There is a place called China. It's full of Chinese people and dominated by Chinese culture. Is there anything wrong with that? More pointedly - is there anything wrong with those Chinese people liking it like that?

As mass-media, mass-travel, and commerical globalization spread, the natural insulation that produced the world's diverse peoples is being stripped away. Massive movement of humans to (mostly western) areas of wealth is impacting the ethno-cultural lanscape of those receiving countries. Less obvious is the massive movement of media-borne culture from the west to everywhere else, also changing the cultural landscape of those other countries.

Some people are ecstatic about this - they dream of a John-Lenon-esque "one world" where everyone is just a human with no distinctions. These people tend to imagine themselves on the moral highground.

But is it so very wrong for anyone to prefer the other way? If a Chinese person were to prefer that the traditional Chinese character of his neighbourhood NOT be transformed into some Tex-Mex nightmare by a massive influx of George Bush wannabees, are we prepared to brand him an evil racist? If a Nigerian mother is not too excited about her kids being taught it's wrong to be "Afro-Centric" in their thinking, is she to be demonized?

Must all peoples the world over break down all the walls that allowed their diverse ethno-cultural identities to emerge in the first place, and make way for a new multicultural globalized social paradigm, or be pilloried as backwards xenophobes?

 

no theres nothing wrong with that.

downtown clearwater fllorida. there is a street called martin luther king jr. its dominated by african americans. but its run down,bad. i wont walk through it, there is a lack of police presence, and when you do see a police presence, its a black cop.

there isnt a white,hispanic,asian establishment, within 2 miles of it, and there wont be.

true story, when i first moved here, i was going down that street at night, 2 blackkids on bikes saw me coming, road there bikes into the middle of the road, dropped them in the middle of the street, and started walking towards me. i dropped it into first on the tacoma,jumped a curb, and peeled out acroos someones lawn to get on to the other street.

ill tell you what noones enforcing anything on there culture, and they have made it clear that they dont want it any other way, than the way it is.

 

china is made up of many different groups of people with differennt cultures, back grounds and languages.

it is only expect white people break down their walls and accomodate everyone else, if they don't, they are labeled racist, bigots, xenophobes or what ever other word there is out there.

if anyone else besides white people exercise their right to be with their own kind, then it is just labeld as preserving their culture.

it is no coinencendence that europe, america and canada (you to australia), which has a majority of white people, are also the most culturally diverse in the world when compared to non-majority white countries. no one in the media will ever make mention of that either. yet we are the first ones to be branded the bigot labels when any and all situations arise.

 

The attempt to get rid of borders that delineate countries and cultures and work towards one race, one language seems like a modern attempt to "build the tower of Babel." Humans have been trying that stuff for thousands of years with no luck yet for some reason there are always some that think they can succeed where the others always failed.

 

Yes. If you don't, you will be labeled a terrorist. Look what happened at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

 

No I don't think that there is.

First I have to ask though - have you been to China recently?
Go to downtown shanghai, I see adverts for Sony, McDonalds, KFC, Coke ads... so, when the shoe fits.
If the signs weren't in Wu or Mandarin you would think you are in another western city (well, one that is filled with mainly chinese people none-the-less!).

The same goes for most cities. Go to western China, however and it is 3 worlds removed.
I paradoxically compare it to the likes of L.A. to say... mid-west small town Americana
I think the fact that these countries are multicultural is due to thier industrialised wealth.

Oh how its going to be interesting in the next 50 years with regards to that comment.








Anyhow - I empathise with your comments Fred, culture in societies appears to be an ever reducing commodity.
However I would add, it isn't something that has been lost in the last 5 years, or even the last 50.

The Romans were going to build a global empire - weren't they?

 

I think there is quite a difference between buying products/brands from outside your borders that increase your standard of living and dumping your language, art, religion, ethnicity, political scape and customs for those brought in by immigrants.

It's more the latter that I think the OP was referring to. Granted the two are not mutually exclusive, but neither are they inseparable.