Reality Television and Its Role In Modern TV

Reality television, often frowned upon or seen as a “guilty pleasure”, has become without a shadow of a doubt one of the most talked about genres of television today. Not only is it controversial, topical and solely entertainment focused, but it also has many sub-divisions unlike other genres. There is reality television that follow every-day lives of (often socialites) people (i.e. The Only Way Is Essex and Keeping Up With the Kardashians) and other shows where they are an amalgamative mix of part game show, part real life (i.e. The Amazing Race, Hunted). There is a sense of competition in these types of shows. Of its own kind, are the Big Brother types of shows where b-list celebrities (likely from other reality TV series’) are under one household with an end goal in mind to win-this includes I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. Similar are shows like MTV’s Real World and Geordie Shore where it is hidden camera reality.

Gary Beadle, often referred to as ‘Gaz’ gets candid with the confession cam on Geordie Shore

Unabashedly, my favorite television to watch is Reality. Reality television by definition consists of programs featuring real life, ordinary people who are consistently filmed with the sole intent to entertain audiences instead of inform them. So often, as aforementioned, people express that reality tv is there “guilty” pleasure as if it is something to be ashamed of; however, at the end of a long day, it’s not surprising that most people would rather relax and watch an easy, light, not going to rack your brain type of show on in the background. No one will debate that it is informative or encourages any form of conversation, but it’s fun and is often used as an escape.

Reality television pushes boundaries constantly feeding the audience while maintaining their interest. And, at the end of the day, who doesn’t want to know how the Kardashians reacted to their father’s sex change? Whether the narrative is pre-meditated or not, reality tv follows modern day people which introduces audiences to see from a novel perspective what is happening in society. With Bruce Jenner’s transitioning it broadened audience awareness, interest and understanding. Sure, some people won’t want to watch and that’s fair enough. However, reality TV allows offers an escape different to any other genre of television.

Kylie Jenner sits with newly transitioned Caitlyn Jenner on Keeping Up With the Kardashians

Another aspect of reality television that I enjoy is that the audience isn’t watching fictional characters, scripted or not, they exist as their own person which makes a world of difference.

People have always asked me why I don’t like movies (or why I prefer TV more-so than film) and that is because in television, yes, typically the cast is still made up of a writer’s imagination, but they last longer. A film, you don’t get to know a character beyond 1.5-2 hours of film. You don’t get to see how this character would react to any other situation apart from the ones present in that film. To watch the cast of Friends grow over ten seasons meant that they existed more “tangibly”; they still weren’t real, but audience saw them in multiple situations almost making them real.

With reality television, the fact that these cast members are actually real-life people, their characters are their personality, how they react in situations actually, tangibly exists in the world and that is a completely unique and incredible thing to watch. Reality Television is like being at a coffee shop and eavesdropping, it has a negative connotation, but who can really say that they aren’t at least a minute amount curious about the lives of other people.

Of course, it is evident, especially with the uproar of this current season of The X Factor, that there is a sense of heightened and exaggerated reality. The manipulation of reality stars’ behavior being enhanced through scripts and or editing is coined simply, “enhanced reality”. In some shows there is a script, in others personalities are coached to enhance their usual behavior. Some people could argue then that it isn’t really reality, but the major factor of reality television, as stated prior, is this: the characters exist all in real form. Therefore, scripted or not it still constitutes as reality TV.

Nonetheless, reality television shouldn’t be frowned upon infamously for lacking information or depth because it never once claimed to be anything other than real-life people doing real-life things.

Postmodernism and the Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel

Last Friday, the class took a trip to the Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel. Full of art, the tunnel is one of the only places you can legally spray paint in the city. There’s a special protectiveness of it too (not just from the city). Not just anybody can really come in to add to the walls. I mean, you could, no police man would stop you, but it’s a sense of respect for graffiti artists, and a belonging to that special culture that allows someone to spray paint.

