Globalization and Culture Final

Name:

Q1 Discuss the benefits and costs of a liberal immigration policy. In what ways are immigrants

good for a country and in what ways are they bad for a country?

It is debatable whether a country should adopt a more liberal immigration policy. The choice may

vary across different countries and has significant implications for demographics, economics,

social cohesion, and national identity. While importing immigrants can help address labor

shortages and cultural enrichment, it may also strain public resources and lead to social tensions.

Benefits of a liberal immigration policy

The most prominent benefit of introducing immigration lies in the demographic and economic

effect, which is the main reason that the countries with a liberal immigration policy consider.

Many developed nations, such as Japan and Korea, face declining birth rates, while developing

countries continue to experience high population growth. Immigrants can help offset ageing

populations in developed countries by introducing younger workers who contribute to the labour

force and support pension systems. Especially, skilled immigrants introduced by the policy often

fill critical roles in technology, medicine, and engineering, boosting innovation and productivity.

The U.S. tech industry, for example, prospers partly due to high-skilled immigrants from India and

China.

Furthermore, a liberal immigration policy will enhance demographic and cultural diversity, which,

to some extent, will make society vibrant and inclusive. Pro-immigrationists in Europe argue that

the diversity in European nations makes the place stay strong, and the inflow of immigrants,

bringing different opinions, habits and values, will continue to benefit Europe (Harari, 2018).

Costs of a liberal immigration policy

However, a liberal immigration policy induces problems in the socioeconomic aspect and cultural

tension. First, it is worth noting that immigrants divide the cake of the nation in various aspects of
the job market, medical services and social benefits, which will take up the resources from the

local citizens. This controversy is exemplified in Hong Kong’s scheme of importing mainland

workers, where the opposition and the rise of local unemployment force the government to review

and potentially adjust the scheme (Chan, 2024). The competition or sometimes conflict between

immigrants and the local citizens in the job market or other social resources persist inevitably.

The conflict can extend to cultural and political aspects. It is argued by anti-immigrationists that

many immigrant groups, such as Muslim and Indian, are intolerant and rejective of the local

culture, forming their own social group exclusive to the outside (Harari, 2018). The society will be

more divided, and the cultural identity of the nation will be dissipated. As the group of immigrants

grows larger, they may seek to strengthen their political representation and social status,

intensifying the conflicts. It concerns the local citizens that the immigrant may potentially

represent an opposite political voice or riot in the streets for their own benefits.

The discord can culminate in a real violent conflict. In Europe, the incoming refugees are

reportedly responsible for social instability and the surge in the crime rate. Social tensions broke

out in Germany when women were sexually assaulted by groups of men allegedly of "North

African or Arabic" appearance (Harari, 2018). While not all migrants were responsible, the

incident fueled anti-immigrant sentiment, known as the Cologne New Year’s Eve attacks,

demonstrating how the immigrant issue challenges social security and stability.

Reference

Chan, I. (2024, November 1). Hong Kong urged to review migrant labour policy as sectors open to

scheme see rising unemployment. Hong Kong Free Press.

[Link]

open-to-scheme-see-rising-unemployment/

Eddy, M. (2016, January 6). Attacks on German Women Inflame Debate on Migrants. The New

York Times.

Harari, Y. N. (2018). Immigration: Some cultures might be better than others. In 21 lessons for the

21st century (1st ed.). Jonathan Cape.

pandemics, on globalization?

Pandemics, most exemplified by the recent COVID-19, resemble a biological form of terrorism.

While it has detrimental impacts that bring down physical globalization, it also has the bright side

of creating an opportunity for digital globalization.

The negative effects of pandemics

Pandemics are not new to human society. Before COVID-19, human history has witnessed the

Black Death in the 1400s, multiple plague outbreaks, 1918 influenza and 2003 SARS. The most

prominent consequence of them is the disruption of the physical flow of people and goods. The

Black Death, for instance, spread along the trade route of the Silk Road (Dartnell, 2020). Trading

activity slowed down due to fear and human deaths. What is different from the pandemics in the

modern world is that modern medicine was not established yet. It is the realistic threat of death,

instead of government control, that stopped people from travelling.

COVID-19’s impact is on an unprecedented scale since it happened in an era when the world is

most globalised. As soon as COVID-19 broke out on a global scale, under government control,

cities were locked down, quarantine measures were taken at the border, and international

transportation was cut dramatically (Dartnell, 2020). The public was restricted from travelling, and

global trade plunged significantly. The physical aspect of globalization, characterised by people

and cargo flow, almost went to a complete stop. The stop up to a global scale was never seen

before since the previous impact of pandemics were rather regional, such as the Black Death, the

influenza in Europe, SARS in Asia and Ebola in Africa.

