what strikes me in this interview is kaiser’s reference to the self esteem of the chinese. chinese fashion will only be fashionable inside china if it is asserted in the fashion shows outside china. they look up to ‘the west’.

this is exactly what i sensed in argentina. perhaps not so directly asserted, but the they look to ‘the west’ for acknowledgement, in a way, like they look up to a big brother or sister. in argentina you see a sort of rebellious sentiment, as if they are trying to break loose from this, to grow to independence. is this the same in china?

i wonder why exactly ‘the west’ has such a strong iconic power to developing nations. at the same time trying to be accepted, and grow in the image of ‘the west’ but also rebelling because they feel patronized. and how and when will these nations ‘leave the house’. are we already seeing the growing pains? when will china be dominating parts of global (popular) culture in the way the catwalks in paris and milan are dominating fashion? or are they already doing that?

I think the West could be divided by the Nations and the People… I guess that developing regions might feel patronized by the nations and all the rules they still apply to their aid etc… Developing regions now prefer investments in their regions over aid… but on the other hand the people probably look-up to the standard of living and indivual wealth. So indeed rebellious on one side, and admiration on the other side.

But… keep in mind that Dutch culture (like movie, fashion) etc is also still focussed at Big Brother: USA. That probably has to do with a phenomena Jorgen described recently: Simularca… Eg. We know how an explosion looks like from TV so we expect from real explosions to be like that as well… so in short… we want reality to be like what we have been taught by the media (Jorgen, please explain this better haha)… What I mean to say is, that we have experienced media ever since it has been created, for a large part as American-entertainment… therefor still an American movies feels as a real movie and a Dutch movie as a fake/ copy. Strange but true… and very hard to change. That media-dominance and portraiting of American Life is an important driver behind our positive views of America… and there we see the same… Anti US sentiment against US-politics is growing, while we meanwhile keep consuming tons of US entertainment and fashionable brands.

YES… maybe less than before… but the US has been our ‘rescuer’ for many of years and it still is almost life on TV if a Dutch (former) politician is allowed to visit Bush on his Ranch… we feel so proud if a Dutch actress is playing a Hollywood Bond girl… we feel so proud if one half Dutch baseball player makes it to the USA baseball league etc etc etc… This sentiment is very recently slowly changing… but that is mainly within a small intellectual group and not by the masses. Are we proud of our Dutch music or fashion-icons… mostly if they are worn by Brad Pitt or if the music is plaid on Broadway… so YES I think we lack self-esteem especially on a cultural level.

I believe we have multilple layers in our identity… personal, local, regional, national, global. I feel part of the world in the Climate change discussion, I feel proud when the Dutch soccer teams wins from Spain etc etc… ofcourse Europeanness adds a new layer to my identity, but it is not a hierarchy… so sorry, I don’t feel happy when Boeing wins a deal over Airbuss or vice versa… So I need to? Do New Yorkers feel proud or aligned with people in California (so far I have experienced: NO). So let’s be proud of oneself first, than of your micro-community etc… I think self-esteem is bottom-up not top-down. And Simularca is part of my nurture-model.. so it is hard to expalin to me why I should be more proud of Dutch movies than American movies… the whole meaning of media in our generation is build-up by American examples… so by trying to make me proud of something different feels like you take something away in stead of adding something?! Ofcourse I like art-house movies since the fulfill a different need… (inspirantion , challanges, information) but Hollywood is for me (relaxiation, not thinking, comfort)… so let’s talk how to get into a state of AND/ AND and not EITHER. OR =)