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       #Post#: 15645--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Media decolonization
       By: christianbethel Date: September 14, 2022, 12:59 pm
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       I see, shows from, say, the nineties or naughties I gather,
       hence your name.
       #Post#: 15646--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Media decolonization
       By: 90sRetroFan Date: September 14, 2022, 1:05 pm
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       Please feel welcome to discuss Counterculture era works here:
  HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/counterculture-era/
       #Post#: 15679--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Media decolonization
       By: Polinc_Socjus Date: September 16, 2022, 2:01 am
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       [quote]"Incidentally, what is your opinion on the animated
       series Steven Universe?"
       I have never watched it and have no plans to.[/quote]
       There's this Youtuber called Lily Orchard who did it so you
       don't have to.
  HTML https://youtu.be/flLEr_sYC-k
       She points out that the show is badly made all around, has bad
       representation, and "woobiefies space [s]fascists[/s]
       colonizers."
       #Post#: 15926--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Media decolonization
       By: 90sRetroFan Date: October 1, 2022, 5:39 pm
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  HTML https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/25/us/sundance-jihad-rehab-meg-smaker.html
       [quote]Meg Smaker felt exhilarated last November. After 16
       months filming inside a Saudi rehabilitation center for accused
       terrorists, she learned that her documentary “Jihad Rehab” was
       invited to the 2022 Sundance Festival, one of the most
       prestigious showcases in the world.[/quote]
       The title of the documentary alone tells us all we need to know
       about Smaker's worldview.
       [quote]But attacks would come from the left, not the right. Arab
       and Muslim filmmakers and their white supporters accused Ms.
       Smaker of Islamophobia and American propaganda. Some suggested
       her race was disqualifying, a white woman who presumed to tell
       the story of Arab men.
       ...
       Ms. Smaker’s film has become near untouchable, unable to reach
       audiences. Prominent festivals rescinded invitations, and
       critics in the documentary world took to social media and
       pressured investors, advisers and even her friends to withdraw
       names from the credits. She is close to broke.[/quote]
       :)
       [quote]Many Arab and Muslim filmmakers — who like others in the
       industry struggle for money and recognition — denounced “Jihad
       Rehab” as offering an all too familiar take. They say Ms. Smaker
       is the latest white documentarian to tell the story of Muslims
       through a lens of the war on terror. These documentary makers,
       they say, take their white, Western gaze and claim to film
       victims with empathy.
       Assia Boundaoui, a filmmaker, critiqued it for Documentary
       magazine.
       “To see my language and the homelands of folks in my community
       used as backdrops for white savior tendencies is nauseating,”
       she wrote. “The talk is all empathy, but the energy is Indiana
       Jones.”
       ...
       “When I, a practicing Muslim woman, say that this film is
       problematic,” wrote Jude Chehab, a Lebanese American
       documentarian, “my voice should be stronger than a white woman
       saying that it isn’t. Point blank.”[/quote]
       More from Boundaoui here:
  HTML https://twitter.com/assuss/status/1469341071020810240
       [quote]when will these Orientalism-steeped-in-Islamopobia takes
       by white folks become faux pas?[/quote]
       [img]
  HTML https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fdl-TK7UoAEIpZg?format=png&name=small[/img]
       [img]
  HTML https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fdl-XJOUAAA0CC9?format=png&name=small[/img]
       #Post#: 16303--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Media decolonization
       By: acc9 Date: November 6, 2022, 4:51 am
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  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WWwbiCWmuw
       A sample of rarely found MVs from Mainland China, this one with
       Li Jian, one of their most popular singers today, has potential
       for better results if not for the constant appearances of
       "White" faces and "Western" connoted props/backgrounds. I think
       it probably has to do with lack of confidence on the part of its
       producer/director in their own effort, hence the 'rather odd
       addition' to either make the MV more attractive to local
       West-bounders and appealing to the rest of the world. What a
       shame!
       #Post#: 16308--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Media decolonization
       By: 90sRetroFan Date: November 6, 2022, 5:02 pm
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       "Mainland China"
       Please call it "New China" (like Xi always does), to distinguish
       it from the true (ancient) China that we want to bring back.
       "constant appearances of "White" faces and "Western" connoted
       props/backgrounds."
  HTML https://smallimg.pngkey.com/png/small/129-1297667_clip-free-stock-collection-of-free-failing-clipart.png
       See also:
  HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/issues/psychological-decolonization/msg16108/#msg16108
       Now in MVs too! And it's not just any "whites", it's "whites"
       deliberately costumed in colonial-era clothes FFS! (And what's
       with the recurring superimposed Italian text??) You can't make
       this shit up.....
       Note also the indescribably spiritless melody of the above song
       itself. This is what a Eurocentrist sounds like. Contrast with
       Counterculture-era MVs/songs which tried to awaken blood memory
       of ancient China. For example:
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuAaHqDmkNg
       In the storyline of this MV, the modern guy ultimately declines
       (2:40) to be taken back to ancient times. I guess the MV you
       posted can be viewed as an unofficial sequel to this one.....
