of Americana lends to implant and perpetuate U.S. cultural hegemony, then what effects could the selective importation, appropriation, And contextualization of 'other' cultures have? According to one resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, 'Las Vegas exists because it is the perfect reflection of America.' As such, Las Vegas resort/casinos such as 'Paris-Las Vegas', 'New York-New York', and 'The Venetian' bring rise to questions of authenticity, appropriation, and power. Is the commodification of a culture ethical, especially if said culture is without recourse or benefit? What does the very existence of such a trend, let alone its success, say about American culture at large? What could be the effects of such a trend outside U.S. borders?

Ota, Norio (York University, Canada) IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
This paper focuses on several key terms and concepts, as to how they represent deep-rooted socio-cultural changes in Japan, and shows to what extent globalization has permeated the language, culture and society. The recent recommendation on drastic reform of the judicial system, for example, will probably change the culture of harmony, consensus seeking, non-confrontational, and out-of-court settlement into a judicial system similar to that observed in North America. The term 'co-dependency' has become a key word to criticize a model care-giver who gives at any cost. This is a direct challenge to the ideal of motherhood. It also refers to a Japan as an active agent to pursue its own globalization agenda in disseminating the pop culture in other Asian nations. The old pattern of learning from the West and applying it to Asia still exists very strongly in the name of globalization.

Lee, Ken-fang (National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan) HOME AND AWAY: DIFFERENT RECEPTIONS OF "CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON" BY ANG LEE This paper aims to investigate how and why Ang Lee's 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', a Mandarin film can be so successful nationally and internationally. I will argue that Ang Lee cleverly appropriates feminist concern and a supposedly marginalized character to re-write the kung fu tradition and re-define 'Chinese-ness'. I will also look at the language usage in this film (why Ang Lee chose Mandarin instead of English) and how cultural translation works on different layers in the production of this film. In the age of globalization, English seems to take the upper hand compared to other languages. From this perspective, the choice of language seems more interesting. How the local (in this case, a traditional kung fu genre) and the global (the powerful Hollywood film industry) entwine and challenge each other may be worth investigating.

Wu, Huaiting (Chinese University of Hong Kong, China) HOLLYWOODIZING THE CHINESE MARTIAL ARTS FILM This is a study of how Hollywood appropriates an eastern culture-the Chinese martial arts film. Being part of the reverse flow from the east to the east, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is a record-breaking phenomenon, the highest grossing foreign language film ever in North America. Its success is closely related to its hollywoodization. The interaction between the global Hollywood and the Chinese filmmakers has nurtured group of global talents, acting as 'cultural intermediaries', for the film's production. The globalized Chinese martial arts cinema makes the Hollywoodization of the genre possible. In this process, the local culture is transformed and becomes a hybrid, absorbing elements from other cultures. The joint effort of talents and invests from the dominant and subordinate cultures is crucial for making the film's global success. The extent of Hollywoodization is linked to the globalization of the local culture, the mobility of talents and the access to the distribution infrastructure.

Local/Global 2: Race, Gender, Diversity and Political Power

Gardiner, Michael (Nihon Joshi University, Japan) THE BRITISH-COLONIAL ROOTS OF GLOBALIZATION
This paper links the logic of parts-for-wholes which renders tiny sections of the world's culture 'global', to an earlier parts-for-wholes logic driving the solidification of the British union in the eighteenth century. Today's 'peripheral' national cultures stand in a remarkably similar position to the US as did the cultural edges of the new union to its English default during (and via) the Enlightenment - over-identifying with a 'multicultural' centre and themselves rendered visible and ethnically knowable. Moreover, Enlightenment thought was hugely influential on the American Declaration of Independence, a document which still proscribes, implicitly and explicitly, the democratic shape of 'international society'. The unravelling of the British union during devolution thus has significance not only as the final death of British colonial unification, but also for 'global culture' as such, signalling, as a line of thought through Frantz Fanon and Jacques Derrida has strongly hinted, the end of the Enlightenment idea of a universal culture.

Adams, Laura (Babson College, USA) GLOBALIZATION AND CULTURAL FORM IN UZBEKISTAN
In this paper I present a perspective on the globalization of culture in Uzbekistan, a Central Asian country formerly part of the Soviet Union. I argue that modern subjectivity, not capitalism, is the key to understanding globalization. Late 20th century culture in Uzbekistan formally resembled the cultures of other modernizing countries, even though it was produced under very different economic and ideological circumstances. Rather than focusing on globalization as homogenization or domination, I will argue that global cultural forms are strategically employed by Uzbekistan's cultural elites in order to develop their own culture. These modernizing elites frame national or regional cultural content with "universal" cultural forms, thus legitimating both the "traditional" and the "modern" elements of their society. The data on various performative forms of culture (theatre, folklore, etc.) come from 12 months of fieldwork and interviews I conducted between 1996 and 1998 in Uzbekistan.

Yadlin, Rivka (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON LANGUAGE AND POWER
Globalization does indeed seem to connote the hegemonization worldwide of North Americanism. However, this very process is a major factor in rendering national and subaltern cultures sustainable, even motivated into an offensive reaction. I support this suggestion firstly theoretically, through demonstrating the appropriation of western 'Modernity' by non-western cultures, and its naturalization in a variety of modes. Secondly, I propose to present two case studies in which westernization has been subjected by globalization to reactive responses. One is the emergence of "glocalism", which provides a third space, where new solidarities are created, crossing territorial borders and connecting on the basis of culture. A case in point is that of Transnational Islam. The other case is the "Re-Inventing Britain" project, where the appropriation of western modes of collective identity by subaltern cultures occurs within the national borders. The project lays a claim to the integration, rather than co-equal toleration, of 'cultural diversity' into the 'primordial' fixed national identity.

Sarker, Sonita (Macalester College, USA) TRANS-STATUS SUBJECTS: RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER IN THIS ERA OF GLOBALIZATION
My book on gender and globalization (Duke UP, forthcoming 2002) proposes a postmodern-postcolonial feminist theory of the 'trans-status subject' in which categories of gender, race, nation, sexuality, and class are put into motion in the circuits of globalization. The book underscores the tensions in the dialectics of globalization (and glocalization) rather than critique 'globalization from top' or glorify 'globalization from below'. Rather, it proposes that the economic and symbolic codings of culture are produced by women and men at all levels of race, nation, and class, codings that are complicated by various ideological affiliations. The book is a record of how minoritized identities participate in globalization and enact trans-border solidarities (across affiliations of class, race, etc.) towards positive social change. I will analyze the work of two minoritized women (one in early and the other in the late 20th century) both negotiating empire, nation-making, and cosmopolitanism, that proposes women's solidarity.