Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Critical Reading Journal: Vietnam Idol


In the article, “Globalization and the Public Cartographies of Vietnam Idol”

by Long Bui, a key term that is mentioned is geocultural. At first, I defined

geocultural as cultures based on geographic location. According to the text,

the word geocultural reinforces cultural racism. The cultural racism towards

third world countries occurs due to their struggle to reach the status of the

first world countries. Since Vietnam Idol was inspired by popular Western

talent shows, I believe Vietnam idol is suppose to be a representation of this

country trying to adhere to the status of the first world countries. But the

interview in the article about Vietnam Idol mentions how the show will not

be exactly like the Western versions due to different cultures which produce

different personalities. I thought this reason is self-contradictive because

even though the Vietnamese culture is still prominent in the show, the show

as a whole still seems to be trying to prove that Vietnam is at the same level

as the United States and Britain which in turn shows the Vietnamese culture

is trying to be like Western Cultures. Vietnam Idol seems to be trying to

become mainstream and trending which is related to the theme of popular

culture. Vietnam Idol is not a subculture because the show is trying to

uphold to the status of popular Western shows and is not trying to be original

in its own culture.

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