Vietnam Idol

In Bui’s discussion of Vietnam Idol and its method of bringing globalized popular culture to Vietnam, he talks about its advantages and disadvantages. Through the show, Vietnam is redefining its culture and westernizing itself to model the US. The show highlights different Vietnamese backgrounds and allows for the winners to represent their nation, which relates to neoliberalism because of the emphasis on an individual free market system. Another benefit of the show is fostering participants’ pride in their nation. However, Bui also mentions that there are detrimental effects as well, especially when the show ignores “the challenges of postcolonial nations to assume full membership in the ‘global village’” (886). In other words, Bui believes that global mass media skews culture and does not accurately portray the country’s culture holistically. Although the purpose of the show is to help westernize Vietnam, it still falls short because it not much of the country has access to technology to watch the show. In addition, 70% of the country’s population inhabit rural areas and cannot always travel to the audition locations. Unlike the US’ American Idol, Vietnam Idol has yet to gain as much popularity because the audience and participant dynamic is entirely different from its western counterpart.