Author: jakepascoe
Best Friends
Loving Pets
Cronulla
Jordan Garcia
“Elementary my dear Watson!”
Sherlock Holmes, originally a book, has been adapted into a popular TV series in the UK. It’s a British crime show, and has been highly praised for its writing and production. It follows the life of Sherlock Holmes who acts as a consultant for the police, and uses his remarkable observation techniques and skills to solve a crime.
The TV series follows the same procedure as most crime and detective shows. It starts out with the initial crime; a number of suspects are named, and final plot twists. Most modern police and detective shows follow this procedural, but they approach it in a unique way, so it isn’t just ‘another cop show’. The character developments and traits are what make this show unique to others, and make it very desirable to a large audience.
The show is very culturally English; it uses many aspects of the typical English lifestyle, such as drinking tea, and just their way of thinking, which makes it appeal in the UK. However, it also appeals internationally as well, because it contains international elements that appeal to that audience as well. The different take and unique approaches the producers make for the show appeal to everyone, and it can be seen as the reason why American producers have attempted to re-create it locally in America, with it’s own American twist on it. But as you could probably tell, it didn’t turn out that well.
The TV series ‘Elementary’ first aired in late 2012, and is set in New York. You can instantly see the difference of choices when producing the show because of their cultural differences. For example, they cast a female to play the role of Moriarty, who is pictured as a male in the books, and in the English series. This is seen as a form of ‘Political Correctness’, and could also be associated with the large rise of Feminism in America.
Just by comparing these two series, we can instantly see the difference in film culture, and what changes and personal touches they add to make it appeal locally. Sometimes it doesn’t always work, and my favourite example would be ‘The Inbetweeners’. What a disaster that was in America.
The Birth Of Bollywood
Bollywood, is India’s take on Bollywood. They have their own style of film and cinematography, and is very independent compared to Hollywood films. There are plenty of reasons why Bollywood is what it is today.
People associate Bollywood with ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, when in reality, it was actually co-produced by two UK film companies. It’s a western Hollywood film with Indian and Hindi themes and a strong cultural presence. It promoted Bollywood and Indian culture unintentionally throughout western civilisations.
Firstly, the economics behind the industry is always important, because it creates the drive and the incentive to create films and work in the field. The Indian economical Liberalization in 1991 strongly affected the film industry, and the first major films to come out of Bollywood were created around this time. The Indian government can be thanked for this, because they created economic relationships with other countries around the world, and they created global networks, which involuntarily promoted and created funding, as well as the demand for Bollywood style films.
With all this talk of economics, who is actually profiting from Bollywood? Well I hypothesise that Indian culture is profiting, because regardless of what industry it is, Indian culture is always profiting. It’s hard to say which industry is actually profiting off Indian style films, because more than one industry create them.
Filmmakers act as Bricoleurs, so they essentially mix global and local elements to appeal to most audiences’ tastes and trends. This is a marketing technique used by Hollywood to seem more international, and to appeal to that demographic.
Bollywood has emerged as a large media entity because of the economics, the associations from already performing media industries, and the role of filmmakers. They produce more films than Hollywood per year, and is quickly becoming a large competitor for Hollywood.
Sources:
Schaefer & Karan, DS & KK, 2010, ‘Problematizing Chindia: Hybridity and Bollywoodization of popular Indian cinema in global film flows’, Global Media and Communication, p.309-316
Matt’s Boat-Shed Party
Hello! Bonjour! 你好! Guten Tag! नमस्ते! Ciao!
The chance to become an international student is one that I think many people love. Personally, many of my friends have talked about doing a semester in another country, and it’s something I’ve dreamed about since I was in High School. But international students are more important in our society than just for their own experiences. International students help to represent their country, allow us to understand global issues, and when in the workforce, they have a further understanding of cultural differences and negotiations.
There are many issues with international students however, and most of them originate from people in the countries they are studying in. People exploit students in housing and employment, and take advantage of their lower knowledge of the law to earn some more money. I think this is pretty disgusting, the lengths that some people will go, to earn and take advantage of some demographics, which are certainly not limited to international students.
