The Importance of Culture Source: Richard Rircher, The Importance of Culture, hutps://handmadewriting.com/blog/samples/culture-essay/ Culture can be defined as “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.” It can also be understood as the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society. Therefore, it’s the shared patterns of our behavior and interaction which are learned through socialization. People of the same culture share a group identity that is fostered by social pattems unique to the group. Culture encompasses for example values, beliefs, symbols, norms, and pattems of behavior. It has a far-reaching impact on our everyday actions, on how we talk and think, what we wear, what we believe, how we sit at the table, and how we behave among other people, But what is the importance of culture in our society? And which components constitute our conception of culture? Components of culture + Values * Beliefs * Symbols + Norms * Patterns of behavior What defines culture? All cultures are characterized by constant change. As a dynamic phenomenon, cultures are under constant change and they must adapt to environmental changes. This is one of the universal features of a culture. Afler globalization, the world became more interconnected and today most societies consist of ethnically diverse populations. This has given rise to conflicts associated with ethnicity, religion, and ethical beliefs which are all central concepts in cultures. More than ever before, culture is no longer fixed but rather in constant motion. At a time when cultures adapt and become more fluid, a need has been identified to protect and preserve the past. There are organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) whose objectives include conserving and protecting cultural and natural heritage along with the promotion of international cooperation, peace, and security. To answer the question about the importance of culture, one has to consider its role in people’s everyday lives. Because culture affects how people behave and interact with each other, it helps you build relationships with others when you understand other cultures and perspectives. It’s also good to understand how much in common we have with other people even if at first glance their cultures might seem completely different. We are all humans and have similar needs, hopes, fears, and things that make us happy. It doesn’t mean, however, that our cultural differences don’t matter atall. A better strategy is to acknowledge that differences exist and to fight against discrimination. The world is becoming more and more diverse as different languages, religions, economic and cultural groups blend together. We need to appreciate and understand different cultures andestablish relationships with people from other backgrounds. This is the only way to build successful communities, improve our living conditions, and solve problems. If we take a closer look at the characteristics of culture, we can identify five basic traits that define the concept of culture, Five characteristics of culture ° Learned © Shared # Integrated + Dynamic * Based on symbols Culture is learned Culture is learned because it’s not biological or ingrained in our DNA. Children don’t inherit culture from their parents. Instead, they learn it and much of this learning occurs subconsciously without us paying any attention to it. We learn our culture not only from our families but also from institutions, other people, and the media. This process of learning is called enculturation. All humans share the same biological needs, for example, food, water, sleep, shelter, and sex, but the way we choose to fulfill those needs varies across cultures. Culture is shared Culture is shared because we share our culture with other members of our group. We know how to interact with these other members and we can predict their behavior based on our knowledge and expectations, The shared nature of culture doesn’t mean, however, that cultures are homogenous Culture is integrated Because the various parts ofa culture are interconnected, culture is also integrated. All components of culture are connected to one another and to gain a comprehensive understanding of a culture, one must lear about these different components. Culture is dynamic Culture is dynamic because cultures interact with each other. Cultures share ideas and symbols and they adapt to changes in the environment. Since cultures are also integrated, it means that if one component of a culture changes, it will affect all the other components, too, forcing the entire system to adapt. Culture is based on symbols Symbols are an integral part of every culture and they vary across different cultures. Cultures not only use symbols but they are also based on them. Symbols get their meaning when people in the same culture agree on how they should be used. Language is the most obvious example of the useof symbols within a culture but other things such as art, clothing, and money can also be defined as symbols. It should also be pointed out that not all cultural adaptation is positive. Not all cultural practices are adaptive, and there are many examples of cultural adaptation that have been detrimental such as fast