Reading Journal of Goods Move, People Move, Ideas Move, and Cultures Change

Reading Journal for Lesson Three

Globalization, as a largely debated topic, has been fiercely talked about by millions of scholars or extremists. The author Erla Zwingle gives her ideas about this controversial topic, in her essay ‘Goods Move. People Move. Ideas Move. And Cultures Change.’, from a journalist’s point of view.

In this article, the author discusses the wide influence of globalization. Also, she mentions “westernization”, which stands for the idea that globalization is basically westernization or Americanization; the whole world in the end will turn into a “Mcworld”. But from later on, we can tell the author herself does not agree with that. She thinks “culture is resourceful, resilient, and unpredictable”, and globalization won’t lead to a world where cultures only become more uniform. Instead, “the old and new tend to transform each other” and thus help people to understand each other, rather than agreeing with each other.

Personally I agree with most of the authors opinions. But, when I read the part that says people think of the spreading of MTV, Hollywood, and McDonald, which stand for American culture, as “culture assault”, I can’t help but think about how Chinese culture now is influencing western world, especially America.

China’s international influence soars within only a few decades, especially after the 2008 economy strike, which hit the whole western world badly. I have been reading the Britain-based magazine The Economist for a while now. Out of the most recently published 20 issues, at least eight put China’s hot events on their front page. One can easily sense the curiosity and concern about China among the western world, even as much as we are to them.

Beside the political and economical world, China’s influence is also evident in the cultural sphere. People are moving. There are over 50 million overseas Chinese not including the students or illegal immigrants. Goods are moving. In 2005, China is already American’s second biggest import country. Ideas are moving. Both Fengshui and traditional Chinese medicine become popular among westerners.

One American friend told me that a lot of people now are trying to learn Chinese characters, not only for business purpose, but also out of curiosity. Chinese things are becoming a cool trend. Super stars have tattoos in Chinese characters, fashion designers are getting inspiration from Chinese elements, and families will go out to enjoy a night in a Chinese restaurant. All this shows that we are not only taking in American TV shows, but we are also exporting our ideas all over the world. People get to know about us. Criticism comes, but also praise.

The best way to solve the misunderstanding between two people is to communicate. The same with two countries. The best way to get over all the misunderstandings and distrusts between China and other countries, will be the effective communication between the people. Globalization is making it possible. People move. Chinese people going out to see the world and make friends. Foreigners coming in and experience this fast developing country. They experience the real China instead of reading from the newspaper. Only when people understand each other, they can start to respect and appreciate the differences between them. It’s like some of my weekends, just sitting around with people from different countries. We all talk in English and about the same stuff, but our differences make us special. We get to know the different ways of thinking and the diverse cultures. Then we become friends.

So to me globalization is the power to build a better global world in the future. Some people call it global village. I like this term. People sit together to talk and communicate, or try to solve the problems together. This is how villages work. I wish this will be how the whole planet works very soon.

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