Postmodernism is defined as a mixing of high and low culture, combining different cultures in one’s everyday life. The low culture of spray painting and defacing public property mixed with the high culture of protected art, the tunnels are a great example of it. The graffiti tunnel has made a spectacle of graffiti. Normally, you see graffiti somewhere and you glance over it. You might take a second longer to look at it if it was particularly good, but that’s it. The tunnels make a spectacle of it. People come in to tour the art, take photos, study it. It also blurs traditional boundaries, making something illegal into something celebrated and revered. It challenges the viewer’s perspective of their environment. It would be just a tunnel, just like any other, if not for the art.

The currently existing art could disappear at any time, to be replaced by another artist. The ones that last longer are the ones on the ceiling. Artists very rarely bring their own ladders to reach it, and they are less likely to be covered by someone else, or at least not for a while.  This gives the tunnel a fluidity and a constantly changing environment.

It’s also not just scribbled symbols, or “Jake was here” like other bits of vandalism usually seem to be- it’s art. It is its own art world, with its own familiar faces (names), such as the artist below, Pad;

There was a great deal of their art all over the tunnel; larger, more complex pieces, small bits, and phrases lining the walls.

It became high culture when the government protected it. Otherwise it would have just been another place where riff raff goes to do some vandalism, only to be painted over the following week by the city. But now it has an idea of permanence, even though the art inside it rarely is. It turned a boring, average place into something great, something more colorful- something usually seen as annoying to city cleanup, or seen as disrespectful, into something people take a special trip just to look at.

Postmodernism in Film

Postmodernist film refers to works which take the concepts and ideas of postmodernism and apply it to the medium of film. Postmodernist films attempt to establish a shift in the sensibilities, practices and discourse formations from that of mainstream and modernist films. Postmodernism itself rose in the period following the end of the Second World War and is a tool to describe the changes in Western society and culture during this time. Postmodernism has extended to cover a vast range of subjects including art, literature and philosophy. The term postmodernism has been subject to much debate ranging from attempts to establish a definite definition to whether or not postmodernism itself can actually exist. This blogpost will look at postmodernism in film using David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986).

Blue Velvet is one of David Lynch’s best known works and features his various signature styles and themes such as references to pop culture, surreal imagery and the setting of a small American town. Starring Kyle MaClachlan, Laura Dern and Dennis Hopper, the film is about college kid returning to his hometown and uncovering a mystery which leads him way over his own head in trouble and further mystery. The film was highly controversial at the time of its release due to its depictions of sex and violence but received critical acclaim and has gone on to become a cult classic.

Blue Velvet features several distinctive postmodernist elements that Lynch utilizes to create a fascinating and unique piece of art. The film blends different genres to reach something more uncategorizable. Blue Velvet has elements of noir and neo-noir such as low lighting and the use of shadows to create its atmosphere.

Similarly, the film uses elements of psychological horror to push the postmodernist themes of the film. The film’s themes deal with small town innocence in the United States and the underlying darkness that exists in these places. Much of Lynch’s other work focuses similarly on this topic but Blue Velvet ultimately does it the most effectively juxtaposing candy-coated sweetness with absolute darkness. Lynch has been known to reference pop culture of the 1950s and 60s in his films and Blue Velvet is no exception, with the name of the film itself coming from a 1963 Bobby Vinton song of the same name. The film features a famous scene in which one of the characters lip syncs Roy Orbison’s In Dreams (1963) and the jolly melody and lyrics of the song are juxtaposed with the surrealism and brutality of the scene, which creates an uncertain and unsettling atmosphere for the duration of the scene.

 

In addition, the film features multiple other contrasted elements such as the use of dark and bright colors to illustrate the changing tone of the film and the mix of high and low culture. Similarly, Lynch also uses conventions of Hollywood cinema and the experimental nature of avant-garde films to create something altogether different.

All of the elements which make Blue Velvet unique also adds to its argument as a work of postmodernism. Lynch subverts the norms of Hollywood while mixing opposite ends of several spectrums to create an original and visceral work. Through the visual images deployed in the film, Lynch manages to create his own postmodern world on the silver screen. As is common with the films of David Lynch, to this day Blue Velvet is the subject of much critical debate as to the meaning of the film. Blue Velvet stands as an original and shocking piece of cinema and is one of the finest examples of postmodernism in film.