food, pollution, and climate change. But due to their dynamic nature, cultures have the ability to adapt and find solutions to these problems How does geography affect culture? What influences our cultures then? One of the most profound of these factors is geography. The development of a culture is largely dependent on its geographical location. For example, locations that are ideal for hunting influence that culture by encouraging people to teach their descendants to hunt, tell hunting stories, and organize ceremonies that celebrate hunting skills. A factor such as hunting can thus become a defining characteristic of that culture. Another good example is the Japanese culture which relies heavily on the attribute of water. The fact that Japan is an island surrounded by water has influenced its culture from its creation myth to natural resources such as fish and growing of rice, Even more so, Japan as an island has historically been limited because of its geography, and this has given rise to art forms such as haiku poems and bonsai trees which are characterized by their limitations. Geography affects cultures from the number of languages spoken in a given area to the clothes people wear, their political ideas, and even religions. For example, on the island of Guinea, people speak more than 800 languages. This is because New Guinea is mountainous and it’s difficult for people from one area to come into contact with people from other areas. These different groups, therefore, learned to keep to themselves and developed their own languages. Culture also has its impact on the clothes that people wear, and this has historically been determined by geography, too. People in the Arctic whose culture relies on hunting whales and seals wear several layers of warm clothes, usually manufactured from animal skin, In contrast, tribes in the rainforests wear very little clothing and their economies are centered around plant life. In terms of government and religion, the ancient Greeks, for example, developed a political culture centered around city-states because their geography was mountainous and it was thus difficult for large kingdoms to arise. The Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions, on the other hand, differed in the fact that Mesopotamian gods were considered less kind than the Egyptian gods. This is believed to be the result of unpredictable floods in the Mesopotamian rivers and rather consistent and predictable floods in the Nile How does culture affect business? When looking at moder cultures, we can see the many effects that cultures have, for example, on business. During a business meeting where people from different cultures are communicating with one another, cultural differences have to be taken into account. There is more than merely a language barrier that needs to be overcome. These differences can concern people’s sensitivity to time, the way of communicating, risk-taking, decision-making, and thinking of others, all of which need to be addressed. Cultural differences can often impact the success or failure of multicultural business negotiations. When segmenting target groups for a product or service, businesses have to spend time on examining the cultural expectations and values of different groups. Cultureinfluences people’s tastes and preferences, and the same strategies will not work for all audiences. Americans, for example, have very different expectations from advertising and marketing than Asian consumers. Business owners must account for differences throughout the product's life cycle, from its design to marketing and beyond. Culture affects our every facet of life. Most societies these days have become multicultural as more and more people migrate across countries and continents. We live around, socialize and work with people from different cultural backgrounds and different parts of the world. While their values and beliefs might be different from ours, we should accept these differences and broaden our own views in order to attain harmony in these culturally diverse environments. We should acknowledge the importance of culture in communication and in contributing to our identity and sense of belonging as part of a social group. Culture can be seen as a uniting force that is part of our daily lives and an integral part of our being, defining the way we treat other people and ourselves. What is culture essay? Itis a type of essay that is written on one of the cultural topics. Culture has a broad concept, so boundless essay themes can be built on culture. In cultural essays, writers can describe their own culture and the culture of ‘other nations or make a comparison of some cultures. Writing a cultural essay is a possibility to dive into certain cultural peculiarities. REFERENCES Caplan, L. (2018); “What Factors Influen eNotes, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-factors-influence- Culture? What are the Characteristics of Culture’ Iture-98429 Community Tool Box (2018): “Understanding Culture and Diversity in Building Communities.” The University of Kansas. _hitps://etb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural- competence/culture-and-diversity/main eNotes (2015): “How Does Geography Affect Culture?” htps://www.enotes.com/homework- help/how-does-geography-affect-culture-474205 Nowaezyk, J., (2018): “The Five Basic Characteristics of Cultures. Study.com https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-five-basic-characteristies-of-cultures.html OpinionFront (2018): “Why is Culture Important and How Does it Influence People?” https://opinionfront.com/why-is-culture-important Oxford Dietionaries (2019): “Definition of Culture.” Oxford University Press. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/culture Zimmermann, K. A. (2012): | “What is Culture.”—_Live Science. hutps://www.livescience.com/21478-what-is-culture-definition-of-culture.htmlA few years back, a brilliant student from China began to work with me on questions of social psychology and rea- soning. One day early in our acquaintance, he said, "You know, the difference between you and me is that I think the world is a eitele, and you think it’s a line.” Unfazed by what must have been a startled expression on my face, he expounded on that theme. "The Chinese believe in con- stant change, but with things always moving back to some prior state. They pay attention to a wide range of events; they search for relationships between things; and they think you can't understand the part without understand- ing the whole, Westerners live in a simpler, more deter- ministic world; they focus on salient objects or people instead of the larger picture; and they think they can con- trol events because they know the rules that govern the behavior of objects.” I was skeptical but intrigued. I had been a lifelong uni- versalist concerning the nature of human thought, March- ing in step with the long Western line, from the British empiricist philosophers such as Hume, Locke, and Mill to modern-day cognitive scientists, T believed that all humangroups perceive and reason in the same way. The shared assumptions of this tradition can be summarized with a few principles. + Everyone has the same basic cognitive processes. Maori herders, IKung hunter-gatherers, and dot- com entrepreneurs all rely on the same tools for perception, memory, causal analysis, eategoriza- tion, and inference. + When people in one culture differ from those in another in their beliefs, it can't be because they have different cognitive processes, but because they are exposed to different aspects of the world, or because they have been taught differ- cnt things. + "Higher order" processes of reasoning rest on the formal rules of logic: for example, the prohibition against contradiction—a proposition can’t be both true and false. + Reasoning is separate from what is reasoned about. The same process can be used to think about utterly different things and a given thing can be reasoned about using any number of dit ferent procedures. A dozen years before meeting my student T had coau- thored with Lee Ross a book with a title that made my sympathies clear—Human Inference. Not Western infer- ence (and certainly not American college student infer- ence!), but human inference. The book characterized what I took to be the inferential rules that people everywhereuuse to understand the world, including some rules that 1 believed were flawed and capable of producing erroneous judgments, On the other hand, shortly before I met my new Chi- nese student, I had just completed a series of studies examining whether people's reasoning could be improved by teaching them new rules for thinking. Given my assumptions about universality and hard wiring, I had ini- tially assumed the work would show that it is difficult, if not impossible, to change the patterns of reasoning I had been studying—even with immersion in long courses of study in fields such as statistics and economics. But to my surprise, I found substantial training effects. For example, people who have taken a few statistics courses avoid lots of errors in daily life; They're more likely to see that the sophomore slump" in baseball could be due to statistical regression to the mean rather than to some mystical curse, and more likely to realize that an interview should be regarded as a small sample of a person's behavior and, therefore, that a wise hiring decision should be based on the larger sample of information in the application folder. Economists, it turns out, think differently about all sorts of things than the rest of us do—from deciding whether to remain at a boring movie to reasoning about foreign pol- icy Moreover, I found it was possible to train people in brief sessions and change not only their thinking habits, but their actual behavior when we tested them surrepti- tiously outside the laboratory. So I was willing to give the student—whose name is Kaiping Peng and who now teaches at the University of California at Berkeley—an attentive hearing. If it's possi-ble to produce marked changes in the way adults think, it certainly seemed possible that indoctrination into distine- tive habits of thought from birth could result in very large cultural differences in habits of thought I began reading comparative literature on the nature of thought by philosophers, historians, and anthropolo- gists—both Eastern and Western—and found that Peng had been a faithful reporter. Whereas psychologists have assumed