When Asian Culture Meets the West （2）

Last time, we have gone through the Main difference between the East and the West in Culture and Culture as a product in the last article When Asian Culture Meets the West (1). Today, we are going to elaborate more on globalization and how Neon Sign has become a “new” product. There are three main categories in Globalization, namely Cultural globalization , Economic globalization and Political globalization (political globalization will be left out this time, may follow it up later on in a separate article) .

Cultural Globalization

The US is very strong in cultural output, especially in terms of businesses. There are two very successful giants as an example in the global food and beverage chains- McDonald’s and Starbucks, which are American companies.

The patterns of cultural globalization may be a way of spreading theories and ideas from one place to a different. Although globalization has affected us economically and politically, it's also affected us socially on a wider scale. With the inequalities issues, like race, ethnic and sophistication systems, social inequalities play a component within those categories.

Within the media and popular culture, it's shaped individuals to own certain attitudes that involve race issues thus resulting in stereotypes.

Technology is an effect that created a bridge that diffused the globalization of culture. It brings together globalization, urbanization and migration and the way it's affected today's trends. Before urban centers had developed, the concept of globalization after the second war was that globalization came about thanks to the lifting of state restrictions by different nations. there have been national boundaries for the flow of products and services, concepts and ideas.

Economic Globalization

Economic globalization is the widespread international movement of products, investment, currencies, services, technology and data. it's the increasing economic integration and interdependence of national, regional, and native economies across the globe through an intensification of cross-border movement of products, services, technologies and capital. Economic globalization is about the globalization of production, finance, markets, technology, organizational regimes, institutions, corporations and, of course, labour.

Economic globalization may affect culture. Populations may mimic the international flow of capital and labor markets within the type of immigration and therefore the merger of cultures. Foreign resources and economic measures may affect different native cultures and should cause assimilation of a native people. You can see a lot of examples that foreign students studying in the USA, UK and Australia. For longer time they study and live there, the more cultures they can adapt there. When they go back to the original country, they may even have the cultural shock as it is the first time they have been there.

George Ritzer wrote about the McDonaldization of society and the way sustenance businesses spread throughout the u. s. and also the remainder of the planet, attracting other places to adopt nutriment culture. Ritzer describes other businesses like The Body Shop, a British cosmetics company, that have copied McDonald's business model for expansion and influence. In 2006, 233 of 280 or over 80% of recent McDonald's opened outside the US. In 2007, Japan had 2,828 McDonald's locations.

Global media companies export information round the world. This creates a mostly one-way flow of knowledge, and exposure to mostly western products and values. Media giants like CNN, Reuters and BBC are dominating to promote western viewpoints around the world.

Anime and K-pop are also great examples of economic globalization. You can refer to the following articles for details:

1. Why do we love anime so much?

2. Custom Neon Sign for Korean K-POP Lovers

How Neon Sign is a part of Globalization

In the other articles, we have talked about the history of Neon Sign in the US, UK (London) and Hong Kong. Although Neon Sign was expensive by then, we can see that Neon Sign was promoted to a lot of places for widely use.

Further reading:

The Neon Sign Legacy in Hong Kong

Neon Sign History of USA

The History of Neon Signs in London

Traditional neon signs were used mainly for Shop’s names, advertising purpose and most important of all, to attract people’s eyes. Even nowadays, we can easily find a lot of places having the old neon sign in the US, UK, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and many other countries and cities.

Although Neon Sign is not like other cultural products which can represent a country, a city nor a town, companies now use Custom Neon Sign to create different images that can represent their values, brand and products. If we are talking about Neon Sign as one item, you can easily associate it to be placed in Bars and Pubs as neon lights should be used in the dark or night time.

Nevertheless, Neon Sign has become a decorative product in recent years. Custom Neon Sign provide the chances for different traditional cultural products. For Japanese comics and anime, a custom neon sign can easily create the image of the famous characters and slogans to further promote those comics copies or anime for sales.

Let’s not forget the Pop music culture of the US and South Korea. Rappers, Tattoos, Dancers, Signers cannot stay out of the way in globalization. As the young generations, who doesn’t know BTS, BLACKPINK, STRAY KIDS and other K-pop (Korean Pop) groups. Who doesn’t know Travis Scott, Eminem, Jay Z, Drake, and other American rappers.

Cactus Jack Neon Sign

BTS Love Yourself Hearts Neon Sign

BLACKPINK Ice-cream Neon Sign

BTS JK Flying Neon Sign

A Custom Neon Sign can tailor the image of the athletes, singers, groups and bands for sure. What your need to know before ordering is:

How big the size you want (it also affects the shipping fee)
Do you want the acrylic board be shaped
Single color or multi-color?
What materials, PVC or Silicone (To understand the difference, you may refer to here)
Do you need a dimmer
How you want to install (Hanging strips, screws or wall-mounting stand-offs)