Bibliography

Knight, D., 2013. POSTMODERN CINEMA. IDEAS | FILM. Available at: <https://ideasfilm.org/postmodern-cinema/&gt; [Accessed 1 December 2016].

Postmodernism and film, n.d. . Available at: <http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic119377.files/Postmodernism.pdf&gt; [Accessed 1 December 2016].

Tate Modern, 2006. Postmodernism. Available at: <http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/postmodernism&gt; [Accessed 1 December 2016].

 

Week 12: Postmodernism in Graffiti

Postmodernism is a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts and architecture which represents a departure from modernism. It is a mixture of earlier artistic concepts with new ones due to technological advances and what is happening in the world. Many say it is very hard to pinpoint what is considered Postmodernism and how to define it.

Graffiti are writing or drawings that have been scribbled, scratched, or painted illicitly on a wall or other surface, often within public view. Graffiti range from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and they have existed since ancient times. Many people consider Graffiti not as an art form but as a distraction to society and just a bunch of vandalism things sprayed on a wall.

However, Graffiti is an art form its the way people are able to express themselves or bring peoples attention to something which a lot of Postmodernism artist’s do. One of the most well known Postmodernism graffiti artist is Banksy. He is known for his social and political graffiti art where his pieces are located all over the world. He keeps his identity hidden which makes his work more effective as people do not have a to look up to or associate him to his images. It leaves a mystery to the people but once people see his work they know it was him who created it.

In Banksy’s book Wall and Pieces he says,”Despite what they say graffiti is not the lowest form of art. Although you might have to creep about at night and lie to your mum it’s actually one of the more honest art forms available. There is no elitism or hype, it exhibits on the best walls a town has to offer and nobody is put off by the price of admission.” Which brings postmodernism into the pieces that Banksy does. He creates pieces based on whats going on in the world. Creating a discussion amongst the people who see his pieces and bringing a light on the situation.

Take a look at a couple of Banksy pieces below:

Most of these pieces had a significance to society at the time he created them. They are all satirical poking fun of the cultural issues that was happening. Many of his pieces are in black and white to the colorful world around which I think make his pieces even more eye catching and engaging. It also makes them more effective as it shows how serious the topics he discusses is. In the first picture its an olympic athlete holding a missile. Which I thought was funny but also disturbing at the same time. The piece with Paris Hilton in it is also funny as everyone knew who she was at the time so it was a great way of promoting his project Dismaland which was what he called Disneyland for adults. The maid piece is also interesting as it brings into light do maids actually do an effective job of cleaning your house or they just keep things under the rug.

Overall, Banksy has made a huge impact on postmodernism art in society today. Graffiti is an effective way of using  the space around us as a platform for art and creating topics for people to discuss about. Bringing the attention of what is around us and express it.

Sources: http://blastmagazine.com/2010/05/15/banksy-a-postmodern-pioneer/

 

Postmodern Art & Its Critique On Capitalism

Consume, consume, consume.

Who is an individual in the western world if they don’t have the current Louis Vuitton city streamer XL handbag in soft leather? Are you any less of a person by having less than the latest Apple I Phone? The answer? At least in our consumer culture, yes.

Capitalism, the political notion that arguably enforces the idea onto our ever changing society that if you’re not consuming, are you really thriving? Few have dared question the way our lives are being lived, however those who have, have offered us a contemporary critique of who we are as a society and of course, capitalism.

Postmodernism can be seen as one avenue, whereby a critique of western society has taken place. The postmodernist art movement in particular has seen to comment on the governance of established political structures and particular belief systems ever since its arrival in the 1960s.

So, what is postmodernist art and what’s it to do with capitalism?

Refusing to recognise a central theme or style within its work, postmodernism thus defies definition. Consequently, a much more relevant approach in defining the artistic movement would probably be to look at its personality. ‘Anti-authoritarian by nature, it refuses to recognise the authority of any single style or definition of what art should be’ (Tate-postmodernism, n.d.).

