The Cultural Conflicts And Integration

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The Cultural Conflicts and Integration Presented by Hong Seokjun (Faculty of History and Culture, Mokpo University) I.

Introduction

This is an introductory article to help the understanding of the general problems of the cultural conflicts and integration in a certain socio-cultural context. The article will first consider the general arguments on culture, and investigate the relation between the arguments on culture and the cultural conflicts, and the relation between the cultural conflicts and the cultural integration. For its conclusion, this article will propose a question, instead, how the cultural integration would be made possible. When interpreted in a broad sense, both academic and practical, culture has been traditionally understood as a sort of life style. According to this view, a culture of a specific region can be defined as the unique and original life style that reflects the dynamics and complexity of the community in the region. A specific culture, however, is formed through the specific historical experiences and the unique cultural context of a community, whether formed spontaneously or formed by pressure from its outside. Is it then possible to combine the society and the culture of a region into one concept or category? In order to answer this question, the differences and the similarities of cultures should be considered first. Different cultures around the world have characteristics that are both different from and similar to each other. If to focus on the life style of the people in a specific region, many ruptures and differences do exist in their specific culture. A culture, here, is an entity that has diverse and complex characteristics, shares certain common elements with other cultures and changes itself flexibly according to the time and context. Under the current rapidly changing political and economic situation, the cultures around the world are expected to accelerate their globalization and localization. Accordingly, there will be formed an environment where are promoted intellectual efforts to explain how the culture of a region is formed, transformed and interpreted based on the actual daily, specific reality. In this context, it can be said that we need to attain a view through which we can understand the cultural peculiarities and meanings embedded in the daily life of a cultural community, as well as to be equipped with the theoretical and practical tools.

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II.

A Critical Investigation of the Cultural Theory and the Issue of the Cultural Conflict.

Various arguments have been made on culture, in general. It seems now quite difficult or almost impossible to deal with culture itself as a general, fixed entity, as it has been widely recognized that a culture always changes in relation with complicate events and situations. Besides, there are certain qualitative differences between normative, ethical messages and a strategic utterance in the practical level. If one views culture as a fixed entity, or simplifies the cultural dynamics as “culture moves from the center to the marginal,” through a dichotomy that puts one’s own culture at the center and the other’s in the marginal, the clashes and tensions between cultures, the dynamic interactions between cultures such as cultural conflicts can be overlooked. Examples can be taken from the social situations of the moment in China, Japan, and Korea. In the case of China, the Sinocentrism and the Han-Barbarians structure has been set forth for the cultural integration in the process of its modernization through, mainly, economic development. Many of the Chinese films have been produced and distributed with the subtle intention to uplift the pride in the Chinese people of their Chinese identity and culture. “Eat, Drink, Man and Woman 2” is a good example of this kind of movies, where can be observed a symbolizing process of the nationalist message, which advocates that Hong Kong and Taiwan should be unified with China despite their geographical and cultural differences, through the Chinese food. In this film is implied the strong pride of the Sinocentrism that the Chinese people, wherever they live around the world, should not forget their cultural identity and China should be the center of the world. Japan has been showing a consistent, passive attitude in that it has built mutual cooperative relations with other countries following the strategy and goal of its modernization, “out of Asia, into Europe (脫亞入歐).” Japan’s tepidness toward the establishment of the economic cooperative system among the East Asian countries also demonstrates that Japan holds a very one-directional and exclusive view on the matter, concerned only with its own interest, but not with equal cooperative relations with other Asian countries. Korea is also suspicious of its nationalist inclination and the tendency that emphasizes the exclusive competitive spirit for its national development, not the cultural hybridity. Korea, indeed, is well-known as a country that puts its interest before

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everything in establishing a cooperative relation with other countries. In this context, a serious consideration should be paid to a remark that says, “Korea is so concerned and obsessed with its own problems, it does not show any interest in the problems of the neighboring countries and cannot play its role in solving them” (Kim Sangwoo, May 9, 2002). We are now required to reflect on our own conducts, whether we have been rather passive in understanding and respecting others’ cultures, and, at the same time, have put forth our efforts to apply the directly imported experiences to solve the cultural conflicts. We should also ask ourselves whether we are confronting a cultural reality that everybody is devoted to building and maintaining a strong wall to protect each culture. The existing perceptions and argements on culture, in most cases, tended to be based on the ethnocentric linguistic dogmatism without a deep introspection into the internal view on the specific historical experience and cultural environment of a specific culture (Kim Gwangeok 1998; Han Kyeonggu 1997). These arguments divided the world according to the dichotomy into the center and the marginal, the dominant and the subordinate, the high and the low, or the superior and the inferior; categorized all the cultural elements through the binary equivalence; and, consequently, fossilized culture itself, ignoring the internal diversity of a culture and its flexibility and variableness. Moreover, many arguments were based on rather subjective interpretations and assumptions without enough empirical verification, thus led an unscientific and illogical arguments on cultural values and world views, wanting the concrete contents of a culture (refer to Kim Gwangeok 1998). It is very dangerous to follow the simplified logic that divides the world according to the binary structure. In the numerous societies around the world, various cultures are being practiced in either similar or different forms. Some of the similar features that can be found in common in different nations and societies across the world are the notions and practices on the following matters: the courtesy to human beings, the importance of family, the respect for honor, the mixture of the normality and abnormality, the definition and standard for being human, the world order, the movement of the universe, and the destiny of human being. What is required now is a work to identify the concrete patterns and meanings of those notions and practices, or how those matters are perceived and practiced in a specific social and cultural context. In one word, the existing theories on culture can be evaluated as lacking the concreteness, as the substance of culture is ambiguous. A culture of a specific region is a cultural entity that holds the concrete notions on and practices of life, rather than a

