Valentine’s Day came and went this year as it does, everyone
embracing their clichés: couples enjoying their gift exchanges and obligatory Instagrams,
and singles throwing self-pitying anti-Valentine’s Day parties. It’s easy to
get wrapped up in our own lives and social circles on v-day, as we compare our
romantic lives to those of our friends and acquaintances. But Valentine’s Day,
like many other Western-established holidays, has become very much a global
holiday. Intuition tells us that love is universal, so Valentine’s Day is a
harmless, even beneficial, product of globalization. However this is not
entirely so, and many countries this year, particularly in Asia, have seen
major pushbacks against the holiday.
In some countries the resistance to Valentine’s Day was
primarily against Western consumerism and indulgence. In Japan, protesters part of
a group called Kakuhido protest “passion-based capitalism” – the chairman of
the group says, “Society is addicted to capitalism. People are profiting from
it and we are here today to demonstrate our resistance to the love
capitalists.” In Uzbekistan, university students were even required to sign
declarations promising not to celebrate Valentine’s Day, against what is
described as “European mass culture.” The government has increased police
security in parks, and officials insist young people and couples should spend
the holiday appreciating the 16th Century poetry of Uzbek conqueror,
Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur.
Other countries see traditional and religious values at risk
on Valentine’s Day, associating the holiday with moral corruption and
promiscuous behavior. In Malaysia, a Muslim majority country, a sermon by the
Malaysian Islamic Development Department was distributed to mosques all over
the country saying that, “social ceremonies such as this are a stepping-stone
to greater social ills … that can invite disaster and moral decay among
youths.” Ring-wing Hindu volunteers in India scanned the nation’s public parks
and spaces on Valentine’s Day, offering counsel and a free marriage ceremony to
couples caught hugging or kissing in public. The Cambodian government urged its
youth to “please behave” and teachers were instructed to advise their students
against inappropriate behavior. The Ministry of Education spokesman said that
young Cambodians may be confused about the imported holiday and could interpret
it as a license to have sex.
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| Indian women protest Valentine's Day as cultural invasion on Hindu way of life Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ |
It is easy to look down on these cultural pushbacks against
Valentine’s Day, writing each off as another example in a series of socially
repressive actions in conservative countries. But we need to understand the
products we are exporting on Valentine’s Day. Although it stands true, I don’t
just mean the consumerist products of red roses, chocolate, candlelight dinners
and romantic greeting cards. I mean the type of love we are exporting. Our
culture has idealized a type of love relationship built upon attraction,
emotion, connection, and affection. In the U.S. we are an individualistic culture
and we do what is best for ourselves, including who we choose as our
significant other. This is something we are taught from a young age. Disney
princesses almost always defy their families’ wishes and what is in the
societal norm in the pursuit of true love. Yet widespread in many Asian
cultures is collectivism, where love is expressed through happiness of the
family and community and doing what is best for the prosperity of the
group.
This Valentine’s Day individualistic-love we export knows
no cultural boundaries and societies are forced to confront changing
traditional views of love among youth. It is no surprise that foreign societies
may perceive Valentine’s Day as a microcosm of Western values, posing a
threat to tradition. Valentine’s Day, like many other Western exports and
globalization generally, is impossible to reverse. However, it is important that
we refrain from perceiving reactions like this as backward, and respect resistance
to Western values as only natural in traditional cultures.
Really interesting points here, and I thought you explained the often-dismissed rationale behind a cultural disparity very well, especially with the example of popular Disney movies. To add to your list of foreign examples, China also has its own rebellion against Valentine's Day, with Nov. 11 being known as "Singles Day," when two trends emerge: a flurry of online shopping, which is intended to be self-empowering, and single people hiring strangers to take home to their families and pose as their significant others, for fear of upsetting their parents. Kind of contradictory, but I suppose this alludes to the same tension between the values of collectivism and individualism that you explore here.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Having lived in China before, I can definitely understand these kind of reactions to the importation of Western/American culture. However, I think a lot of this has to do with a generational gap. For example, young people in China consume large amounts of Western media, e.g. TV shows, music, etc. As a result, they often adopt Western values. I think most of the backlash, at least in countries like China, comes from older people who are more nationalistic and also more traditional culturally.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post—I love that you started off with a look at the consumerism surrounding Valentine’s Day, because it truly is basically a holiday that exists to create revenue, and the American obsession with it speaks volumes to our capitalist society. I feel you could do a piece on its own about how love is defined in America- you touch on this idea of the Disney princess. How does that image affect the way girls view themselves and love? How does it affect the marginalization of women? That could be a really interesting post. Great work!
ReplyDeleteI loved your post! (<-- See what I did there, Valentine's Day?)
ReplyDeleteAs a Global Studies major (a growing field, there are now 19 of us), I've been taught all about globalization from a variety of perspectives and disciplines. I think the controversy of what is perceived as the spread of westernization, rather than globalization, is a hot button issue and you addressed it well. With English as the lingua franca of the internet and all sorts of technologies emerging and becoming popular internationally, like social medias, it is no surprise to me that Valentine's Day has spread to other nations. I think as vyang mentions above, the acceptance and adoption of these "western" values often comes down to a generational difference. So while for now, Valentine's Day and the American idea of love is banned in many of the countries you named, it will be interesting to see how this progresses over time, say, 10 years from now.
This is a fascinating post, from what I've heard the idea of romantic love in the way we see it now, originated sometime in the Middle Ages. It's no surprise that cultures that don't trace their ancestral lines to that point would find the concept 'western' rather than 'intuitive' as we'd describe it. I would make an interesting blog post to see how other countries perceive love and relationships.
ReplyDelete