Of course, you could say that all art challenges a set of ideals, but what’s fascinating about postmodern art is that its perspective is formed based solely on an individuals conceptual understanding of the art…essentially, postmodern art is marmite, you either love it, or you hate it.

It’s so important to understand specifically why an individual likes or doesn’t like art. However, the telling thing with postmodern art is that it can arguably be the difference between one accepting the society their in, or completely rejecting it.

For example, world renowned American artist Andy Warhol has faced scrutiny over his work ever since the pop artists visions finally flourished in the 60s, separating society into two parts, ‘this is horrendous’ and, ‘this is revolutionary.’

Surely this speaks volumes to the capitalist world today? An artist who brings pop culture to the forefront of contemporary art which critiques capitalism through the means of what’s popular at the time… and the western world is split on their opinions of it? Could this be an indication to the split of opinion on capitalism itself?

The Marilyn Diptych 

Have you ever looked at a piece of art and almost felt guilty about it, with no idea why? Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych does exactly that. Warhol identifies the central theme within this work as the obsession society has over celebrities and celebrity culture alongside their changing status in the capitalist world. The fading of Marilyn’s face suggests her fading fame within the media whilst also encapsulating the actual death of Marilyn Monroe. The rather depressing fading technique used by Warhol can be said to be used to visually exemplify how Marilyn felt with the media’s constant demand to let the public know who the star really is…

When you walk away from Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych, you feel as though you yourself have inflicted this pain onto this celebrity. It could be said that Warhol tried to suggest here that your sheer existence within the capitalist world effectively fuels the need and want to consume not only goods…but now media and the people at the core of it.

-Brandon T. Clarkson

Sources:

Picture- https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/pop/a/warhol-marilyn-diptych

Quote- http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/postmodernism#incontext

Post Modernism

Post Modernism as a term has exalted its own banalities. Creating an impossible dialectic between the indissoluble spectacle and the immobilized individual. Society sits in its own cradle of disillusionment helplessly trying to patch up its existential pragmatism with the band aid of the cinema screen. Though the quailing irony of cinema slowly slipped through to the masses, as individuals began to relies there last form of escapism has sunken them further down the cultural drainage pipe. In a qausi-unconsciousness manoeuvre our society has screamed for a savour. The cultural melting post answered and is encompassed in a shift to a wave of childhood nostalgia. Within its shift its epicentre is the psycho-analytical God-Image. Best exemplified through the revival of the marvel universe, we are able to remember the fleeting sparks of our care free childhood, well feeling the comfort of the semi-human (God-Image) overcoming our oblivious projections of our inner deterioration. If you are not convinced ask yourself why in each movie the villain first destroys a city (usually New York) before finally being overcome. For the projection to become we must first see the outward destruction, then once internalised the archetype can work its magic. This interplay is not lost in terms of Post modern architecture. Although first we must discover if the term is even relevant anymore. In short and not to go further from the assignment, the truth is post modernism doesn’t exist, and in a sense it never did. Post modern was the reflection of societies own non-reality. It broke the bounds of any solidify that remained. To encapsulate this thought post modern isn’t so much a thing in itself, rather the residue of what once was, but now is not. This rings true too in post modern architecture. An individual just needs to walk down the strip of Las Vegas to see the clash between old a new. The hopeless attempt at societies relivable of post historical signifiers maybe the last barrier between us and the Nietzschian abyss. Colluding in this process is the collapse between arts distinction of High and low culture. Mostly simulated from Bauhausian archteture, buildings lost class consciousness. From this loss an attempt in the post modern world to understand itself through has occurred. Seen in the clashes of early and new, it creates its own new identity. Best seen in the Royal Ontario museum, a shard of mashed melt comes out of the side of an old 20^th century stone building. A clash of culture and people. The new coming out of the old.

Inside-out building as an example of postmodern architecture.

