"Culture if the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another...includes systems of values and values."
Geert Hofstede
CONNECTED the movie
I watched this movie with a friend a couple of days ago. I heard it is a Hong Kong remake of a Hollywood blockbuster, too bad I have no idea what the original title of the movie is. In the movie, the victim Grace Wong managed to seek help after being kidnapped simply by fixing a smashed-beyond-hope telephone. Telecommunication is used throughout the show and I thought that "Wow! I didn't know communication can do such wonders!"
Since we covered intercultural communication in class this week, I am going to highlight one of the most awesome scene in this movie. A low-rank policeman realized the victim was in trouble when he visited her house and was greeted by a foreigner. He then dialled the house number and realized there was a difference in accent between the foreign woman and the phone recorded voice. The distinction between culture shows that those are two different people and that one of them is a fake. Accents of slangs are good examples of high context cultures in my opinion. It gets the receiver thinking before coming up with his or her own conclusion about a situation.
Also, this movie is produced in a different context compared to the original one. The people working behind the scenes tried their very best to make it fit into the Hong Kong culture since filming will take place in Hong Kong. It is logical to do so since the setting are cast of actors and actresses are from Asia, namely Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. This shows that there is still vast difference between Asian and Western culture even though globalization has allowed us to exchange and share our cultures with other regions.
Well, that is all I have to share about the movie, hope you guys will try to catch it over the weekends since mid-terms are OVER!!! Anyway, this is something extra for everyone, a scenario which I witnessed myself in the cinema right after the movie ended. A girl who was sitting behind my row of seats was insulting a couple of Chinese nationales badly and using rude phrases like "~!@#$%^&*", "Go back to your own country!", "*&^%$#@!~", etc. Clearly, she is displaying her displeasure for the strong accent in their mandarin even though those people was not disturbing her in the first place. Her intolerant attitude is exactly what we refer as attitudinal barriers to intercultural communication:
Since we covered intercultural communication in class this week, I am going to highlight one of the most awesome scene in this movie. A low-rank policeman realized the victim was in trouble when he visited her house and was greeted by a foreigner. He then dialled the house number and realized there was a difference in accent between the foreign woman and the phone recorded voice. The distinction between culture shows that those are two different people and that one of them is a fake. Accents of slangs are good examples of high context cultures in my opinion. It gets the receiver thinking before coming up with his or her own conclusion about a situation.
Also, this movie is produced in a different context compared to the original one. The people working behind the scenes tried their very best to make it fit into the Hong Kong culture since filming will take place in Hong Kong. It is logical to do so since the setting are cast of actors and actresses are from Asia, namely Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. This shows that there is still vast difference between Asian and Western culture even though globalization has allowed us to exchange and share our cultures with other regions.
Well, that is all I have to share about the movie, hope you guys will try to catch it over the weekends since mid-terms are OVER!!! Anyway, this is something extra for everyone, a scenario which I witnessed myself in the cinema right after the movie ended. A girl who was sitting behind my row of seats was insulting a couple of Chinese nationales badly and using rude phrases like "~!@#$%^&*", "Go back to your own country!", "*&^%$#@!~", etc. Clearly, she is displaying her displeasure for the strong accent in their mandarin even though those people was not disturbing her in the first place. Her intolerant attitude is exactly what we refer as attitudinal barriers to intercultural communication:
- She holds prejudices against those Chinese and finds fault with them. Every little thing that they do highly irritates her. (I was there throughout the show and they only talked a minimal amount.)
- She is ethnocentrism, believing that her mandarin accent/culture (Singaporean, I reckon) is better than the Chinese, even though she does not have anything to proof for that.
15 comments:
Perhaps this lady has certain bad experiences with the Mainland Chinese. It might be even due to the recent case of Chinese milk scandal. She may have formed her prejudice and thus is repulsed everything Mainland Chinese do.
I would say she is just like many of us just that she could not control this displeasure and hence, the commotion. Being Asians, we are more or less likely to be conservation. Not that open to new cultures or new people we see around us.
However, this does not gives us the right to tell somebody off just that he or she is not like one of us. Somebody should really have just tape up that rude mouth of her!
it's about the perception, or maybe just the blatant ignorance/disregard for the culture of other nationalities, that causes our prejudices against other people. it is actually quite sad.
and oh btw, the original movie was called cellular.
Chinese spread everywhere, coz chinese tends to adapt to the surrounding much better than other such as euroupean. This is why we can see Chinese is the wide spread race in this world and almost complete adaption to the country they live in.