It is worth noticing that this brake of globalism seems to affect more on the poor nations than the

rich ones, exposing the issue of inequality. As the global supply chain became fragile during the

pandemic, the less developed nations are prone to suffer from shortage problems (Tatar et al.,

2021). While wealthier nations possessed vaccines and medical supplies, the less developed

countries were left vulnerable. The inequality problem and larger damage to the poor nations

might be a potential driver of global unrest and conflict.

Another concerning aspect due to the pandemic was the rise in ethnic discrimination and
prejudice, exacerbated by President Donald Trump's labelling of COVID-19 as “the China virus”,

which spread harmful stereotypes and stigmatised individuals of Chinese descent worldwide. This

effect could last long on individuals by sowing seeds of discord in people’s minds. Meanwhile, it

strained international relations and particularly intensified conflicts between China and the US.

The potential unrest, together with the plunge of goods flow, forces countries to seek more

conservative foreign trade policies, trying to depend less on the global supply chain in the long

run. Globalisation will be hindered by the rise of the risk of conflict and protectionism.

The positive effects of pandemics

However, the pandemic also has its bright side on globalisation. While the physical connection

was discouraged, it accelerated digital globalisation. Remote work technologies like Zoom,

Microsoft Teams, and Slack became essential, transforming labour markets, reducing dependence

on centralised offices and most importantly, connecting the world virtually. For example,

international companies may shift to using online tools to maintain operations, engage with

clients, and share knowledge and innovative ideas globally. This shift overcomes geographical

boundaries and fosters the free flow of information, not only serving as an alternative approach

during the pandemic, but also transforming the means of global connectivity in the long term. It is

further argued that the transformation has positive effects on global climate problems, eliminating

a great percentage of CO2 emissions (Dartnell, 2020). In conclusion, while the physical aspect of

globalization is impeded by pandemics, the virtual counterpart is rising.

Looking back, although the historical pandemics do not foster virtual globalization due to

technology limitations. They drove advancements in medical knowledge, public health practices,

and disease prevention measures, which not only coped with the current pandemic, but also

prepared for the next one. For instance, influenza used to be a deadly disease during its prevalence

in the 1910s. But with the aid of vaccination and medicine, the influenza outbreaks in current

years are controllable and have little impact on globalization. COVID-19 is no exception. It also

made humans better prepared for the next one by studying zoonotic diseases and taking preventive

measures (Gerson, 2021), which will safeguard the rebound of the physical globalization that has

been impeded.
Reference

Dartnell, L. (2020, June 30). The Covid-19 changes that could last long-term. BBC News.

Gerson, M. (2021, February 18). Six takeaways from COVID-19 that could shape our future. The

Washington Post.

Tatar, M., Shoorekchali, J. M., Faraji, M. R., & Wilson, F. A. (2021). International COVID-19

vaccine inequality amid the pandemic: Perpetuating a global crisis?. Journal of global health, 11,

03086. [Link]

Q3 In what sense does global tourism destroy cultures and in what sense does it preserve

cultures?

Global tourism is a double-edged sword. While it provides economic incentives for communities

to maintain their customs and bring their fading handicraft to the global market, it arguably erodes

cultural heritage by creating cultural misunderstanding, distorting local identities, and disrupting

social structures. We explain the paradox on both sides.

Global tourism preserves culture in the sense that it supports culture conservation with funding

and regulations, as well as makes local people aware of their culture in new ways.

When a place becomes a cultural tourist spot, visitors will flood in, visiting the museums and

historic sites with presumably an entrance fee, staying and dining in the community and

purchasing the cultural commodity, all of which bring a great revenue to the community for the

conservation of cultural sites, craftmanship, and intangible heritages. On the basis of monetary

support, conservation guidelines are also well-proposed by the local government to make the place

more qualified to be a cultural tourist site. For example, as the city of Luang Prabang, Laos was

nominated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1995, strict guidelines on renovation and new

construction are enforced such that even the small streets, small structures and relatively light

traffic of the past are preserved, and construction of tall buildings that may destroy the city’s

skyline are prohibited (Mydans, 2008). The tangible structures of the city, representing a deep

culture, are preserved.

Further, global tourism may make the local people more conscious of their cultural heritage. As in
the Tharu village case in Nepal (Guneratne and Bjork, 2012), despite some cultural

misunderstanding between the tourists and the indigenous Tharu people, the locals find their

culture being acknowledged and valued by the outside world. In this way, they become more

mentally belonging to the culture and generate cultural proud and awareness of cultural

conservation. It is reported that they may volunteer to explain and interpret their culture to the

tourists, hoping to break the misunderstanding (Guneratne and Bjork, 2012).

For the discussion of global tourism destroying culture, we immediately observe that overtourism,

as in Europe (Abend, 2018) and misbehaved tourists, as those in China (Li, 2014), destroy

architecture and cultural heritage. However, the normal sense of global tourism itself also destroys

culture in the sense that it inevitably introduces cultural misunderstandings, neglecting the core

and soul of culture and disrupting social structures.

