MGX 5640
Cross-cultural Management Communication
Individual Essay
Globalisation& Local Identity in China’s Shanghai
Semester 2, 2012
Wenfei Hua (2358 7997)
Coordinator
Dr Paul Kalfadellis
1.0Introduction
Since the late 20th century, globalisation as a complex process of free flowing capital, people, rvices, information and images across borders has extended what was international competition between nation-states to become competition between cities within and across national borders. The rapid econ
omic ascent of China and the increasing integration of the world economy over the past two decades have made the metropolis in China, such as Shanghai, an emerging global city.
All of China’s economic success are associated w ith liberalization and globalization, and each aspect of globalization has brought China further success, not just updating Chine institutions but also transforming Chine civilization and enhancing local identity.
There is a substantial literature on the challenges of globalization to nation-states and its various, and even contradictory, impacts on the economic, political, cultural, social and educational dimensions of human activities in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world (Carnoy and Rhoten, 2002; Clayton, 2004; Held et al., 1998; Robertson, 1992, 1995). A number of studies focus on the ri of cities, and their respons to globalization including repositioning national–local relations for global competition (Abrahamson, 2004; Sasn, 2000a). However, this literature does not specifically address the sociopolitical struggles of cities for a new identity within and beyond national borders.
With reference to Shanghai, globalisation has enhanced the local identity. This essay tries to explore perceptions of the dynamics and complexities of global, national, local dimensions of multiple identiti
es during the process of positioning the city in a Pluralist Model. Bad on the Hybridisation theory (Hall, 1990), not likely that globalisation will destroy national identity. This essay firstly reviews some theories about the globalization and culture and provides a general background of Shanghai. Secondly, it will discuss the influences of globalisation on Shanghai’s identity from pe rspectives of translation and tradition. Finally the essay concludes with a discussion of the
implications of Shanghai’s experience for cities in developing countries in the context of global competition.
2.0Globalisation, Identity the Hybridisation Paradigm
2.1 Globalization
Globalisation is the “widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life”(Held, McGrew, Goldblatt and Perraton, 1999). Many authors suggest that the impact of globalization on culture is contradictory: on the one hand globalization works towards the unification of the world but on the other it awakes the tendencies towards the local and culture becoming more and more visible. The relationship is in reality reciprocal process, cultures do shape globalization process and patterns and vice versa (Isar, 2011). Cultural diversity
is both eroded and recreated by process of globalization (Moore, 2011).
Globalisation has questioned the classical notions by reducing the significance of national characteristics in three major aspects: the reduction of the significance of national borders (Ohmae, 1990); the twin squeezing of the nation-state’s power over territorial units from above by transnational organisations and agencies, and from below by non- governmental institutions, particularly cities as both national and international hubs of economic and cultural activities (Bottery, 2003; Delanty, 2000; Keating, 2001). The changes question the modern state’s ability to exhaust all political act ivity and legitimacy in the face of new economic, political and cultural arenas that transcend regional and national borders (Giddens, 1999; Preston, 1997).
The old nation-oriented notions are further questioned by new dynamics arising from the revival o f cities’ local identities, and the change of their relations with the
nation-state and the world as a result of increas in cross-border economic and sociopolitical process in the global community.
Major theoretical respons to globalisation focus mainly on the relation of nation-state to other levels of multileveled polity (Law, 2004). Some recommend a shift in emphasis from citizen- ship at t
he national to other levels, or even the replacement of national citizenship with another single-level citizenship, such as a global one (Urry, 1998), or personal or group identity (Oommen, 1997; c. 1995). Against such a simplistic shift or replacement, some propod the concept of multiple or multileveled identities (Bottery, 2003; Grosvenor, 1999).
2.2 Identity
Cultural identity is the means for distinguishing one culture from another. The definition of “identity” can be developed as a “n of culture” (Keillor & Hult, 1999). Identity is the extent to which a given culture recognizes and identifies its unique characteristics, or, in other words, the degree to which a nation and its individuals have a strong n of cultural and national uniqueness. Cultural identity is not something people are born with, it is deliberately transmitted by the family and shaped by experiences and interactions with others. Cultural identity is the feeling of a group or culture or of an individual as far as this individual is influenced by belonging to a group of culture. It distinguishes one culture from another thus helps marketers to cea the differences between consumers’ cultural meanings. Cultural identity is often connected with ethnicity and ethic consumption is a strong component in modern consumption culture.
2.3Hybridisation Paradigm
What is happening to culture as a result of this globalisation? Three paradigms which explain the phenomenon
●Cultural Convergence – Homogenisation
●Cultural Difference - Polarisation
●Cultural Hybridization – Hybridisation
Homogeneity equates with standardisation, standard process, mass consumer tastes, levelling of differences between groups. Standardization provides for easier
dismination of products and rvices. Cultural differences between people are disappearing. Thus culture is equating to consumption moving away from culture as values, traditions and customs (Huntington 1996).
(Huntington 1993) Conflict will not ari as a result of political or ideological reasons but cultural. No moral equivalence – moral superiority of the West. Nation state being weakened as a source of national identity due to globalization.
Hybridisation suggests an intermingling between groups, a creolisation of society.
Cultural crossover is an ongoing mixing in society (Hall, 1990) - new articulation between the local and the global. Not likely that globalisation will destroy national identity. Globalization can mean the reforcement of or go together with localism, as in ‘Think globally, act locally’. ‘Identity patterns are becoming more complex, as people asrt local loyalties but want to share i n global values and lifestyles’ (Booth, quoted in Lipschutz 1992: 396).
3.0Shanghai’s History of Cultural D evelopment
Shanghaine in the early 20th century were viewed as the most cosmopolitan people of China (Murphy, 1953; Wei, 1987; Lu, 1999a). They were linked with a kind of sophistication obtained only by living in a complex city with a strong merchant character. The incursion of western mercantilism into this mi-colonial city and the establishment of China’s first modern institutions of higher learni ng helped make it the financial and cultural center of the Orient.
Shanghai’s modern culture showed a hybrid, commercial nature from the start. By instituting an education designed to promote the nation’s cultural esnce with foreign means, the new cultural and educational institutions straddled between conrvative ideology of nationalism and pragmatic values of commercialism. This also reflected the simultaneous ri of political parties and a commercial elite at the time (Yeh, 1990).