But, although chinese came out from the same country, China, China nowadays is quite different from it used to be, due to the Communis Revolution. Most of their good culutures are gone, there is no other thought except the Karl Marxs.
Hence, they have to have an Art Revolution, just like Renaissance. Hope that they are trying hard to do this. So, be patient, China-Chinese, one day you may step out in the sense of culture (the 5000 Chinese history is not for nothing)!
That girl teased without even knowing that China Chinese.. Hmm.. She may find happy if she went USA and being teased 'Shorty', 'Chink' or being treated like thief's race, by some beggar on the roadside... Sigh!
yes i guess, but still it is very rude and ignorant of her to express her unpleasant feelings in public. even though i do not have a very good impression of those people myself, i would not display such behaviour for i am a foreigner in Singapore! oh no!
thanks for the information there, lucas =) then again, i think you guys are digressing from the topic since the main point of my post is the movie, not the insulting part.. ha ha.
the girl that u mentioned already have harbored a certain perceptual set about Mainland Chinese.
maybe it's not about the way they speak. she probably them irritating and noisy based on her past experiences and focused on these aspects when it comes to creating an impression about those 2 particular Mainland Chinese. thus, creating the false impression that they talked a lot and that they were disruptive in the cinema, when people around her could be talking as much as they do or more. she merely focused on these Mainland Chinese.
wa! go watch movie with which boy? bo jio me!
that aside, i think your application of high-context culture in the ability to differentiate the different accents might not be so accurate. my understand is that high-context cultures place emphasis on the delivery of the information and the settings, but in this case the delivery (accent) was not the major playing in helping in the crime being solved.
what do you think?
Hello Amanda, the hollywood movie is "cellular". Since you mentioned that it is a remake, i am assuming i could use the information from the movie to draw conclusions here. Isnt this closure?...not quite.
anyway,I never did realize the accent in cellular that prompted the apprehension of the kidnappers. In what sense does this movie show high context culture playing a part in solving the crime?. Is he more expressive or does he have a different slang than the other Asian actors?.
hmm.. i just thought that a unique slang or accent is part of a high-context culture since it is somewhat ambiguous and nonverbal. but you have just raised an interesting point there, maybe i should start researching on that aspect.
err, the difference in slang showed that the victim and the woman who showed up at the door is not the same person. that goes to show the victim is in trouble since whoever opened the door is not the real owner.
Aiyo! The whole movie 'connected' was all about the kidnap case being solved due to the accent of the fake victim?
And the producer raked in how much? Is it a box-office?
The movie is for simpletons!In my opinion, crime movies should be more complex & at the end of the movie should prove the audience wrong in their conclusions.
Thank you but no thanks, I don't think I'd waste my money on such movies.
-agnes
how totally immature of that girl to hurl vulgarities in public, i would be utterly ashamed to be a singaporean (if she is one).
but be grateful that ethnocentrism in singapore is non-prevalant, and only limiterd to words. as compared to other countries, where ethnocentrism is practiced and can lead up to actions..
LOL
As expected, so much hatred were emphasized on that "girl"... lol
Okay... As for the difference in slang... Indeed, it's true though to a certain extend, it might help ruin the case, most likely. Things like misinterpretation and misunderstanding may lead to unbearable consequences.
And also, if difference in slang could help crack any case, then many would, instinctively, exploit the fact and tweaking the technique exposed to them and even go around detection...
yeah
i also agree that it is totally embarrassing to shout in public what more hurl vulgarities i think that the battle is lost the moment a person loses his/her temper. losing ur temper in public not only bring unnecessary attention to yourself but also humiliation
the kidnap of the victim is NOT because of the slang she has! oh my goodness! i am just impressed a teeny little thing like a difference in slang was able to provide the police with a crucial clue, thus leading them to search for the authentic owner who was kidnapped.
hmm, you could be right there, siew mai. ethnocentrism is much harsher in other countries, such as the US. yeah i assume she's singaporean because i do not think anyone in their right mind will try to chase people back to their countries when the person doing it is not a local citizen. nevertheless, it is indeed rude of her to do that, i would say a very barbaric act for such a civilized society.
I believe that that policeman who noticed the difference in slang/tone is an observant and vigilant policeman. I remembered about another scene whereby he sniffed the car and concluded that the crime had something to do with cocaine. It's absolutely FASCINATING to see that there is such a super sensitive policeman. The world will probably be a better place if we have more of this kind of policeman.
Post a Comment