Good politics and economics can offer a good environment for creating culture. Although politics and economics push culture were spreading, culture has a stronger influence than politics, ecology, and economics; it can impact all over the world. On the contrary, most politics, ecology, and economics only affect local people. However, culture spreads through films, music, and books all over the world. Culture compare with military force and economic sanctions; it seems no powerful and no dangerous. However, culture can influence national and people unconsciously. Not only can culture change our daily life, but also culture affects our behavior. So, I want to share my experience about when I grow up how culture affects me, and how I impact the world.
I grow up in a small city in the middle part of China. My hometown does not have skyscrapers, science museums as well as famous colleges. Also, we cannot afford the money of visiting another country. Therefore, we did not have the opportunity to feel foreign culture directly. However, globalization and the internet help us to see foreign culture easily by reading the book, watching the film and listening to the music at home.
China
In the beginning, I want to talk about how Chinese culture impacts me. In China, people care about the difference between their status. Different status has different stateliness. For example, parents are higher than children and professors are more senior than students. But when I come to Canada, I see parents with children and professors with students that they are equal. Also, they respect each other. However, In China, we respect and fear our parents and professors. Therefore, when I face my professors I still am afraid, I do not know how to talk to teachers like friends. The reason why we are so scared when we meet our parents and teachers is that parents always ask us to follow their thoughts, our ideas always are ignored by them.
Also, parents ask children to concentrate on studying, so children lose self-care ability because they believe their children studying in top universities is the only way to success. I have a brother who is growing up in Toronto; he told me he did the part-time job when he was in high school. However, In China children only concentrate on studying, they take part in a lot of tutoring institution in their free time. Parents judge their children depending on their grade. There are some extreme examples. Firstly, there is a university student who never washes clothes by himself, so he sent his dirty clothes to his parents by post. Secondly, there is a parent ask their child's roommate take care of their child because their child did not have self-care ability. Therefore, I decided to find a part-time job in this semester while to convince my parents to support me. After I worked in a restaurant, I think I learnt a lot form the experience. Also, I share my experience with my friends to encourage them to find a part-time job.
What's more, Chinese does not like telling their feeling directly. Parents rarely say to their children that I love you. They express their love by asking their children to eat more food, to take more clothes when the weather is cold and so on. Therefore, I also do not know how to say I love you to my parents because we both feel embarrassed. I think the embarrassed based on a different status level between parents and children. Parents always show strictly to maintenance their stateliness. Therefore, parents have "Silent love" for their children.
Besides, China has a lot of mythology stories. Such as Classic of Mountains and Seas, Journey to the West as well as Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. In 2002, some web fiction fans created a website called qidian.com which attract a lot of online writers to create a variety of stories based on Taoism and Chinese mythology. After reading three years later, I decided to write a story based on Chinese mythology called Defend the earth which tells people to live in a parallel world where people have superpower based on Taoism, and how they protect the planet. Unfortunately, I did finish the stories. I only wrote ten chapter then I gave up. It is easy to think about how to describe the story, but it's hard to write it. Now, Qidian has to translate Chinese novel to English on a website called webnovel.com.Now, Qidian has to translate Chinese novel to English on a website called webnovel.com. It's spread Chinese culture to the world.
America
Although I did not live in The United States, it still impacts on me by the internet and globalization. Globalization is increasing the interconnectedness of different parts of the world through common processes of economic, environmental, political and cultural change. Not only can Hollywood movies spread American culture, but also it can impact people behaviors. When I was young, I saw Harry Potter on the television. I was surprised by the special effect and story. At that moment, I became a fan of Harry Potter. When I go to school, everyone talks about how amazing the movies. Also, Home Alone is my favorite film; I had watched it more than ten times. Besides, Forrest Gump and The Shawshank Redemption encourage a lot of people when they passive. Also, we will imitate the movie character hairstyle and clothing style. The modern city and fast food attracted me when I was young. Without globalization, I did not have the opportunity to see the Hollywood movies because my hometown did not have cinema when I was young. The only way to look at the film is CCTV6 which is a movies channel on television, but you cannot choose movies by yourself.
Globalization helps to spread local culture, which influences other regions, where spread quickly. When I was in junior high school, the first time, I sent Christmas gift to my friends. Because of the meaning of Christmas Eve in Chinese is safety night, apple also means safety in Chinese. Therefore, an apple wrapped in the beautiful plastic bag; it is price 1 dollar. Even, sometimes we will compare who receive the most apples. However, when I was in primary school, I know what Christmas is, but nobody celebrates the festival. After a few years, shops and restaurants begin to launch promotions on Christmas while everyone enjoys celebrating the festival. There are two reasons. Firstly, China join in WTO while globalization has more potent so that foreign culture can spread in China quickly. Secondly, China has 1.5 billion people, so the amount of people attracts the international company come into China, so foreign culture become a tool to attract people.
What's more, Silicon Valley culture also attracts me. I read a book called On Top of Tides which tell serval companies that are fortunate, conscious or unconsciously standing on the wave of the technological revolution such as AT&T, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Apple and Facebook. Although they come from different fields, some of them have declined or are declining, but they are incredibly brilliant. They used to be a global empire, ruled their industry. San Francisco was attracting people because it had abundant gold, but now Silicon Valley becomes the main reason for San Francisco to attract people.
Silicon Valley has magic to attract people who want to be successful because a lot of transnational corporations create in the garages such as HP and Apple. Everyone thinks they will become a next Facebook or Google. What's more, I decided to be a programmer because it can create a great product by himself in the beginning. Although my parents hope I choose business or economy, I choose to study computing science. Internet becomes more and more important, so the programmer has more opportunity to find a job. Internet helps to spread Silicon Valley culture. Also, Silicon Valley culture increases internet development. Silicon Valley shapes the Silicon Valley culture, also Silicon Valley culture shapes Silicon Valley.
