Cultural Storm on PacRim Horizon

I was tempted to wax sarcastic about all the anti-Western wailing at last week’s second annual entertainment-and-media-in-Asia conference hosted at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. I was going to suggest that until “EMASIA ‘97,” put together by the Asia Society California Center, I hadn’t realized what an unpleasant experience watching U.S. entertainment programs must be for so many Asians. I mean, give us a break! American films and TV shows violate so-called Asian values? OK, then what about Hong Kong films so violent they almost qualify their American mass-market counterparts for “Masterpiece Theatre?” And don’t you have the impression that rape is a feature of every other film India produces? And so on and so on. Just how uniquely evil could Hollywood be?

Pretty bad, say a lot of Asian big shots. During most of Thursday’s “leaders’ forum,” I got the sense that America’s arsenal of movies, TV shows and downloadable Internet entertainment appears more immediately threatening to some in Asia than anything in our naval armada. For amid all the predictable Asia-is-a-heckuva-market ear candy from the panelists--a formidable assemblage of media and telecommunications figures, entertainment lawyers, academics, film producers and government officials--it became apparent that a cultural storm is gathering on the PacRim horizon. Yes, some Asian cultures, according to their representatives at the conference, definitely feel threatened by the avalanche of foreign entertainment, which, with new delivery systems, is proving relatively immune to traditional national defenses like censorship.

Hollywood has heard a lot of such complaints before, of course. But as the Asian market becomes more important, the U.S. entertainment industry may discover that it needs to listen to both Asian Americans and Asian nationals more carefully. Said panelist Christine Choy, from NYU’s Institute of Graduate Film and Television Studies: “Face the reality about the images [with which Asia is] being bombarded by Hollywood, such as ‘women need larger eyes and breasts.’ These [and other] images are being internalized.” Hollywood, she added, has a way of stereotyping everybody. Pakistani actor and producer Zia Mohyeddin said that “the Asian psyche is becoming more discriminating. Asian governments need to develop and nurture positive values in their culture.” John Sie, CEO of cable programmer Encore Media Corp., reinforced that thought: “Each government wants to promulgate a shared value system for its people. This is not tyranny.” What they clearly want is, if not flatter chests from the U.S. entertainment industry, then at least a more level entertainment playing field that allows Asian values to compete with Western ones. For instance, Hollywood might look for Asian stories with universal appeal to produce, perhaps with Asian stars, but with Hollywood production values as well.

To American ears, all such cries can sound suspiciously like censorship. Complained David Fischer, president of media marketers IN Media International, with offices in London, New York and Bombay: “The surest way to kill the magic of a film is government. Once you try to legislate filmmaking, you kill it.”

Are the Asian alarums justified? Even if they are, says Jeff Cole, director of the UCLA Center for Communication Policy, renowned for its studies of American TV violence, “I like Hollywood’s adaptive capabilities. Hollywood is not stupid. You don’t see new Charlie Chan movies any more, right? Amos ‘n’ Andy is long gone. You see, the U.S., for better or for worse, will listen to the criticism from Asia, internalize it and eventually change.” Mused Mike Medavoy, chairman and CEO of Phoenix Pictures: “In general Americans do think more about themselves than others. I’m painfully aware that our content needs to be international. After all, 60% of our income comes from the international market. We need to mirror more of society than we do.”

Asia is in a muscle-flexing mood these days. Just recently, in a clear slap at U.S. sanctions against Myanmar, the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations voted to accept this repressive dictatorship as a full member. ASEAN was determined to stand up to Western pressure even if it had to accept the blackest of sheep to its fold.

Indian-born Bhaskar Menon, the outspoken chairman of International Media Investments Inc., captured current Asian bristling on the cultural front this way: “For American producers to question the basic philosophy of TV content regulation in Asia is more likely to lead governments in those countries to regard these protestations as being motivated by more sinister and suspicious objectives than the protesters may have intended. If this happens, then the regulatory regimes and their enforcement may evolve with more draconian consequences than anyone would wish.”

Asian nations are capable of making an ugly point on the entertainment and cultural front if they believe America isn’t taking them seriously. Trade isn’t the only worthy issue on the transpacific agenda.

E-mail: tplate@ucla.edu