How is culture commodified in Asian Tourism Campaigns?
Introduction
What is culture? Culture rules practically every aspect of your life and like most people, you may be completely unaware of this. If asked, you would likely identify culture as music, literature, visual arts, architecture or language, and you wouldn't be wrong. But you wouldn't be entirely right either. In effect, the things produced by a culture which we perceive with our five senses are simply manifestations of the deeper meaning of culture - what we do, think and feel. Culture is taught and learned and shared - there is no culture of one. And yet, culture is not monolithic - individuals exist within a culture. Finally, culture is symbolic. Meaning is recognized to behaviour, words and objects and this meaning is objectively arbitrary, subjectively logical and rational. For example, a "home", is a physical structure, a familial construct and a moral reference point - which is distinct from one culture to another.
Culture is vital because it enables its members to function one with another without the need to negotiate meaning at every moment. Culture is learned and forgotten, so despite its importance we are generally unconscious of its influence on the manner in which we perceive the world and interact within it. Culture is significant because as we work with others it both enables us and impedes us in our ability to understand and work effectively together.
As the process of globalisation continues to take place in where we live in, culture is now a commodification. A price can be put on a country’s culture. This can be seen in the various tourism campaigns of countries like India, Japan, Thailand and Singapore. What is the government trying to portray in these tourism videos and advertisements? What about the culture and how is the culture being commodified into these tourism advertising campaigns. We will look into the various aspects of these countries culture in detail to better...