universality, many scholars in other fields believe that Westerners (primarily Europeans, Americans, and citi- zens of the British Commonwealth) and East Asians (prin- cipally the people of China, Korea, and Japan) have maintained very different systems of thought for thou- sands of years. Moreover, these scholars are in substantial agreement about the nature of these differences, For example, most who have addressed the question hold 1 European thought rests on the assumption that the behav- ior of objects—physical, animal, and human—ean be understood in terms of straightforward rules, Westerners have a strong interest in categorization, which helps them to know what rules to apply to the objects in question, and formal logic plays a role in problem solving. East Asians, in contrast, attend to objects in their broad con- text, The world seems more complex to Asians than to Westerners, and understanding events always requires con- sideration of a host of factors that operate in relation to fone another in no simple, deterministic way. Formal logic plays little role in problem solving. In fact, the person who is too concerned with logic may be considered immature As a psychologist, I found these assertions to be revolu- tionary in their implications, Ifthe scholars in the humani-ties and other social sciences were right, then the cognitive scientists were wrong: Human cognition is not everywhere the same, Without putting it in so many words, the human- ities and social science scholars were making extremely important claims about the nature of thought. First, that members of different cultures differ in their "metaphysics, or fundamental beliefs about the nature of the world. See- ond, that the characteristic thought processes of different groups differ greatly. Third, that the thought processes are of a piece with beliefs about the nature of the world: Peo- ple use the cognitive tools that seem to make sense—given the sense they make of the world. Just as remarkably, the social structures and sense of self that are characteristic of Easterners and Westerners seem to fit hand in glove with their respective belief sys- tems and cognitive processes, The collective or interde- pendent nature of Asian society is consistent with Asians’ broad, contextual view of the world and their belief that events are highly complex and determined by many fac- tors. The individualistic or independent nature of Western society seems consistent with the Western focus on partic- ular objects in isolation from their context and with West- emers’ belief that they can know the rules governing objects and therefore can control the objects’ behavior. If people really do differ profoundly in their systems of thought—their worldviews and cognitive processes— then differences in people's attitudes and beliefs, and even their values and preferences, might not be a matter merely of different inputs and teachings, but rather an inevitable consequence of using different tools to understand the world, And if that's true, then efforts to improve interna-tional understanding may be less likely to pay off than one might hope. My student's chance comment, together with my interest in cultural psychology and the resulting reading program he had encouraged, launched me on @ new course of research. T began a series of comparative studies, work- ing with students at the University of Michigan and even- tually with colleagues at Beijing University, Kyoto University, Seoul National University, and the Chinese Institute of Psychology. The research shows that there are indeed dram: luropean thought processes. The evidence lends support to the claims of nonpsychologist scholars and extends those claims to many surprising new mental phenomena. In addition, surveys and observational research document differences in social practices that dovetail with the differ- ences in habits of thought. The new research has provided us, as prior evidence could not, with enough information so that we can build a theory about the nature of these differences, including how they might have come about, what their implications are for perceiving and reasoning in everyday life, and how they affect relations between peo- ple from different cultures. ‘ic differences in the nature of Asian and The research allows us to answer many questions about social relations and thought that have long puzzled educators, historians, psychologists, and philosophers of science. Neither common stereotypical views about East- West differences nor the more sophisticated views of scholars can answer these questions or deal with the new findings. The puzzles and new observations range across many different domains. For example:Science and Mathematics Why would the ancien Chinese have excelled at algebra and arithmetic but not geometry Greeks? Why do modern Asians excel at math and science but produce less in the way of revolu- tionary science than Westerners? Attention and Perception Why are East Asians better able to see relationships among events than West- cerners are? Why do East Asians find it relatively difficult to disentangle an object from its sur- roundings? which was the forte of the Causal Inference Why are Westerners so likely to overlook the