Cross-Cultural Blog

We collectively chose the name "Cultural Perception" because we realized that all of our research topics deal with the issue of either globalization or cross-cultural perceptions influencing and changing the world today. Two of us are actually dealing with westernization - Madina's topic is addressing how westernization is affecting advertising and consumerism in Uzbekistan, and Trisha's thesis deals with the forces of American capitalism changing the cultural identity of Vietnam. Budi is researching how Indonesia is represented and portrayed by different media forms, and Kristine is discussing how the Internet is a new medium in which comic artists from different countries can share with each other the cultures that form the content and style of their artwork. Gaelle is interested in researching the issue of abortion in different countries, while Victor is considering pursuing research on either music across cultures or the variance of suicide rates around the globe.

We actually had a very interesting discussion about how each person viewed each of the countries we were studying, based merely on first impression. For instance, it was quite fascinating to learn that when some of our group members thought of Vietnam, all they could really associate with it was the Vietnam War and its status as an extremely undeveloped country. Others commented about their first impressions regarding Indonesia, some being entirely unaware of its landscape and geography. We shared our own knowledge of different musical styles and the acceptance of abortion from our own personal backgrounds and heritages. Thus, we thought our group was extremely interested in not only the representation, but perception, of cultures around the world.