Hollywood doesn’t really produce many films for Asian market. India has a thriving Bollywood sub-culture that the US domestic film industry doesn’t really bother with, and the same will likely be happening in China. Europe. ETC.
Hollywood has clearly been desperately trying to pander to the Chinese market for a while. With all due respect, the Indian market, while huge in terms of numbers, was never lucrative enough to really interest the big US studios. I think we’re going to see a shift in film, tv, music and other art forms. After all money talks in culture as much as any other industry.
You mean Fast and Furious 19 may be in doubt? Or Ben Stiller may have to end his acting career?
How on earth will we all cope?
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Of course Hollywood produces plenty of rubbish and there is much to mock about it, but it has been a hugely important part of the projection of soft power for the US for the last century. For much of the world, stories told there have been part of our lives from childhood on, whether we like it or not.
This has helped the US establish its narrative as the predominant one in the world and a challenge to this arm of US hegemony is as threatening as a military buid up.
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Hollywood in a nutshell -
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I’m not sure if you are deliberately missing the point, but you are, for reasons best known to yourself.
I’m not trying to defend Hollywood or its output. However its contribution to the exercise of US power is undeniable.
Anyway, we’re straying off topic.
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I understand that completely - the point I am trying to make is that the exercise of its power through this medium IMO cannot end soon enough. The world has, and is changing, and a bit more diversity and a lot less self regard by the Americans, would not go amiss. There are thousands of cultures out there, but Hollywood force feeds us the American perspective. To use a song title from the Clash, “I’m so bored with the USA.” I look forward to the growth of alternate cultural messages and perspectives in all media forms. The Americans will not like it, but it is happening.
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It would be great if it was replaced by a diverse range of stories from around the world, and, in tv, there are some signs of that happening at the moment. If it’s replaced by Chinese propaganda films about the Korean war it may not be so positive.
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Agreed. I for one would love indie films about the Chinese working class experience or something that explores their societal issues. Although, that might be a bit niche for many…
The world is so vast, there are so many stories to explore out there. I’ve personally had no interest in many of the big blockbusters, and it doesn’t change whether they’re American or Chinese. I’d love to hear about what it’s like to grow up in rural Siberia for instance. One great thing about Netflix I’d say is that there’s a lot more exposure at least culturally, even if the selections aren’t necessarily from smaller producers either.
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It is the most unexpectedly positive aspect of the rise of streaming platforms, specifically netflix. The platform driven demand for content has forced them to find and promote non-US content and the different approach to choosing what to watch has resulted in a notoriously parochial demographic finding they do actually prefer good foreign tv over shit tv with american accents and pretty faces.
The extension of that is that a US production made for US eyes can and does present a warped American perspective on an issue. Likewise, a Chinese production about tibet is likely going to be met very differently in an international market than if it was made only for domestic broadcast, and my hope is we get a dilution of nationalistic perspectives simply because they wont be able to get away with it for a globally consumed production.
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Interesting as that deviates massively from US previous stance, but also would not be something they would publicly announce unless they have an agreement with other countries like Japan, South Korea ect
Or maybe they have intelligence pointing to China planning something and they are using military scaremongering to try and push China back maybe?
The trouble with red lines is that you have to stick with them.
It’s probably too late to avoid some kind of conflict already.
The rational way out would be 1, Taiwan drops all mention of China in its name. 2, A free, fair and secure referendum is held and its result is recognised by all concerned parties.
Of course this won’t happen unfortunately, so we are on a very dangerous course with little chance of anything other than a disastrous outcome.
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It requires international recognition of Taiwan if they drop the reference to China, hold a democratic referendum on independence and elect a government. If the UN then recognises Taiwan as an independent nation state I think that would leave China snookered.
Can’t see China recognising the result of a referendum that doesn’t go their way. It would be fantastic if that happened of course.
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Yeah, that will work, because we all know how much weight the UN holds.
Vowing to protect Taiwan and going to war to defend it might not be the same thing. Providing Taiwan with arms and funding in the event of an attack could be said to be an attempt to protect it. When the attempt fails then the US could say that they tried their best but there wasn’t enough support among the American people for another foreign war far from American shores, so sorry and all that.
It’s a dangerous game. What kind of message does that send to S.Korea and Japan, for example?
Isn’t the US tied by treaties with South Korea and Japan, but isn’t with Taiwan?
They have been in the past, but not entirely sure how strong those treaties are now as they were done up post-WW2.
I did start reading up on this a few weeks back, will try and find the site as it was actually quiet interesting and usefull, even if it is US government backed, as it referenced US diplomatic relations through history linked to various wars.
Found this Milestones: 1945–1952 - Office of the Historian which was great as a starting point, but a lot of good stuff on there to help with providing a bit of framework