One of the main issues however, is the crime and violence against certain international students because of their cultural background and ethnicity. In 2009, there were 152 attacks on Indian students alone, and many more racial abuses in the same year. Over 120,000 Indian’s enrolled into Australia’s education system in 2009, and it remains as one of Australia’s highest source of international students.
The Indian media reacted to this by saturating the media with out of proportion accounts of what is actually happening. There was even a report of an Indian journalist being attacked, which neglected to mention that the attacker was also Indian. I think this highlights not the Indian attitude on Australian’s, but rather the media’s perspective of them.
A journalist names Andrew Marantz wrote an article about how she was taught, while working at a phone company, about how ‘stupid’ Australia is, and that they over exaggerated into the Australian stereotype. He stated how shocked he was at “the extent Indian stereotyping of Australian’s”. I think this highlights that the small, but blown out of proportion, racism comes from both countries, and while they are both terrible, neither can be held more accountable than the other.
Following these events, the amount of Indian international students in Australia dropped by as far as 46% each year, and it’s expected to drop even more. Racism is a large issue with any international student, and while certain countries and ethnicities are highlighted more than others, every country is guilty of it, and I personally don’t think we will see a decrease in racism until there is a lowered concept of nationalism and cultural ignorance. Australia is built on it’s cultural diversity, yet it’s seen, and arguably is, one of the most racist countries in the world.
Sources:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/chinese-students-at-risk-in-australia-20120426-1xn5v.html
http://listcrux.com/top-10-most-racist-countries-in-the-world/
Where is Home?
“Globalisation refers to an international community influenced by technological development and economic, political, and military interests. It is characterised by a worldwide increase in interdependence, interactivity, interconnectedness, and the virtually instantaneous exchange of information.”
The concept of globalisation has always intrigued me, nations coming together and working towards a goal and for a better life for everyone. There are so many concepts that closely relate to globalisation, a lot of which can allows us to understand how the world is working today, and how much globalisation has impacted the world today.
What I find even more interesting though, is the concept of ‘home’. Pico Iyer made a guest TED talk, and talked about this idea. He explained that he had live all over the world, was born in another, and so to explain where ‘home’ is for him, was very complicated. It’s definitely worth a watch if you havn’t already seen it.
Julie Beck wrote an article back in 2011, where she talks about where home is for her. She talks about where in the world she’s travelled and lived, and also talks about how hard it is to answer “Where is home for you?”. She points out that when she’s heading towards her old family home, she’ll say she’s going home, but when she’s going to her own house, she’ll say it too. The more I’ve read about it, I’ve realised the more in-depth, psychologically speaking, the question really is, because people will have their own definitions of home. So it’s very arbitrary.
It reminds me of the concept of ‘sonder’, which refers to the realisation that each person you see is living his or her own life, and it’s just as vivid and complex as your own, with their own collective group of friends and dreams. The reason it reminds me of this, is because you don’t really think about it, until it’s brought up. You don’t really think about how complicated the idea of where home is.
The well-known phrase “home is where the heart is”, I think is one of the better explanations to where home is. I think personally, to call somewhere a home; you have to have a deep psychological or emotional bond with the place. I don’t think you even have to be living there to be able to call somewhere home. You just know it, deep inside of you. Somewhere where you have a great feeling of bliss.
So where is home for me? Well, like I pointed out earlier, it’s hard to explain. The answer I would usually give people is my family house in The Shire. But personally, I think a better answer to that question would be an unusual one, my home is under the stars. No matter where I am, when I’m looking up at the stars at night and just laying on my back, no matter where I am, I always feel at home. Quite few people, when they look up at the stars, feel small, but I feel big. It’s hard to explain, and I don’t expect you to understand. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who is probably the person I look up to the most (and arguably the most influential person for science of our time), made a beautiful speech about how he feels big when looking up at the stars.
I encourage you to try it next time you’re somewhere quiet. Just lay on your back, get really comfortable, and just look up at the stars and think about the universe. That’s when I feel at home.
Sources:
Julie Beck, JB 2011, ‘The Psychology of Home: Why Where You Live Means So Much’, The Atlantic, 30th December, Viewed 7th August, <http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/12/the-psychology-of-home-why-where-you-live-means-so-much/249800/2/>
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