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spatial or geographical entity. We cannot define a culture simply by drawing lines on a map. It is very important to recognize that a cultural substance is not grasped through the combination of the spatial concept and some cultural terms, without a deep introspection on the people and their cultural practices. There has been the assumption that a cultural integration in a region could be achieved after a long-term geographical unification. For a cultural integration, however, the internal conflicts and tensions in a culture should be examined first. To argue that there have been consistent positive contacts between two cultures in a geographically unified region is likely to result in a too simplified approach to characteristics and meanings of culture. Through our historical experiences, we should be able to observe that there have been many cases where the internal conflicts caused by the cultural clashes became obstacles in understanding each other’s culture and establishing a cultural integration. An empirical research on the causes and effects of a cultural conflict should be preceded also in order to test this observation. A cultural integration between heterogeneous cultures should be based on cultural exchanges between them for a long period. It should also be noted that the processes of cultural exchanges vary according to each country or ethnic group’s historical experience both in the cultural and social aspects. The differences in the historical experiences and cultural environments of different nations or societies indicate differences not only in their systems and institutions, but also in their customs and their views on the world and the nation. We should be cautious of those attitudes and arguments that are bent on the “appellation” of a specific culture based on subjective ideas and emotions without any concrete proofs to explain the cultural differences. We should be also careful not to fall into the error of the cultural determinism. In order to avoid the unrefined cultural determinism, we need to focus on the cultural heterogeneity not the cultural homogeneity, on the aspect of the cultural conflict not of the cultural harmony and stability. The cultural integration can be made possible when the cultural heterogeneity and conflicts are explained through our understanding of the specific peculiarities and meanings of a culture in the social and cultural context. To stick to the belief that the politics and the economic development of a community is determined by culture only does imply certain possibility of fallacy. We should ask ourselves whether we are indulged in a sort of “culture-making” as we discuss culture. We should raise a question on whether our diverse cultural discourses are ignoring the aspect of the cultural conflict and hiding our world views based on our strong faith in the cultural homogeneity and different strategies.

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Furthermore, the differences between the state and the nation should be concerned. In some cultures, the state and the nation are considered as an identical category, while, in others, the two are perceived as two strictly different categories. The state is perceived as a political entity that was formed in modern times; on the other hand, the nation is understood as an “imagined community,” a collection of the common fundamental elements such as language, custom, and religion (Anderson, 1991). We sometimes tend to confuse culture as a matter of images or ideas through which we perceive a specific culture and culture as a whole way of life. Those theories and methodologies that regard the perceptual dimension in the same light with the actual cultural dimension are given great importance in the field of cultural studies. It seems, however, not appropriate to simply identify the perceptions or ideas themselves as culture itself. The system of perceptions or thoughts is an important constituent element of culture, though, it is not a solely determinative element of culture. On that account, the cultural homogeneity and the community spirit are exposed as false discourses due to their insistence on the original emotion or loyalty for the cultural community. Thus, we should concern whether the inclination for the tradition or the mutual intimacy amongst the members of a community would guarantee the universality and the infinite expansion of the civil society. When we discuss the cultural conflict or integration, the fundamental question to be raised first is what “culture” is. Culture has been defined in many ways: some define culture as the field of art; others define it as religion, language and the system of thoughts; it is also defined as a customary institutions and the system of rules. Could each of these concepts of culture be applied separately in explaining a cultural community? Culture has its meanings only to those who practice it. Therefore, it is very dangerous to assume a cultural homogeneity or a cultural community from the fact that some elements or forms are found in common between different cultures (Hong Seokjun, 1998). This is why it is very important to expose the subjects of and the force behind the production of the theories on culture. For whom and by whom all the diverse discourses on culture are produced? The arguments and discourses on the cultural conflict and the cultural integration usually imply double consciousness of the subject’s fear for the alienation and the subject’s pride in the culture. The concepts of culture as the explanation on, the excuse for, or as the resistance against the political activities, human rights, democracy, economic activities and social ethics were introduced to avoid the evaluation through the Western concept, category, or norms of culture. To achieve this aim, the specific historical processes and experiences of each ethnic or cultural