South Korea
When I was in junior high school, Korean TV dramas and bands were trendy in China. In a shopping mall, there is a lot of Korean styles of cloth shop. What' more, if you buy clothes on the internet, it would label their Korean clothes style on purpose. Also, we imitate how idol wear clothes because students who dress up like a Korean idol will popular at school. What's more, almost every teenager has a star dream, and I am no exception. So, I started to learn the guitar and set up a band with my classmates. In the beginning, we spend serval on thinking our band name. Then we study how to write a song and record melody by recording pen. In the end, we break up our band because nobody wants to study drum. And we all think the guitar is the coolest instrument.
Japan
Unlike Korean culture mainly influence China and Japan, Japanese culture already spreads all over the world such as sushi and anime. Sushi already become a favorite food in the world. Each city at least has one sushi restaurant. Also, anime impact all over the world. SFU anime club holds a summer festival in a few weeks ago. This summer festival surprised me because I saw people came from different countries cosplay the same characters. Although we have different colors and different faith, we all like the anime which makes us feel happy and depressive. When we feel tired, the anime always gives us the courage to adhere.
My favorite anime is Silver Spoon which tells the protagonist to avoid the family pressure and study burden, admitted to the Ho Chi Minh Agricultural High School in Hokkaido. In the junior school period, the protagonist is under academic pressure. Every day is learning, but no matter how hard he is working the grade are still in the middle. He has a talented brother who admitted to Tokyo University, and parents have high expectations for him. The pressure encourages the protagonist to get excellent grades, but he always fails. In the end, he is a breakdown. Therefore, he decides to study in an agricultural high school which is far away from home. In the agricultural high school, his academic grade is the number one in class, but his agricultural grade is not good. However, without his parents and academic pressure, he starts to recover confidence. He makes a lot of friends and makes progress in the agricultural field quickly.
The reason why I like the anime is that I have the same experience as the protagonist. My hometown was a small city. My parents hope I can have a better education, so I went to high school which lives in a big city. In the beginning, I study hard because I know how hard parents give me an opportunity to study in a big city. In the first year, my all grades are excellent, I always the number one in my school. At least, I was the number nine in my school. However, after the first year the pressure cannot support me while I thought I was smart, so I did not study hard that I still can get good grades. But I did not, my grades from number one slow down to number forty step by step. In the meantime, the pressure from teachers and classmates always made me uncomfortable because my grades were good. Therefore, I lost my confidence step by step. In one hand, I know I need to study hard. On the other hand, I still thought if I work hard, I will get a good grade. However, I was stuck in the thought and never do it. In the anime, the protagonist already found his way. Now, I still have a lot of bad behaviors. But the Silver Spoon always gives me the courage to adhere and to believe I can do it. I again try to find my way and become confident. The Silver Spoon create a connection between me and Japanese culture, even though I never visit Japan.
Not only can culture change our daily life, but also culture influences our behavior by globalization and the internet. Chinese culture makes me more respect my parents, but also it makes me cannot express my love to my parents directly. Besides, Chinese culture encourages me to concentrate on studying, but it also makes lose self-care ability. What's more, Hollywood culture gives me an opportunity to see what the modern city looks. Also, Silicon Valley culture lets me know what the future looks like. Korean culture impact people's aesthetics and encourage me to study guitar. What's more, Japanese culture inspires me to find my way and achieve dreams. I am happy that we have the different culture in the world. Every country has their own culture.
Reference
[1] Google map: Henan Province
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Henan,+China/@33.8586952,111.262366,7z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x35d692e354d4df61:0x82b2157827a21acb!8m2!3d34.2904302!4d113.3823545?hl=en&authuser=0
[2] Webnovel
https://www.webnovel.com
[3] Google map: Henan Province to Hollywood
https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Hollywood+Boulevard,+Los+Angeles,+CA,+USA/Henan,+China/@15.4411105,165.7787983,3z/data=!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x80c2bf3b245207d5:0xae58054941bd8669!2m2!1d-118.3336436!2d34.1015885!1m5!1m1!1s0x35d692e354d4df61:0x82b2157827a21acb!2m2!1d113.3823545!2d34.2904302?hl=en&authuser=0
[4] Google map: Henan Province to Silicon Valley
https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Silicon+Valley,+CA,+USA/Henan,+China/@30.1295442,138.8922646,3z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x808fb68ad0cfc739:0x7eb356b66bd4b50e!2m2!1d-122.0575434!2d37.387474!1m5!1m1!1s0x35d692e354d4df61:0x82b2157827a21acb!2m2!1d113.3823545!2d34.2904302?hl=en&authuser=0
[5] On Top of Tides
https://www.amazon.com/Top-Tides-2nd-Chinese/dp/7115301204
[6] Google map: Henan Province to Seoul
https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Seoul,+South+Korea/Henan,+China/@35.8536586,115.6871375,6z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x357ca28b61c565cd:0x858aedb4e4ea83eb!2m2!1d126.9779692!2d37.566535!1m5!1m1!1s0x35d692e354d4df61:0x82b2157827a21acb!2m2!1d113.3823545!2d34.2904302?hl=en&authuser=0
[7] Google map: Henan Province to Tokyo
https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Tokyo,+Japan/Henan,+China/@34.6746956,117.5277463,5z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x605d1b87f02e57e7:0x2e01618b22571b89!2m2!1d139.6917064!2d35.6894875!1m5!1m1!1s0x35d692e354d4df61:0x82b2157827a21acb!2m2!1d113.3823545!2d34.2904302?hl=en&authuser=0
[8] Silver Spoon,
https://www.anime-planet.com/anime/silver-spoon-2014
