In our current era of globalization, the increasing influx of immigrants travelling from South Asia to Paris as well as the aggressive expansion of the traditional shoe industry in Elche, Spain has caused radical transformations of urban habitations. While these internal alterations can go unnoticed on the outside landscape, they have the capability of changing the identity of entire urban areas by overlapping the domestic and work spheres of the inhabitants.
The changes made to the internal landscape of the “Les Olympiades” building in Paris, has created a hybrid identity within the primarily Chinese inhabitants. One apparent change to the building’s identity comes from the installation of the Asian architectural pagodas that cover the restaurants. One South Asian migrant expresses his hybrid identity when he introduces himself using both his Chinese name of Wang Shixiong and his French name, Philippe Wang. By forming cultural communities within these urban constructions, the immigrants are able to reside in France while retaining their original South Asian cultural identities.
In Elche, the clandestine shoe industry has created new identities for the woman domestic laborer as her traditional role as the house wife becomes intertwined with her industrial function. These women view this domestic employment as beneficial way to earn money during their free time. In result of the joining of the domestic and work spheres, the home-based shoe industry has transformed the urban landscape of Elche by replacing the large industrial workshops with a dispersion of hidden factory-homes throughout the city. Multiplicity argues that Elche has been transformed into a network of production points that embraces the entire city because the separate steps for creating a shoe, traditionally completed within a single factory, have been dispersed to the various domesticated workplaces.
The members of the Asiatic community in “Les Olympiades” utilized the flexibility of the space in the enormous building complex to establish restaurants and workshops within the same areas of residential apartments. They negotiate between these different spheres by traveling from floor to floor. The inhabitants view this overlapping of spheres as benefit due to its convenience in satisfying all their needs. Wang Shixiong compares his experience to living in a small Asian city that is vertical. The reference of the “Les Olympiades” as a city within a building comes from the self-organized process of transforming the building’s landscape that is also seen in contemporary European cities today.
Within the recent years, television has discovered and exploited the high demand for reality shows. These shows that portray real life situations and interactions on screen have become a franchising tool that has spread globally. One example of this programming strategy can be seen in the popular television broadcast, The Biggest Loser (Dave Broome, 2004, USA). This reality TV show originated in the United States and made its debut broadcast on NBC's network during October, 2004. The show centers on obese contestants competing to win a cash prize of $250,000 by losing the highest percentage of weight. The Biggest Loser has exploded in popularity since its successful pilot episode and now broadcasts in many different countries ranging from Australia, to the United Kingdom. "The central problem of today's global interactions is the tension between cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization." (1) This quote from Appadurai's article, Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy, explains the major issue involving the global spread of television franchises. The Biggest Loser represents an example of media homogenization because the strict format it follows denies a contribution from the local influences towards the shows aesthetic. The presentation of the show is similar in all locations, from the attire the contestants wear to the health resort settings they inhabit. The Biggest Loser franchise is an internationally successful television format because it incorporates numerous engines. The most prominent of these “new engines” revolves around the idea of ordinary people renovating their bodies. This is further supported in Keane and Moran's article, Television's New Engines, as they explain that, "Weight-loss contests... engender a sense of striving to achieve socially acceptable norms." (2) Along with a personal transformation, the contestants are given the chance to win a large cash prize if they succeed in losing the most weight relative to their body. Each day the contestants must participate in a physical challenge and each week there is a weigh-in revealing their progress made thus far. To eventually achieve a winner, the show utilizes the common engine of elimination as the result of a voting process. The engines were created in an attempt to add value to their program and generate an interest in the audience. While the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom programs share many similarities with each other in regards to format, each country works separately towards the formation of a national identity. On the American franchise, the contestants were invited by Michelle Obama, to the White House Kitchen with hope towards reaching as many people as possible with the first lady's message of healthy eating. The broadcasting from Australia took a different approach by making the legendary swimmer and Olympic athlete, Hayley Lewis, the host for next year's season. Hayley says of becoming the host of The Biggest Loser, "I've always been a devoted viewer of The Biggest Loser and have been so moved by people's stories of battling weight issues in the past." (3) Along with these special appearances, the show displays a national identity through the contestants who are typically residents of the host country and end up becoming reality television celebrities. This allows the audience to create a closer connection with them and invest more interest into the show. I feel that The Biggest Loser franchise brings people closer together as it focuses on the shared issue of obesity that is seen throughout the world. The contestants' struggles become an inspiration as well as a mediascape in which the audience can project their own lives upon in hopes of living a healthier life. "Since its 2004 debut, The Biggest Loser--once a critically derided punch line--has grown into a cultural phenomenon that's helped participants shed more than 15,000 pounds." (4)
Endnotes:
(1) Arjun Appadurai, "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy." Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Eds. Dilip Gaonkar and Benjamin Lee. (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2008) p. 32.