Continuing the discussion of the Tharu village, despite the local effort, the interpretation of the

Tharu culture is still dominated by tour guides in the city of Kathmandu of a different ethnic, who

himself holds a stereotype and disrespectful attitude towards the Tharu people, while the majority

of tourists has no prior knowledge of the culture, regard the Tharu as the primitive from the guild’s

narrative (Guneratne and Bjork, 2012). Most visitors hope to get a taste of the primitive world and

treat the people as museum exhibits rather than as members of the modern Nepali society

(Guneratne and Bjork, 2012). Such arrogant attitude, due to the guide, hinders cultural spreading

and correct interpretation, which is detrimental to cultural conservation.

Meanwhile, turning a place to be a cultural tourist spot inevitably introduces commercial facilities,

commodifies cultural products and converts local houses into hotels or Airbnbs. While it indeed

conserves the cultural form as handicraft and architecture, the core and soul of the culture are

being forgotten by the locals. In the Luang Prabang case, monks gave up their ritual work and

participated in the tourism industry, operating restaurants and hotels. The core of the Buddhism

culture is gradually abandoned (Mydans, 2008).

By diving deep, the introduction of global tourism to a place may transform the social structure

from a less developed society to a modernised and capitalised one, and the people may not be

willing to retain the original culturally distinct but low-standard lives. The seductive and profitable

modern life is what makes the monks do the tourism business. This is also exemplified by
Professor Mathews’ story in Dai village in Yunna, China, where the locals only pretended to be

primitive to satisfy the visitors with their performance, while they opted to live in concrete

housing and wear modern clothes.

Reference

Abend, L. (2018, July 26). The Tourism Trap. Time.

Guneratne, A. & Bjork, K. (2012). Village Walks: Tourism and Globalization among the Tharu of

Nepal, in Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, pp. 306-315.

Li, A. (2014, December 31). Rude awakening: Chinese tourists have the money, but not the

manners. South China Morning Post.

Mydans, S. (2008, April 14). Tourism overwhelms a gem of Laos. International Herald Tribune.

Q4 If you were the ruler of a poor, non-Western, religious country, would you restrict

internet usage? Discuss the plusses and minuses of this.

As a hypothetical ruler of such a poor country, I will promote the legal usage under some

restrictions and censor the content to the necessary degree for national security and social stability.

This is in consideration of the plusses and minuses of restricting Internet usage, balancing the need

for country sovereignty and the freedom of speech and information gain.

The Plusses of restricting Internet usage

As a ruler, I have many reasons to restrict Internet usage. Socially speaking, pornography

prevailing in the global Internet is detrimental and has conflicts with our culture and religion, and

Hollywood, Japanese and Korean movies available online are taking up the market in our country.

If we block them, we may develop our own means of entertainment show, which may be less

attractive, but more suitable for our culture, also creating job market. We can therefore stop the

undesirable trend of “Americanization” or “Japanization” or “Koreanization”.

As an underdeveloped country where the majority make an essential living, it does no good to

introduce social media in the Internet to connect our people to the world easily, which may make

them see the difference, contemplate our society and discredit our country. Bhutan, which used to
be the so-called “the happiest country in the world”, is facing such problems since its citizens

were connected to the Internet. Seeing the bright sides of the world, some people in Bhutan lost

their happiness, became dissatisfied with the self-sufficient economy and sought to emigrate to

other countries (Sullivan, 2024).

To make things worse, hostile press and groups from adversary countries spread biased or fake

news about our country through online media, instigating and misleading our people. These are

serious offenses against our national security and social stability.

The Minus of restricting Internet usage

Despite the reasons for restriction, the potential harm, degree of censorship and policy feasibility

should be evaluated. I’m very clear that a complete blockage of the Internet is impossible, because

there are always underground techniques to break the blockage. Rebellion may break out when the

people realise they are blocked or heavily censored. We should still stick with the manifesto to

promote the freedom of speech and information gain.

Economically, we should consider the damage that the restriction may do to the current foreign

trading through the Internet, and we should never isolate our nation from the global market.

Foreign trade, serving as an important economic source of our country, relies on transactions on

online platforms and connections to customers with online media. It will be even disastrous if our

low-end products fails to sale globally. Further, we should not restrict the access to online learning

sources and innovative platforms, since innovation, science and technology foster economic

growth.

