The Chinese Culture?

You can learn a lot about an area's culture by observing its people.  One way this can easily be done, today, is on the internet. Youtube is an easy way to find videos of...pretty much anything! I utilized this site to look into the Chinese culture.  Of course, I knew a little bit about the Chinese people from TV, school, and the Disney classic Mulan, but I thought viewing videos directly from the chinese people would be a good start to understand how geography affects their culture. 

The first video I watched, after typing "China" into the search bar, was from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLImQtyjI10 .  I wasn't really sure what to expect from a video entitled "Free Hugs in China!" but the title intrigued me.  The video shows a young man walking around a public square of a city with a "Free Hugs" sign.  At first, it is in black and white and the music is softer, while no one approaches him to get hugs. He is ignored. Finally, people start slowly going over to him and recieving free hugs. As this happens the music picks up tempo and the shot turns to color.  The symbolism of the color is really cool! As the video progresses, the sign is passed on to different people and color spreads through these individuals.  It shows what a little big of love can do to a community.

The second video I looked at was "Chinese Backstreet Boys- That Way."  This video was of two college age Chinese boys who lip synced to a 90s boy band song.  This video is pretty much hilarious!  It was really interesting to watch this, because I could tell that the boys probably didn't even know what the lyrics they were mouthing meant.  There were some Chinese words  written at the end as credits, but no English appeared in the clip.  A lot of the time the boy's mouths didn't even match the lyrics perfectly.  This video is shown on the site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2rZxCrb7iU. Just like any video a couple of teenagers in the United States would create, this was meant to make you laugh.

I had an enjoyable time viewing how the chinese makers of these videos portrayed themselves.  It was interesting because these two videos showed how closely related we are all as human beings.  The first video showed the importance of the expression of love, regardless of where you live.  I think that this kind of "Free Hugs" signs are probably more popular in countries with more freedom of expression, like the United States of America, but people did approach the hugger by the end of the clip.  I wonder if the idea for the video came from contact with western culture.  The second video with the American band's, the Backstreet Boys, song "That Way" was definitely a result of the communication between region and globalization. These two videos show the West's influence on China, since they have become more open to foreign cultures.  

These two videos were produced by youth and because of this I wonder if the younger generation of China is becoming even more open to this kind of influence from the West.  It will be exciting if the leaders of tomorrow's China can be positively impacted by the youth of Western countries.  These videos are just two examples of how the Chinese culture has fallen subject to the melting of foreign ideas via globalization.  

How wonderful that God has given us these resources to positively impact others who are tens of thousands of miles away from us!  It is exciting that the possibilities are endless in reaching China.  The Chinese people can be influenced to broaden their horizons politically and also spiritually! How exciting! The people of the United States must remember that they are in a position that may influence the people around the world.  As a result, we should remember to present ourselves in such a way that will make this influence positive.