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Postmodern architecture began as an international style – the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s. My favourite building in London- Lloyd’s headquarters, was one of the first to be listed as city’s postmodern structure. London’s greatest machine for making money with visual dazzle, is called an inside-out building, located at One Lime Street. Its beauty is not obvious, at first sight. Its architecture is not comparable to other buildings on the Liverpool Street. Why everything what is supposed to be hidden is so visible? This design breaks conventions. Postmodernity in architecture is said to be heralded by the return of “wit, ornament and reference” to architecture in response to the formalism of the International Style of modernism. The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the modernist style are replaced by diverse aesthetics: styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound..

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The headquarters of Lloyd’s Bank were designed by Lord Richard Roberts and officially opened in 1986. He designed not only this building, but also the most luxuries apartments in the world, located in Knightsbridge, under the name of One Hyde Park. Both were designed to accommodate flexibility and change. Roberts has also designed Pompidou Centre in Paris leaving its services on the exterior, which makes it similar to the inside-out building, but in comparison, less dynamic. In 2011 Lloyd’s building, was listed at the highest grade, fitting recognition of architect’s modern design. Aesthetic of an inside-out building became known as Bowellism. Its elegance is hidden in the streetscape of the city and its dramatic scale. Building has impressive engineering and futuristic structure. It took eight years to build. This 290ft tower is made of steel and glass. It comprises six towers around the central rectangular atrium consisting of 11 galleries.  There are 12 lifts, which are located outside of the building. They were the first of this kind in the UK.  Water pipes are running outside as well as the electrical power conduits, leaving the interior free and transformable. The building has parts, that can be moved around, to change the layout.

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Postmodern buildings can inspire. Some are extraordinarily beautiful like the Inside-Out building. Rapidly changing cityscape has shown that Lloyd’s building is a stunning success, which maintains a balance between dense, its historic interior and exterior surroundings.

 

 

 

Week 12: Globalisation and Postmodernism – Cities, Streets & Spaces

In the first half of this class, we consider the impact of globalization in contemporary visual culture. We conclude the class with a walking tour of the South Bank. Here, we explore postmodern visual culture with a particular focus on the Leake Street graffiti tunnel.

 

 

When the stereotype is born for propaganda: the typical Russian antagonist by Elisa Orsini

Through media we get to know how ethnicities differ one to another, but sometimes stereotypes are not only defined based on common characteristics which associate people from a specific country; this is what is happening with Arabic people, shown for example in the American series “Homeland” where the terrorists threatening the United States are all Muslim, and what happened to the Russians in the USA TV and cinema production.

Villains and antagonists in movies need to be very well distinguished from good characters, and the use of people from different nationalities makes it so much easier; what happened during the Cold War is that American Television and Cinema started to represent Russian people as their recurrent “national enemy”, making propaganda and creating a villain stereotype which is nowadays still unchanged or at least only slightly changed.

Rocky IV,1985 is an American sport film fourth part of the famous ‘Rocky’ film series; the boxer Rocky Balboa wants the revenge on his friend’s death killed on the ring by the Russian athlete Ivan Drago and decides to accept a match against him in the Soviet Union. The propaganda is explicit as the American Rocky Balboa is symbol of great and pacific athlete whilst the Russian Ivan Drago is instead violent, on steroids and ruthless. The film came out during the Cold War years, therefore media were the main means to transmit a negative image of Soviet Union to the whole country; the point is that the negative stereotype remained after the end of the ‘silent war’, and nowadays several movies are still using Russians as the villains.

John Wick, 2014, is an American neo-noir thriller film about a former hitman who stopped his service when his wife died and seeks vengeance for the theft of his car and the killing of his puppy, gift from his deceased wife. The responsible of the crimes are three members of the Russian Mafia; the film is very recent and there is not any specific reason why the Russian population should be still portrayed as the ‘bad guys’. This is an obvious consequence of the imprinted stereotype born with the Cold War, and it is only one of the several examples which Russians are showed with. We could also mention A Good Day to Die Hard, 2013, where the protagonist wants to rescue his son arrested in Russia who is then found to be a secret CIA agent working to foil a terrorist attack.