In conclusion, it is essential to enforce a certain degree of government restriction and censorship

on the Internet. We will introduce and promote the use of the Internet and also learn the experience

of some other small country. As in Singapore, we will enforce internet censorship on hostile

messages that are against our national security and sovereignty. As in Uganda, funded post-

government social media accounts should be set up as a propaganda tool to confront misleading

and biased information (Paul, 2021). The freedom of speech and information gain should still be

ensured, but not be at the expense of social unrest and national security. Our censorship is

legitimate and far from totalitarian in the era when many countries, including the US, have
become restrictive to Internet freedom (Paul, 2021). On the basis of that, it is significant to

educate our people on how to use the Internet wisely and how to identify and stop spreading

misleading or even hostile information. For our small and poor nation, preparing our people to

engage with the Internet wisely is the true challenge.

Reference

Paul, K. (2021, September 21). Internet freedom on the decline in US and globally, study finds.

The Guardian. [Link]

free-speech-study

Sullivan, H. (2024, October 30). What happened to Bhutan’s ‘kingdom of happiness’? The

Guardian. [Link]

kingdom-of-happiness

Q6 Discuss cultural identity in terms of the discourses of state and market and their

contradiction and interplay.

Cultural identity is the image of what people think they are and label themselves in the broad

cultural aspects, including language, clothing, food, music, art, rituals, and celebrations.

Considering different interpretations of culture, we discuss cultural identity in the discourse of

state and in the discourse of market.

Cultural identity in the discourse of state

The discourse of state is rooted in the concept of culture as “the way of life of a people”,

predominantly shaped by national states (Mathews, 2000). In such sense, the cultural identity is

expressed as “I’m American”, “I’m Chinese”, or any other nations. It shows the recognition,

belonging, rootedness, and patriotism towards the country.

According to Mathews (2000), cultural identity in the discourse of state shapes oneself in two

levels. The deepest level is what is beyond one’s control and awareness. People are shaped by

their mother languages, where they live in and the taken-for-granted social environment and

norms. The second level is what is still beyond one’s control, but people are aware of it. People get
to know their routines in life (to study, to work, to build a family, to retire, etc.), receive

propaganda about the government and nation through public education and national symbols, but

have no ability to change or determine it. An example of a government-dominating interpretation

of cultural identity can be found in Korea. Under the threat of population decline, government

officials advocated redefining a Korean from the traditional blood-based to multicultural inclusive

(Choe, 2012).

Cultural identity in the discourse of market

The discourse of market, on the other hand, regards culture as a matter of individual choice and

global consumption, resembling a “supermarket”. Just like picking up items in a supermarket,

people are fully aware of and control what cultural aspects best describe them. For example,

people take up their hobbies, contemplate their political beliefs and practise their chosen lifestyles.

In particular, ethnicity can also be a cultural item in some cases, since the belonging of an ethnic

group is not necessarily given by birth, and people may have their assumptions and preferences. I

personally prefer to recognise myself as a “Cantonese” on the basis of Chinese, not only because I

grew up in Guangzhou speaking Cantonese, but, I have to admit that, also due to the unique

cultural influences of Cantonese compared to other parts of China. Cultural identity in this

discourse of market shapes oneself in the shallowest level, such that people are, to some extent,

aware of and in control of the shaping.

Contradiction and interplay between two discourses

Neither of the discourses portray the full image of cultural identity. Mathews (2000) put that the

cultural identity on the market level is based on the state level, and they may contradict or

interplay with one another.

The contradiction lies in that one’s preferences in the cultural supermarket do not match the

identity as in the state. The state encourages loyalty to a specific nation and culture, while the

market advocates for individual freedom and liberty. As a consequence, the choice from the

cultural market may erode national identity (Mathews, 2000). For example, as a native Cantonese

speaker, I sometimes feel the contradiction when I see the online comments from those obsessed

with language unity, like “Chinese people should only speak Mandarin”, while I personally value
my ethnic identity as Cantonese higher than my national identity. Similar contradictions can

happen to Hongkongers, Basque people in Spain, and Ainu people in Japan (Mathews, 2000).

However, the discourses of state and market are not necessarily contradicting but can also intersect

and influence one another. It is not unusual that a cultural item in the market can be rooted in its

national identity and spontaneously be a popular choice of the public. Japanese anime is a

distinguished example, which conveys Japanese tradition and captivates audiences globally

(Mathews, 2000). Meanwhile, China, as its economic and global status grows, is also seeking a

better reputation culturally by boosting the cultural and creative industry and investing in films

and animations. The reason animation Nezha II, although receiving criticism for state-driven

production and advertising, is undeniably a milestone success in Chinese society (Lang, 2025).

Reference

Choe, S.-H. (2012, November 30). Demographic Shifts Redefine What It Means to Be Korean.

The International Herald Tribune.

Lang, J. (2025, March 18). China’s Overdue Animation Explosion Ignited by the Local and Global

Success of 'Ne Zha 2'. Variety. Retrieved from [Link]

animation-box-office-ne-zha-1236337439/

Mathews, G. (2000). On the Meanings of Culture, in Global Culture/Individual Identity:

Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket (London: Routledge), p. 1-23.