Cultural Imperialism
Cultural imperialism is the exercise of domination in cultural relationships. This is whereby the practices, values, and meanings of influential foreign beliefs are imposed on other cultures. The imperialism is also referred to as cultural colonialism which comprises cultural features of imperialism. Imperialism, in this case, is the creation and preservation of uneven relationships among civilizations that favour mighty civilization. Therefore, cultural imperialism promotes and imposes cultures, especially from states that are more politically powerful. All ethnic groups, however, have their own cultures and beliefs that they believe in at all times. However, there is increased cultural ethnocentrism in the world due to beliefs from some people that their culture is much better. The following paragraphs will address the issue on cultural imperialism basing the arguments on a personal field experience that I carried out in order to unmask this issue.
In the field experience, I took a trip to a Chinese ethnic group restaurant to find out the experience on my own. In the trip, I wanted to do my research on the stereotype that the Chinese are very unfriendly and not welcoming to other ethnic groups. However, on entering the restaurant, which is very famous and well known to the Chinese, I was welcomed with open arms and even directed to a place to sit. After that, the guy greeted me and asked me to remain calm as I waited for the waiter to come and pick my order. That was an excellent start based on how I had viewed things to happen. It was not long until I saw a Chinese waitress approach me with a broad smile and greeted me. She then asked me about my trip to the place as she tried to engage me in a conversation for a better understanding of me. That is when she noticed that I had troubles with understanding the menu and offered to help me out by giving a list of suggestions for the best meal to take. As she walked away to go and get the food, I just sat there and imagined that kind of act from the lady and that started giving me a different perspective of them.
The food, on the other hand, was very sweet, tasty, and delicious and that got me wondering about her choice for the food. In the restaurant, you could not fail to recognize the smiles in people faces as they enjoyed their meals with their families and friends. My stereotype on how they were going to react and treat me was proven wrong because everything turned out very well, and as I was proven wrong. Their culture was very present in; the food being served, the music played in the background, the architecture, and even the martial artists who performed just outside the restaurant. A lot of beliefs that I had about the Chinese were changed in that short experience and gave me a different perspective of them. They did not even classify people or judge them based on their gender, wealth, race, education, and status (Nadal et al., 2015).
Through this, I had a chance to have a look into my own ethnic group and noticed a lot of difference between the two groups. Therefore, I came to a certain conclusion that the society had changed a lot on lots of issues and accepting each other regardless of our differences. I believe it is because there would still be no difference in discriminating each other and making each other feel rejected (Crothers, 2014). Through the experience that I had, my personal growth increased as I gained many experiences on how we should treat each other and live as one at all times. I also ended up observing various symbols based on embracing one’s culture, religion, language, and beliefs. In conclusion, it should be noted that cultural imperialism is not right and that people should live as one without discriminating each other or despising one another.
References
Crothers, L. (2014). Cultural imperialism. The SAGE Handbook of Globalization, 166.
Nadal, K. L., Davidoff, K. C., Davis, L. S., Wong, Y., Marshall, D., & McKenzie, V. (2015). A qualitative approach to intersectional microaggressions: Understanding influences of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and religion. Qualitative Psychology, 2(2), 147.