 

Is it only a cinematographic choice to set Russians as villains or is there any criticism towards the Russian society? There could be some political grudge left from the years of the Cold War, but they are still one of the American’s film favourite villains. The most interesting fact that brought me to choose this case study is that stereotype is not only restricted to one specific genre; The Spy Next Door, 2010, is a Jackie Chan family-comedy where the villains are once again Russian. I think that good and evil binary opposition works very well on children, and being shown a bad person with a different accent and nationality might make them create an idea of “evil” and portray Russians as dangerous people.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBhJ-_t53o0 First 5 seconds; villain speaks English with Russian accent.

 

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141106-why-are-russians-always-bad-guys

 

 

Race representation within Hollywood film: Ghost in the Shell

Race representation within Hollywood films has seen improvement within the 21^st century, however there are still moments of controversy within film casting and weather certain films are victim to ‘whitewashing’ rather than maintaining realistic representation of race and culture. A current example of this is an upcoming film for 2017, Ghost in the Shell.

This film is a Hollywood remake of a well-known and globally popular franchise of the same name. The sci-fi series focuses on central themes including sociological issues, the consequences of technological advances and themes on the nature of consciousness and identity. These themes are explored within the franchise by following the protagonist, a cyborg anti-cyber terrorist named Makoto Kusanagi and events in her life. This remake has become a topic of controversy in terms of race representation due to casting of the protagonist being American actress Scarlett Johansson rather than an actress of Asian descent. This decision has seen severe backlash within the western community, many see ‘Ghost in the Shell’ as a ‘pillar’ within Asian media, especially for the growing popularity for anime and manga outside Asian culture.
The popularity of Japanese series, particularly anime and manga has seen rapid changes towards orientalism within western media but this increased popularity has also led to Hollywood focusing on creating remakes which could increase the risk of instances like this where ‘whitewashing’ and false race representation become a risk due to casting and alterations within these adaptations. The casting of the film has also caused concern with ‘whitewashing’ due to many characters within the first full trailer being ‘white’ despite the fact that the film is set in futuristic Japan. This aspect can also lead to potential ethnic issues as the Japanese setting and American cultural background of the cast are different which could lead to discrepancies even within the acting in an audiences point of view.
Despite such backlash towards the film in the West, Japan itself has given the film a positive response and seemed pleased with the results so far in the films development. This is possibly due to the trailers released so far showing close loyalty to the original series and the only noticeable difference between the anime and live action so far is the protagonists race not being Asian within the live action adaptation. Some within the Japanese audience have voiced that the character’s race being Asian or American is not even important as it does not impact the deeper central themes which focus on the character’s difficulties within society as a cyborg rather than a human. This difference is emphasised by some in the Western audience who state “It’s not simply a sci-fi thriller … This casting is not only the erasure of Asian faces but a removal of the story from its core themes.”[02]
Looking into this example it can be seen that whilst media has developed away from stereotyping other cultures in a negative way such as with orientalism there is still a concern within western audiences that Hollywood still ‘whitewashes’ film adaptations of foreign franchises. While Rupert Sanders live action ‘Ghost in the Shell’ may potentially be ‘whitewashing’ the cast there is evidence within the trailers that the main narrative hasn’t been severally altered away from its source.
– trailer and anime comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCO5HSzUNVQ

Sources:

[01] https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/nov/14/whitewash-ghost-in-the-shell-hollywoodised-mamoru-oshii-rupert-sanders-scarlett-johansson

[02] https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/apr/15/scarlett-johanssons-role-in-ghost-in-the-shell-ignites-twitter-storm

[03] http://lrmonline.com/news/japanese-fans-are-loving-scarlett-johanssons-ghost-in-the-shell-so-far

[04] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/news

My Culture. Not Your Costume.

 Quite often it can be difficult to understand the difference between ethnicity and race, but it is important not to confuse them. Ethnicity makes reference to people’s cultural identity, and suggest that it is based on a sense of place, ideology or religion. On the other hand, your race is defined by the fact that you descend from a common ancestor, giving you a clear set of racial characteristics. In this sense, the ethnicity you relate to could be Oriental, but you could also identify Eastern-Europe as your race.