(2) Michael Keane and Albert Moran, "Television's New Engines." Television and New Media. 9.2 (2008): 161.
While advances in today’s technology have caused a rise in virtual migration, the subject of physical migration remains relative to the conversation of globalization. Reality itself is an important factor of migration as A. Aneesh states in his article, Virtual Migration, “Wars are still written in blood.” (1) The drama based war film, The Last Samurai, (Edward Zwick, 2003, USA) illustrates the struggles that migrants have with assimilating into new cultures and changing their own identities.
The narrative of the film revolves around Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), an ex-United States Army captain and an alcoholic that fought in the Civil and Indian Wars. In an attempt to escape his past and find a new life, Algren takes a lucrative job opportunity in Japan. He enters the country during a difficult time, a time that director Edward Zwick explains as "the moment of change from the antique to the modern." (2) The plotline focuses heavily on migration as Ezra and Rowden explain in their article on transnational cinema, “A soldier deployed in a distant country is in many ways as much a displaced person as an immigrant who migrates in search of a better life.” (3) There he and several other American soldiers train the new Western-style Imperial Japanese Army in the art of modern warfare. As the inadequate soldiers are sent to their first battle, Algren is taken prisoner by the Samurai and brought to their remote village by Lord Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe).
At first, we see Algren angered and confused by the foreign customs which surround him. When he witnesses the Japanese ritual known as seppuku, which is the suicide of wounded Samurai warriors, he misinterprets it as an unnecessary death. The Samurai on the other hand, view the ritual as a way of maintaining honor. During his captivity, Algren forms a sense of admiration and respect for the Samurai and the honor they carry. He assimilates into this new society by forming strong relationships with Katsumoto and other local villagers while learning the Japanese language and practicing bushido, the way of the Samurai. This transformation is explained in the text of Ezra and Rowden as they state that, “…identities are necessarily deconstructed and reconstructed along the lines of a powering dynamic based on mobility.” (3)
It is through this assimilation that we witness Algren take on a new identity. Although his outer ethnicity now contrasts his inner self-awareness, he is accepted into the village society for the loyalty he displays towards the villagers. It becomes apparent that due to his initial purpose of migration, the army he first set out to train is now directed to destroy what he has come to love, the Samurai village. This order comes from the government as they see the Samurai as a threat towards Japan’s progress towards modernization. Relating to what Sebastião Salgado says in his article, Migrations, about the Yanomami Indians, the Samurai are “…being driven towards assimilation, or extinction.” (4)
When released from his “imprisonment”, Algren returns to Tokyo where he is viewed as a prisoner of war by his American comrades. His is given a stipend for his time spent in captivity and offered a boat home. Forced to choose between returning to his old lifestyle in America and fighting for his new home in the Japanese village, Algren chooses the latter which is viewed by the Americans as treachery. Ezra and Rowden on the other hand, explain in their text that Algren’s decision to forget his past is due to the fact that, “…leaving one’s homeland entails leaving behind both physically and emotionally the familiarity that home implies.” (5) Meaning Algren has formed a new national belonging with the Samurai culture.
