Globalization in Asia

The term Globalization was introduced by Theodore Levitt, in 1985 which refers to politico-economics, particularly the politics of free trade and financial transactions. Historically, the roots of globalization are the advancement of technology and the disintegration of communist states. The advancement of technology doubles the acceleration of communication, transportation, production, and information. The disintegration of the communist countries that ended the Cold War enabled Western capitalism to be the only force that held global hegemony. Along these lines, in the field of trade and economic ideology, globalization is often referred to as Decolonization, Recolonization, Neo-Capitalism, Neo-Liberalism.

The primary essence of globalization is a world that is connected to each other, experiencing a global interconnectedness in which movement, mixing, interwoven, and interaction and cultural exchange take place. In recent times, the boundary of interactions is slowly decreasing as a result of the major development in the field of information technology. Millions of people have unconsciously embraced a global network that changed their lives forever.

Globalization in cultural imperialism is nothing but Americanization. Since the end of World War II, the distribution of global power has been concentrated in the United States. As a country with a variety of international powers and sophistication of its power, USA has the capability to dominate the various distributions throughout the world. From the perspective of imperialism, it can also be seen that this cultural product is not only a global flavor but also an effort to make the Western standard of living become more prominent and common in the world. In recent times, distance is meaningless, and foreign culture moves quickly.

The view of cultural imperialism perceives the spreading of Western culture as a practice, lifestyle, as well as cultural institutions, which are also the consequence of an increasing hegemonization among world’s culture. Western culture become more and more elevated and spread throughout many countries upon this planet. Eventually, this perspective spawned terms to map the world like the central and periphery, metropolitan and satellite areas. Imperialism of culture becomes a problem when it considers a third world country as an active consumer of culture imported from the central countries of globalization.

Most of countries in Asia embraces the values ​​of Eastern culture whereas human, cultural and natural wealth go hand in hand. In Asian culture, particularly in Southeast Asia, Austronesian civilization is no longer uncommon; or in recent times, it can also be known as The ASEAN Civilization. It differs greatly from the spreading center of cultural imperialism. Thus, the influence of globalization among cultures in ASEAN is by the inclusion of values ​​from other civilizations. This resulted in the erosion of socio-cultural values ​​in which when it became its identity, the spreading of globalization become more uninterrupted and smooth due to the advancement of media, information and communication technology such as television, computer, satellite, internet, et cetera. With the arrival of social change that comes as a result of industrialization, as well as the development of information and technology, traditional arts and culture began to slowly evaporate and lost their function. Nonetheless, numerous traditional arts and culture remained exists, even creatively continue to grow without being oppressed by the process of modernization. The rapid pace of information and communication technology has become a powerful means of cultural diffusion, as well as alternative entertainment options that are more diverse for the wider community. As a result, people nowadays tend to be no longer entertained by the traditional performing arts that were previously familiar throughout their lives.

Besides, the entry of foreign cultural values ​​will undeniably trigger numerous changes towards the attitude, behavior, and community institutions among citizens within Asian countries. In fact, facing the globalization indeed requires a huge endeavor for Asian countries to preserve their traditional culture as their main values and identity.