influence of context on the behavior of objects and even of people? Why are Eastern ers more susceptible to the "hindsight bias,” which allows them to believe that they "knew it all along"? Organization of Knowledge Why do Western infants, learn nouns at a much more rapid rate than verbs, whereas Eastern infants learn verbs at a more rapid rate than nouns? Why do East Asians group objects and events based on how they relate to fone another, whereas Westerners are more likely to rely on categories? Reasoning Why are Westerners more likely to apply formal logic when reasoning about everyday events, and why does their insistence on logic sometimes cause them to make errors? Why are Easterners so willing to entertain apparently con- tradictory propositions and how can this some times be helpful in getting at the truth?Where to look for the causes of such vastly different systems of thought? Do they lie in biology? Language? Economies? Social systems? What keeps them going today? Social practices? Education? Inertia? And where are we headed with the differences? Will they still be here fifty or five hundred years from now? My research has led me to the conviction that two utterly different approaches (o the world have maintained themselves for thousands of years. These approaches include profoundly different social relations, views about the nature of the world, and characteristic thought processes. Each of these orientations—the Western and the Eastern—is a self-reinforcing, homeostatic system. The social practices promote the worldviews; the worldviews dictate the appropriate thought processes; and the thought processes both justify the worldviews and support the social practices. Understanding these homeostatic sys- tems has implications for grasping the fundamental nature of the mind, for beliefs about how we ought ideally to rea- son, and for appropriate educational strategies for differ- ent peoples. Perhaps most important of all, the book has implica- tions for how East and West can get along better through mutual understanding of mental differences. Many people in Eastern countries believe with some justice that the past five hundred years of Western military, political, and economic dominance have made the West intellectually and morally arrogant. This book will have achieved its purpose for Western readers if it causes them to consider the possibility that another valid approach to thinking about the world exists and that it can serve as a mitrorwith which to examine and critique their own beliefs and habits of mind. The book will have served its purpose for Asian readers if it encourages them to consider the com- plementary possibility—though the need is perhaps less urgent for them because most Eastern intellectuals are already familiar to a considerable degree with Western ways of thinking. ‘To establish the contention that very different systems of perception and thought exist—and have existed for thousands of years—I draw on historical and philosophical evidence, as well as modern social science research, includ- ing ethnographies, surveys, and laboratory research, In chapter 1, Aristotle and Confucius are presented as exam- ples of two different systems of thought, Undoubtedly those philosophers also served to entrench habits of thought that were already characteristic of their societies but chapters 2 and 3 are intended to show that the social- practice differences found in modern societies would tend to sustain or even (o create those different patterns even if they had not been present in ancient times. The heart of the book is contained in chapters 4 to 7. They present evi- dence that fundamental beliefs about the nature of the world, as well as the ways of perceiving it and reasoning about it, differ dramatically among modern peoples. The evidence is based in good part on laboratory research that T have conducted with students and colleagues using variety of tests to examine how people perceive, remem- ber, and think. Chapter 8 spells out some of the implica- tions for psychology, philosophy, and society of the deep differences in systems of thought we have discovered. The epilogue speculates about where we are headed—towardconvergence or toward continued of even intensified sepa- ration. To set the stage a bit for the research that follows: When I speak of E that were heavily influenced by its culture, most notably Asia T mean China and the countries Japan and Korea. (I will sometimes abbreviate "East Asian” w fasterner” and sometimes to "Asian,") When T speak of Westerners I mean people of European culture, When 1 speak of European Americans I mean blacks and whites and Hispanics—anyone but people of Asian descent. This somewhat odd usage can be justified by the fact that everyone born and raised in America is exposed to similar, though of course not by any means identical, cultural influences. This is true of Asian Americans too, obviously, but in some of the research discussed they are examined as a separate group because we would expect them to be more similar to Asians than we would expect other Amer- cans to be—and in fact this is what we find, Finally, I wish to apologize in advance to those people who will be upset to see billions of people labeled