Throughout The Last Samurai we witness a Western immigrant transcend emotionally into a rural Japanese citizen. The inner migration that occurs is supported in Salgado’s text as he states, “There aare differences of color, language, culture, and oppurtunities, but people’s feelings and reactions are alike.” (6) It is through these inner struggles of the narration Nathan Algren’s inner-migration that we realize the power of migration and its role in the process of globalization.
Endnotes
(1) Aneesh, A. “Virtual Migration.” Virtual Migration: The Programming of Globalization. (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p. 67
(2) Keirstead, Thomas. “The Last Samurai (Film)” American Historical Review. (Apr2004, Vol. 109 Issue 2) p. 496
(3) Ezra, Elizabeth and Terry Rowden. “General Introduction: What is Transnational Cinema?” Transnational Cinema: The Film Reader. (London and New York: Routledge, 2006) p. 7
(4) Salgado, Sebastião. “Introduction.” Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (New York: Aperture, 2000) p. 10
(5) Ezra, Elizabeth and Terry Rowden. “General Introduction: What is Transnational Cinema?” Transnational Cinema: The Film Reader. (London and New York: Routledge, 2006) p. 11
(6) Salgado, Sebastião. “Introduction.” Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (New York: Aperture, 2000) p. 15
Works Cited
Aneesh, A. “Virtual Migration.” Virtual Migration: The Programming of Globalization. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006.
Ezra, Elizabeth and Terry Rowden. “General Introduction: What is Transnational Cinema?” Transnational Cinema: The Film Reader. Eds. Elizabeth Ezra and Terry Rowden. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. 1-13.
Keirstead, Thomas. “The Last Samurai (Film)”. American Historical Review. Indiana University, Bloomington. April 2004, Vol. 109 Issue 2, p. 496
Salgado, Sebastião. “Introduction.” Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York: Aperture, 2000. 7-15.
In our current era of globalization, the increasing influx of immigrants travelling from South Asia to Paris as well as the aggressive expansion of the traditional shoe industry in Elche, Spain has caused radical transformations of urban habitations. While these internal alterations can go unnoticed on the outside landscape, they have the capability of changing the identity of entire urban areas by overlapping the domestic and work spheres of the inhabitants.
The changes made to the internal landscape of the “Les Olympiades” building in Paris, has created a hybrid identity within the primarily Chinese inhabitants. One apparent change to the building’s identity comes from the installation of the Asian architectural pagodas that cover the restaurants. One South Asian migrant expresses his hybrid identity when he introduces himself using both his Chinese name of Wang Shixiong and his French name, Philippe Wang. By forming cultural communities within these urban constructions, the immigrants are able to reside in France while retaining their original South Asian cultural identities.
In Elche, the clandestine shoe industry has created new identities for the woman domestic laborer as her traditional role as the house wife becomes intertwined with her industrial function. These women view this domestic employment as beneficial way to earn money during their free time. In result of the joining of the domestic and work spheres, the home-based shoe industry has transformed the urban landscape of Elche by replacing the large industrial workshops with a dispersion of hidden factory-homes throughout the city. Multiplicity argues that Elche has been transformed into a network of production points that embraces the entire city because the separate steps for creating a shoe, traditionally completed within a single factory, have been dispersed to the various domesticated workplaces.
The members of the Asiatic community in “Les Olympiades” utilized the flexibility of the space in the enormous building complex to establish restaurants and workshops within the same areas of residential apartments. They negotiate between these different spheres by traveling from floor to floor. The inhabitants view this overlapping of spheres as benefit due to its convenience in satisfying all their needs. Wang Shixiong compares his experience to living in a small Asian city that is vertical. The reference of the “Les Olympiades” as a city within a building comes from the self-organized process of transforming the building’s landscape that is also seen in contemporary European cities today.
