HALLYU (THE KOREAN WAVE): A CULTURAL TEMPEST IN EAST AND SOUTH EAST ASIA

A gust - ephemeral, but transformative. The abrupt forays of hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunami bring about topographical and ecological changes. The same holds true for the socio-political domain as well. The tempests we have witnessed in the twentieth century, strikes, uprisings and revolutions, have triggered historical ruptures not just in the nations from which they originated, but also in the overall power dynamics of the world. In the realm of culture, too, such transformative events occur periodically, as illustrated by the upsurge of rock’n’roll, China’s Cultural Revolution, and the American hippie culture. ...

A CHINESE GHOST STORY

A gust of wind extinguishes the lonely candle in the room, a gush of fear rises in your gut as a shadow appears…

Such is a typical scene in a ghost movie. Since at the time of writing it is the seventh month in the lunar calendar (and this year, being a leap year, has two seventh months), I think I will talk about ghosts: ...

AN AIR OF CATASTROPHE

Tradition has it that a gust of wind or a squall is always also an impulse to a movement, an impetus for a new age. Calm is interrupted, the former movement disrupted. In Christian cultures the wind even represents something like the primeval age or the impulse for creation in general: after all, the biblical story begins at an airy height: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.” (Gen 1, 1-2) This “hovering over the waters” can be regarded as primeval breeze itself. ...

‘GLOCALITY’ AND CULTURAL IDENTITY

Western societies (and not only), and in particular their metropolises, are increasingly the meeting point for influences derived from a variety of cultural, ethnic and religious ambits. The progressive ideology of the ‘enlightened’ West has found its modern utopia in the concept of multiculturalism. Multicultural society is – or rather ideally should be – hospitable, aimed at welcoming and, in the best case, embracing diversity. ...

EUROPEAN COLONIAL GHOSTS AND EUROCENTRISM

Europeans have seen themselves as being at the centre of the world since the beginning of civilisation, and in many ways that notion still remains today. Two examples are the fact that we refer to Europe and to a minority of other countries with white settlers as the ‘First World’ and refer to the rest of the countries as belonging to the ‘Third World’, and we literally put ourselves in the centre and on top on a world map. ...

POST-APARTHEID LITERATURE BEYOND RACE

The wind of change that blew through South African society after the collapse of the apartheid system brought sudden transformations in the law and in attitudes to everyday life. The end of apartheid witnessed the emergence of new social problems that writers have attempted to confront in their works. Post-apartheid writing is marked by an abrupt shift away from a racial focus towards a wider concern with all of the many and various dimensions of human existence. ...

CONTEMPORARY MAORI WRITING: TRADITIONAL IDENTITIES AND THE GUSTS OF MODERNITY

Recent claims that the M?ori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, carry a so-called ‘warrior gene’ that is associated with anti-social behavior such as gambling, addiction and aggression are, needless to say, untenable. However, the wider debate on the cultural roots of identity and social behavior sheds some light on the fissures that still exist in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand society. ...