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community should be accounted. To further a concrete discussion on the entity of a culture, we need to pay attention to the various voices of the social movements such as the grass-root movements and other NGO movements that have been spread widely around the world in recent days (Appadurai 2000). It is necessary to examine what roles those voices from the social movements and practices take in a specific society, in which context, and what socio-cultural implications they have. In other words, we should first acknowledge the coexistence of different cultures in a society, and approach those problems involved in the cultural conflict and integration of other cultures as a part of the new social movement that purports to restore the cultural rights of different groups of people. This movement that has aroused a new type of tribalism through establishing a network between different tribes or ethnic groups around the world can be recognized as a revival of the nationalism. What is remarkable here is that this sort of small-scaled social movement can be taken as an alternative to confront the logic and the strategy of the globalization, as an attempt to change the center by the marginal. With the recognition of the cultural diversity, we should reflect whether we have been obsessed with the “search for a cultural prototype” (Hong Seokjun 1998). A culture can be defined differently according to the unique historical experience and the cultural environment of a cultural community. The obsession with a cultural prototype leads us to consider culture as an isolated static entity, to ignore the aspect of cultural conflicts, and to overlook the aspect of the agency of the cultural subject. The agency of the subjects that assume and perform certain identities according to their aims can be explained only through the cultural dynamics and practices, not through a certain, putative prototype or innate nature of the subjects. To deal with the issues of the cultural conflict and integration, we should get over the binary paradigm that divides the world into the center and the marginal. For a more productive understanding of the dialogic relation between the cultural conflict and the cultural integration, we need to overcome the binary system and train to view the world in a more objective way. Intellectual introspections on the internal conflicts of a culture should be made which do not emphasize “essential” and “truthful” culture that can be found in common between different cultures and acknowledge that each culture has its unique peculiarities. The theories on culture should be based on concrete and empirical observation on culture, and homogeneity and heterogeneity in each culture. To suggest to promote a common culture or the cultural integration without considering the dimension of cultural conflict can raise the essentialist emotions of the subjects that enjoy a specific

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culture and obstruct the establishment of the sense of community or the cultural integration (Geertz, 1998: refer to Chapter 10). A true cultural integration can be achieved by the group of “people” who are willing to share their diverse and complicate cultures beyond the boundaries of the nation or ethnic groups.

III.

In Conclusion: Is the Cultural Integration Possible? When dealing with the issue of the cultural conflict and the cultural integration in the current situation where the globalization is proceeding rapidly, we need to consider one more thing. The globalization of culture takes a different shape from it of the capital. While the economic globalization make use of a variety of means that can be absorbed into different societies and assimilate (refer to Appadurai 1990, 1996). This argument can be applied in the same way when dealing with the problems of the cultural conflict and integration around the world. Thus, those elements that have influenced in the formation of the cultural environment and historical experience of each country, including the tension and conflict between the state and the civil society, the expansion of market, the competition between countries, the state’s policy on companies, and the relation between the traditional and the contemporary, can be examined further through a concrete and empirical research that also accounts for the socio-cultural context. The citizens of each nation should share the recognition of the necessity of the empirical research from the comparative perspective as a part of the specific efforts to search for the paradigm with which we can overcome the simplistic optimism and 문화만능주의. Without inspection on the causes of the cultural conflict and on the specific measures to cope with the conflict, the discussions for the cultural integration and a cultural community will find themselves unfounded. Culture has come to occupy the core position in our contemporary knowledge society or knowledge-based society. Without a good use of culture, a society will be left behind in the sphere of knowledge and information. A thorough and careful understanding on the causes and the contexts of each cultural conflict, along with culture, should be preceded to the discussion on the possibility of the cultural integration, especially when the world is experiencing a rapid globalization and, at the same time, the localization of each society to obtain the cultural originality. Culture does not exist as a united entity. It is the absence of a proper approach to culture, as well as our superficial and ideative tendency in conceptualizing culture, that have led us to understand culture as a united, universal entity.

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If culture is understood not as an integrated whole, but as a scene of confrontations, clashes, and conflicts among very heterogeneous elements, studies on culture are naturally led to focus on the theories and practices on the issue of the cultural conflict and integration. The cause and the context of the cultural conflict can be grasped better when inspected not only from the internal cultural angle, but also from the external political, economic and social perspectives. In other words, when the unique and peculiar historical experience of a specific region is accounted enough, the cause and context of a cultural conflict can be grasped better. For example, a comparative investigation on different experiences such as the democratization of South Korea, the democratization movement against the military authority in Myanmar, the June Revolution against the dictatorship in the Philippines, and the people’s power movement that expelled the dictator in Indonesia, can open the possibility of the solidarity between these societies based on their common experiences, and ultimately the possibility of the cultural integration. To understand culture is not to understand the harmony and stability between different cultures, but to understand the conflicts and confrontations between them as a whole. In a word, understanding culture means understanding the cultural conflict. A culture can be grasped only through the conflicts, confrontations, and tensions among the constituent elements in the culture. The possibility for the cultural integration can be expected only when the cultural conflict is thoroughly understood, and systematic and concrete discussions are made on the cultural integration. Without these, discussions on the cultural integration could well remain as an unfounded discourse.