with the single term" st Asian” and treated as if they are iden- tical. I do not mean to suggest that they are even close to being identical. The cultures and subcultures of the East Jiffer as dramatically from one another as do those of the West, But the broad-brush term "East Asian” ean be justi- fied. In a host of social and political ways the cultures in that region are, in some general respects, similar to one another and different from Western countries. This will rot satisfy some people who are highly knowledgeable about the East, but I ask them to bear with me. Some gen- cralizations are justified despite the myriad differences. AnIntroouetion sal analogy can be drawn to the study of language groups, Indo-European languages differ from one another in countless ways, and East Asian languages differ at least as much, Nevertheless, generalizations about the differences between Indo-European languages and East Asian lan- guages taken as a group are possible and meaningful. And, as will be seen, some of those high-level generalizations are remarkably similar to some of the differences in per- ceptual and thought processes examined in this book,pnt ©2021, Taso Fae ep. in sone ll CULTURE IS POWER IN DYNAMIC KOREA: SOFT POWER AND GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN THE KOREAN WAVE Hannah Michell Introduction In May 2012, L stood amongre thousands of excited fans in Google's amphitheater in Palo Alto, California, United States (US) waiting for a K-Pop concert featuring Girls Genention and Super Junior. The concert had barely been advertised, but almost 22,000 fans had begun queuing fom the early hours, eager to attend. Everything about the event ~ the venus, the palpable excitement of the fans, suggested i€ was to be indistinguishable fiom any other pop concert. Then, a S-minue trailer for “dynamic Korea” began, promoting everything fiom its palaces to its high-speed trains to its “sate of the att technology.” There was a moment of pause as the fans im 1 vice president of MBC = a Korean national broadcaster, dessed in formal business arte ~ came on stage and 2 public relations announcement was made, declaring that MBC and Google would be in partnership, rly waited for the show to begin. It was only afe that the concert could begin, What struck me was the way a popular culture event had been utilised as a platfortn for further promoting Korea, One does not, for example, expect a Justin Bieber concert to be heralded with the kind of promotional taler one might see on the screens at the immigration section of the port of San Francisco, The tile of the concert = MBC Korean Wave in Google ~ was alo stiking, not advertising a specific artist or group of artes, but promoting a certain cultural trend = the Korean Wave itself, With the global visibility and mats recognition of South Korean hits such as Psy’s Gangnam Style, the record-breaking popularity of idol group BTS and director Bong Joon-ho's academy award success with the film Parasite, South Korea is now seen asa cultural powerhouse, Less vi ible or known, however, is how this powerhouse has been propelled by government investment, which began with a shift in cultural policy two decades ago Lin abe Ree abode crtenpy oun Tay 8 aes Gopnt ©2021, Taso Fae ep. in sone Hannah Michel! ‘The Korean Wave, ako known as Halla, has evolved over the past 20 years and refers tothe popularity of Korean dramas, film, fshion and music Te began with che drama What fs Love All About, which became a massive hit in China in 1997 (Shim, 2008), followed by Winter Sonata (2002) and Jewel in the Palace (2003), which captivated large audiences in Asia, ‘Though the Korean Wave has been described asa phenomenon that has been arouand for over 20 years, has hhad two distinct phases, The first wave, defined by Dal Yong Jin as taking place between 1997 and 2007, was chiefly defined by the populavty of Korean dramas and films with audiences in their thieties and forties in East Asia, During the fist wave, the government offered indirect support to companies contsibuting to the Hall phenomenon, The second wave, taking place fom 2008 to the present, has been defined by the popularity of K-Pop idols, digital games and animation in North America and Europe as well as in Asia and has been supported by teen fandom. The government policy has ako shifted to invest in the creative industries, and this has become a planned part ofthe national economy (hn, 2016) It has become an immense point of pride for many Koreans that their cultural productions have captivated the interest ofa global audience, This i an achievement that would have been, ‘unimaginable moze than 70 years ago, when, devastated by wat, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world, poorer than the Democratic Republic ofthe Congo, with only USD 64 per capita income (Tran, 2011). Its not only the economic sate of post-war South Korea, however, that makes its current Hallyu status a surprise. Throughout the 20th century, South Korea has struggled with its culeual identity, a6 a result of several decades of colonisation ‘under the Japanese, sts inability co compete with foreign cultura imports, a8 well as stringent censorship under dictatorial rule, ‘This chapter