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Individual Freedom Increase by Globalization A young Chinese girl is dating her new boyfriend in Starbucks. They drink Frappuccino, taste Tiramisu, and chat in English sharing interesting experience of studying abroad. A hearty laugher could be heard all the time. The girl’s grandmother might be shocked by this and the girl’s mother would probably shake her head in disbelief (Friedman 4). Thirty years ago, marriages were arranged by the family, the young had no voice in who their future husband and wife would be.
Drinking American coffee, tasting Italian pastries or having a romantic date was almost impossible, not to speak of learning English and studying abroad. Changes did not happen until recent years when the upsurge of globalization is sweeping across China, bringing the thought of liberty. Same as China, globalization impacts Asian people’s lives by bringing a great variety of goods, increasing access to learn foreign cultures and casting off old customs that against human rights and liberty. Asian countries benefit from culture exchange.
Globalization is not a threat to Asian countries because globalization increases individual freedom. One of the freedoms that contributes to Asian countries is that globalization supports diversity and freedom of choice by giving Asian people an opportunity to buy foreign products. People have more convenient way to do world shopping than before because the global common market has a freedom of exchange of goods. With worldwide free trade, trade between countries increase and goods are transported with more easiness.
There is a wider range of options for Asian people to choose among the products of different nations. For example, a Chinese could eat hamburger or spaghetti for dinner, drink Starbucks coffee or Chilean wine, watch Hollywood movies or BBC news, listen to jazz or rap, practice football or kickboxing and read Elle or Economist (Legrain 516). Just because someone was born in China does not mean they can only eat Chinese food, read Chinese book, listen to Chinese music and so on (Legrain 516).
As Legrain notes in his article “Cultural Globalization is not Americanization,” “globalization can free people from the tyranny of geography” enabling them to eat foreign foods, watch foreign movies and listen to foreign music. People in Asian countries can experience more of the world without always having to leave their countries. However, there is a concern that the expense of greater individual freedom is the loss of national identify. Although people in Asian countries have diversity and freedom of choice, they often choose similar things.
For instance, people in China are more like to choose eating KFC or MacDonald’s instead of traditional Chinese food. The Chinese fret that if they all individually make similar choice, they might unwittingly lose their own food culture (Legrain 520). People in China prefer fast food than traditional Chinese food because consumers need not wait for a long time in KFC or McDonald’s and the food there are delicious. Fast food suits most people’s taste and severs individual need in modern high-speech daily life.
According to a report released in 2007, there are nearly 60% young people in China do not know how to cook traditional Chinese food, but 80% of them can make hamburger and sandwich. If most Chinese people did not know the way of cooking traditional Chinese food and they prefer eating fast food, Chinese food cultural may lose one day in the future (Deen 9). Fear about loss of national identify is overdone. Most Asian countries are well-known for the long history in the world; especially China has 5000 years history. Their cultures have taken root in every citizen’s mind and full of every corner of their heart.
Globalization could hardly change people’s way of life if the culture is a part of national identify. As Legrain notes, “Natural cultures are much stronger than people seem to think. They can embrace some foreign influence and resist others. Foreign influence can rapidly become domesticated, changing national culture, but not destroying it (Legrain 520). ” For instance, the way of Chinese McDonald’s has been absorbed by Chinese culture and architecture. Faster food, a typical product of American culture, is often tailored to local taste.
KFC sells meat balls, spring rolls and fried dumpling in China. The Chinese style McDonald’s product is hybrid of American and Chinese cultural. Similar as KFC in China, McDonald’s serve tuna burger in Japan and lamb in India. Foreign cultures could not be acceptable directly by Asian people only if they have some change to suit local culture. National cultures absorb the helpful part of foreign cultures and resist the others. They are in the leading position of exchange of culture. In a word, foreign culture has conformed to local culture, not dominated or destroyed it (Deen 9).
Another freedom that globalization brings to Asian countries is the loss of old customs that are no longer relevant. Western ideas about individual liberty and social equality are reshaping the way people in Asian countries view themselves and society (Legrain 521). People realized the importance of human right and freedom and expect to experience life the way they want. Therefore, old customs against human right such as slavery, gender discrimination, restricting freedom of speech have been banned under the influence of globalization.
People today can express their opinion more freely and become more powerful to handle their own lives. For example, in the past, women in Asian countries like India and Korea could not select their husbands: it was out of their hand. Marriage was arranged by their parents or men decided who would be their wives. Once married, women simply accepted the role as a caretaker for their husbands and children and did not expect that their own personal interests would be recognized (Friedman 3).
With globalization, women are transitioning from the traditional way of thinking about marriage (arranged marriage) to the western way of thinking about marriage (freedom of marriage). They date different men before marriage looking for freedom to choose husbands by themselves. In addition, women do not want to give up their own lives after marriage. Seventy-six percent young women in India say they hope to find a career that enables them to develop as well as earn them money. They are not willing to be housewives living only for their husbands and children (Friedman 4).
Women in Asian countries treat themselves as modern western women who have equal right as men, demanding lives of their own. Western ideas against gender discrimination impact the way Asian women view themselves bring the confidence and freedom to handle their own lives. In short, Asian people are casting off old customs that against human rights and liberty, seeking for a free life under the influence of globalization. Globalization increases the access to study different foreign cultures, giving Asian people a freedom to learn about the rest of the world and expand their minds.
The wide use of Internet and cell phones enables people to connect with the world at anytime, anyplace, no longer constrained by borders or distance. If an Asian student has a question about American history, he can easily find the answer through the internet or asking his American friend on phone. Besides Internet and cell phone, studying abroad and traveling are the other two ways to learn foreign culture directly. In Japan, there are 18 million people experience an international travel and the number of student studying in America increases to 80 thousands (Deen 9).
There were a growing number of Asian countries who opened doors instead of relying on themselves and the communication among different countries is on the rise. While people are benefiting from broader access to study foreign cultures, a few people worry about the English hegemony. Asian students prefer to choose studying in western countries such as America, England or Australia because they provide better education. As a result, learning English becomes the “only” choice for Asian students if they want to communicate with other parts of the world.
For example, almost all the countries in the world have extra sighs set up in public places providing information in English. An Asian traveler, who cannot speak native language but have learned English, could read the information without any problems. In addition, most countries in the world have English as their first language, even people in other non-English speaking countries, most of them can use simple English words for communication. In other words, English is most widely used requiring people in Asian countries to study it if they want to use internet, study abroad or communicate with foreigners (Deen 9).
To sum up, globalization does not bring the freedom because of the English hegemony, which forcing people to choose it only for better learning different foreign cultures. Although the number of people studying English is increasing rapidly, English should not be the only choice for Asian people. With the help of technology, translator is widely used for solving language problems. An Asian traveler can have a nice trip in western countries without the ability of speaking English. They can read the information or communicate with foreigners by using the translating machine.
For people from China, Japan, traveling abroad could be more convenient and learning foreign cultures could be much easier because of the China town and Japanese town in other countries. People living in these places are glad to help travelers from Asian countries and they will introduce culture difference in a new way, providing another access to learning foreign cultures (Deen 9). In a word, both appearance of China town under the influence of global economy and wide use of translator due to global technology, extricate Asian people from English hegemony, bringing more freedoms to learn cultural diversity.
To sum up, globalization impacts on Asian people’s life in positive ways. The girl’s grandmother was shocked because she has never experienced the advantages of globalization. Diversity and freedom of choice, casting off old customs that against human right and liberty, increase access to study foreign cultures; such cultural changes due to globalization do not damage or destroy national culture but bring individual liberty. Globalization is not a threat to Asian countries because globalization increases individual freedom.