Just like other groups within the media, there are stereotypical representations of ethnicity defined by racial characteristics. As an example the image below was part of the promotional posters for the action-comedy movie: Rush Hour (1998).  

In a few words, the movie represents Chinese actor Jackie Chan as the stereotypical asian character: wise and exotic. 

Exotic because people from different ethnic background sometimes awaken audiences interests, because media texts suggest that their lives are full of adventures, romance, glamour and excitement. 

This is called “orientalism”, a term created by Edward W. Said (1978) to define this construction created by the western society.

In order to represent this kind of conception, the culture is often linked with a set of different objects and customs. In reference to the movie, we can easily appreciate this “props”, the character Chan is portraying is exceptionably good at martial arts, he loves to eat the typical Chinese meals and very often makes use of his native language. An interesting fact is that the movie also plays with other common representation for “others” who are different to the main culture. At the beginning of the film Chan plays “dumb foreign” in front of Tucker’s character as he does not speak english and smiles all the time.

Afterwards he reveals himself, and he is blamed for not disclosing the fact that he speaks “american” to what he answers:

-I didn’t say I didn’t you assume I didn’t. […] I am not responsible for your assumption.

If we recall his roles in previous movies, we can see him “fitting” in the expected asian man portrayal in action-comedy movies. He is funny and he knows how to fight. Maybe the reason why he is successful at engaging with audience through this representation is because before him there was Bruce Lee, who passed his heritage to his son, Brandon Lee, who followed the teachings of his father.

It can be argued that a key element that links us to this term of “orientalism” is that they three in real life actually posses the skills they portray. They are known for playing their action scenes without the use stunts, so in a sense, they conform the common perception people have about Chinese culture, and because they are the most recognisable to represent it, we inevitably link these two.

On the other hand, the poster itself presents stereotypes for both, not  only Jackie Chan as he is being described as “the fastest hands in the east”, but also Chris Tucker is embedded with the stereotypes of african-american men, talkative, arrogant and fan of R&B music (Park, J. et all. 2006) similar to the one we encounter for example in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-6).

However, beside their differences, we can see them sharing and accepting their different cultures. This process is called acculturation, “the free borrowing and modification of cultural elements and occurs when people of different cultures” (Britannica, 2008)

However, this sense of exotic is not only reduced to Oriental cultures, we can see this reflected in for example halloween costumes which arguably allow people to appropriate of an essential element of a culture identity. People often decide to dress up as african tribes man, catrina’s Mexican characteristic skulls or native americans. The increasing development of the markets, make available these costumes from almost anywhere, from local supermarkets to online stores, therefore supporting this issue but making them available. 

For this time of the year people decide to be what they cannot, because they do not belong to the culture these costumes represent. This cultural issue was approached by an advertising campaign created by students in Ohio University, with the aim to rise awareness on how this type of representation harms the culture identity of people who belong to them. Their slogan was “You wear the costume for one night I wear the stigma for life”. In this sense this describes the other side of the experience. Native american descendants are seen forced to conform theses expectations people have about them, in the same way, Mexicans are expected to behave in a specific way.

The misrepresentation of people’s identity relies partially on the media industry. The portrayal of ethnicity and race relies on stereotypes, as it is a convenient way to categorise others or to label people and behaviour. Positive stereotypes are also harmful those they target, they can also precondition how people from certain groups think about themselves.

In conclusion, this type of representation in general is even more dangerous, as the view that the media offers, is often the only experience of culture that some audiences will encounter.

Sources:

Britannica, 2008. Acculturation.

Ohio Poster Campaign

Park, J., Gabbadon, N., Chernin, A., (2006) Naturalizing Racial Differences Through Comedy: Asian, Black, and White Views on Racial Stereotypes in Rush Hour 2. Int. Communication Association.

Said, E. 1978. Orientalism. Penguin Books, London.

Rush Hour (1998) IMDB