will eview the policies that have constrained ot repressed the expression of Korean cultural identity in film by successive governments, which have sought to ws the form to advance their political and ideological agendas, Until the end of 1986, film was strictly censored to restrict any content that was deemed “offensive or detrimental to the government” (Park, 2002). After Chun Doo-hwan's presidency and the loosening of censorship, content pro- ducers have been given more freedoms to explore diverse subject matter in theis artistic work However, after the first wave of Hellyu, when it became evident that Korean cultural content could pay more than simply economic dividends, cultural productions, such as K-Pop music film and drama, have once again come under the purview of the government as a means to an end — that of establishing Koreas soft power, Using references to the K-Deama Crash Landing conto You (2020) and the viral hit Gangnam Style as well as discussing the recent successes of BIS and the Academy Award-winning film Paait, the chapter will examine the relation ship berween cultural content and the sate, which brands iself on the suceess of such cultural productions Korea the underdog Korea has endured mulkple enactments of cultural disruption over the course of the 20th century. From 1905, when Korea became a protectorate of Japan, until the end of World War 1M, Koreans were gradually forced to submit to an imperial poliey of assimilation that sought to eradicate Korean culture, and which accelerated fiom the stat of the Pacific War i 1937, Everything from eating habits to dressing styles was subject to revision, ‘The education system ‘wat seen a¥ a crucial institution where subjects could be cultivated with a new and subordinated ethnic identity as assimilated Japanese (Pak and Hwang, 2011). ‘The Korean language was banned from school, and Korean-language newspapers were forced to cease publication. From 1937, Korean was no longer wed in news broadcasting on the radio. ae Li A). 8). Roh ard remy non Tr Fepnt ©2021, Taso Fae ep. in sone Culture is power While Korean films like Ariane (1926), dizected by Na Woon-gyu, represent che triumph of Korean filomnakers in producing national esstance films during Japanese colonial rule, forthe ‘most pat, local filmmakers struggled to find financing for their productions or were subject to harsh censorship when producing scripts that were deemed to challenge the itnperial asimila- tionist policy ofthe Japanese, Local dtectors were co-opted to film narratives that would help the colonial government to orient Koreans towards Japanese cultural values and lifestyles, as ‘well as building allegiance to the Emypice, Film duving this era ceased to be a means of enter ‘ainment and was wed asa tool for educating Koreans. After 1937, as Japan prepared for war, file was increasingly used to serve Japan's wartime colonial agenda (Yecies, 2015). After the end of World War Il, the Korean peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel by the Allies, with the US occupying che south of the country to contain the spread of communism fom China and the Soviet Union after the withdrawal ofthe Japanese. During this tim, the adminsstrative government laid the groundwork for American film distributors to gain domin- ance in a vulnerable industry and spread American ideology (Yecies, 2007), The objective was to eradicate Japanese influences and to establih a favourable view of Americans and democracy. According to Yecies (2007), the American administrative government implemented a censor ship policy designed to quash diversity of content in local films, including any content sup portive of communism, inspiring “debate on social and political issues" or offering alternative views of America and American culture, Rather, glamorous Hollywood films including Queen (Chriting (1933), Barbary Coast (1935), Mr Deeds Goes t9 Tou (1936), San Francie (1936), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), The Buccaneer (1938), The Rains Came (1939) and Abe Lincoln Minos (1940), showeasing attractive American people, cityscapes and lifestyles, were used a6 a weapon to “win the allegiance of the people of the far east” by sntcoducing citizens to “American fieedom, American products and the American way of hfe” (Yecies, 2007) ‘The Korean War led to the loss of five milion ives, devastated the countey’s infiatructure and economy, and displaced millions of people, It also destroyed most of the archives of Korean filmy that had been myade prior to the conic, as well as film production equipment. Up t0 1960, the primary focus of post-war reconstruction was on physical and burvan capital infea= steuctuce (Kim, 1991), In 1961, a military coup established General Park Chung-hee a president, and feedom of expression was restricted to further his national modernisation project, which relied on the implementation of a heavy industriessfocused, export-oriented economic plan designed to lift the country from its post-war poverty. The Park regime's cultural policy focused on reviving and supporting traditional culture, such as folk arts and music, which it viewed as best representing Korea’ cultural identity before Japanese colonialism (Yirm, 2002). While it did not financially support the film industey, it did implement some protectionist measures, ch asthe Motion Pictuze Law of 1962, ‘This was in response to the establishment of the first celevision channel, American Fosees Korea Network (AFKN), in 1957. Even after Korean broadcasting stations had become established, it would be a Jong time before Korean broadcasters could make their own local productions, Instead, broadcasters preferred to broadcast imported American programming, which proved to be cheaper. Hlowever, the ubiguity of American content on television revived pre-war anxieties about the threat to Korean Confucian traditional values posed by representations of overt and promiscuous sexuality and decadent and rowdy behaviour (Necies, 2015). TThe sereen quota system, which emerged a: result ofthe Motion Pictute Law, was designed to restrict che number of foreign imports and guarantee sexeen tine for domestic films. This protectionist policy reflected continued anxiety around American cultueal imperialism or the “cultural invasion” of Hollywood, as the poor and recovering post-war Korean film industry 179 Li A). 8). Roh ard remy non Tr Fepnt ©2021, Taso Fae ep. in sone Hannah Michel! could not compete with the big budget productions from Hollywood, However, despite a brief flourishing of Korean cinema in the 1960s, known a che “golden age,” the sereen quota system bad the unintended effect of depressing the film industry by encouraging the production of poorly made local films to fulfil the quotas, curning off local audiences Te was not only competition that suppressed the industry. Cultural expression in film was restricted by double censorship process, which required films to pass multiple censosship ‘viewings to screen for content that was anti-authority, supportive of communism or socially conscious, Censoring for sentiments supportive of communis, in particular, became a rationale for the restriction of artistic expression (Yim, 2002), This era was marked by the proliferation of excapist narratives, melodramas and anti-communist propaganda films, Hostess films with sexual content were aso populae and were permissible because they could serve a a distraction fom political issues (Kim, 2016) ‘The policies ofthe Japanese colonial government, the administrative government of the US, and the dictatorial governments reveal 2 common strategy of using censorship and reorientation fof content to influence audience sentiments cowards the government's agenda, For the Japanese colonial government, film was used as a propaganda tool, which accompanied che hard power ofits colonial regime. ‘The American administeative government introduced film that painted favourable images ofthe Americans and American values 38 t oversaw the transition of Japanese colonial rule inthe hopes of stabilisation against the further spread of communism. Park's cul- tural policy focused primarily on traditional elements of culture forthe purpose of preserving cultural identity, However, what constituted “cultural identity” was strictly regulated, and cen= sorship restricted the free exploration of subject matter in film as a means of consolidating state power and suppressing critical thought (Yim), 2002). For example, writers and filmmakers ‘who showed North Koreans in what could have been 2 “favourable” light or as an object of desire, asin the case of Lee Man-hee's A Here without a Series Number (1966), were arrested and imprisoned. The poet Kim Chi-ha was artested and sentenced to death for writing the narrative poem "Five Bandits which described worker rolling around in a prison cell without ahead, arms or legs after being punished for saying he was exhausted feom all he had to do to sucvive, satrsing the mandate that cvticising “anything” was pro-communist and therefore a crime agaist che state Realism and socially conscious themes were regulated, if not censored, by all three governments, Throughout the 1980s, students and labourers campaigned against the state, and 1m June 1987, nationwide anti-government protests brought about a democratic presidential election, From 1988, censorship was eliminated, and increased ficedom of expression was vis ible in the exploration of realist themes, which had previously been suppresied by the state, Films like Chil and Mansu (1988), diected by Park Kwang-su, marked the beginning of the [New Korean Wave ~ a cinematic movement that sought to explore previously censored themes such as urbanisation and labour practices, to show the human cost of industrialiation under Park's ambitious modernisation project (Yims, 2002). A paradigm shift to a culture for sale model ‘The economic focus of President Parks dictatorship was primarily the heavy industries. Culture for the mose part was ignored, ‘Things changed after 1993, when a newly established demo- cratic government under President Kim Young-sam began embracing neoliberal globalisation, When the Presidential Advisory Board on Science and ‘Technology Korea advised the president that cinema and other media content production should be patt of a national strategie strategy, the government began to invest in cultural industeies. ‘The staggering fice chat the Hollywood 180 Li A). 8). Roh ard remy non Tr Fe