       #Post#: 16577--------------------------------------------------
       Re: China and United States Relations
       By: guest78 Date: November 21, 2022, 1:49 pm
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       China has a soft power deficiency
       [quote]Korea has Kpop, Japan has anime, but what does China
       have? Why is it hard for us to think of anything 'cool' about
       China, and why is that the case?
       Timestamps
       0:00 Intro
       0:45 The definition of soft power
       3:58 The problem: China's soft power deficiency
       9:23 China's historically attractive soft power + modern
       influences  (Douyin makeup, Genshin)
       14:28 Discussion on personal experiences, China's censorship and
       geopolitics
       20:51 Shambaugh's conclusion / Outro [/quote]
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haYdFJUDZbE
       #Post#: 16703--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Media decolonization
       By: 90sRetroFan Date: November 27, 2022, 12:47 am
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       Just when I thought the Eurocentrism could not possibly get any
       worse, this shows up:
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dSZevEPGs4
  HTML https://smallimg.pngkey.com/png/small/129-1297667_clip-free-stock-collection-of-free-failing-clipart.png
       #Post#: 16708--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Media decolonization
       By: 90sRetroFan Date: November 27, 2022, 6:40 pm
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  HTML https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/west-handed-classical-music-over-060000935.html
       First the good news:
       [quote]Classical music in Britain is in trouble. It’s not merely
       because the infrastructure of the venues, orchestras and groups
       that sustain the art form have suffered from underfunding for
       decades. Nor can we pin all the blame on the body blow that many
       have just received from Arts Council England (ACE) funding cuts,
       in which the Britten Sinfonia lost all its funding, the London
       Sinfonietta lost 41 per cent, and the London Symphony, London
       Philharmonic and Philharmonia orchestras all lost 12 per cent.
       Nor is it solely down to the marginalisation of the discipline
       in UK schools, where enrolments for GCSE Music have declined by
       19 per cent since 2011. And don’t blame the public: as Claire
       Allfree reported earlier this month, a healthy appetite for
       classical music is just waiting to be tapped. Classical-music
       streaming figures are higher than ever – even if, through a
       mixture of arrogance and incompetence, BBC Radio 3 and Classic
       FM are failing to capitalise.[/quote]
       See also:
  HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/plebian-hubris/
       Continuing:
       [quote]The sad truth is that among Britain’s upper echelons, the
       situation is very different from that of half a century ago.
       Now, classical music and opera arouse too much embarrassment or
       (worse) resentment and suspicion.[/quote]
       In other words, the Counterculture happened. This is the only
       good thing that happened in Britain after WWII.
       [quote]in the eyes of some, classical music and opera bear an
       ancestral guilt. They are fruits of the sins of Western society:
       its patriarchal and colonial mindset. The rules of tonal harmony
       are, these critics say, as oppressive as British rule in India,
       and have to be dismantled – witness the recent calls in
       universities to “decolonise” the music curriculum.[/quote]
       This is exactly the attitude that we are here to promote.
       But now for the bad news:
       [quote]One way to resist that trend would be to look outside our
       little island to an area of the world where classical music is
       loved and firmly embedded in the culture, arousing no
       embarrassment or resentment, and ask: what values does classical
       music hold there? I am thinking of the Far East, where classical
       music is booming to a degree that seems scarcely credible.
       Japan, Malaysia and South Korea all have thriving industries,
       while nowhere has its rise been so spectacular as in China.
       The art form has surprisingly old roots there: the Shanghai
       Symphony, founded in 1879, is older than the Berlin
       Philharmonic. Even after the Communist seizure of power,
       classical music was encouraged, and thousands of Chinese
       musicians were sent off to the Soviet Union for advanced
       training.[/quote]
       Once again proving that authentic communism was never
       anti-Western. This is why True Leftists are necessarily
       anti-communist.
       [quote]Gleaming new concert halls and opera houses are rising up
       all over the country, including the spectacular National Centre
       for the Performing Arts, in Beijing, opened in 2007 at a cost of
       more than £200 million. China’s piano-building industry is now
       the largest in the world – and 80 per cent of those instruments
       are for the home market.
       I used to think of this as mere middle-class aspiration, the
       desire of 21st-century China to “catch up” with the West, but
       there’s more to it than that. Classical music chimes well with
       traditional Chinese values that concern self-improvement and
       self-discipline.[/quote]
       How is it self-improvement to adopt the aesthetics of your
       oppressors? (And how colonized do you have to be to think that
       it is?)
       [quote]In line with this thinking, the Chinese regime has made
       classical music a key component of its educational policy. By
       the 1990s, Western classical music was judged more important
       than popular music and deserving of state support. There are now
       more than 40 million children across the country learning to
       play the piano, and more than 200 youth orchestras in Guangdong
       province alone. Higher up the chain, talented East Asian
       students now flock to Western conservatoires – and I can testify
       from experience that they often have a work ethic to match their
       abilities.[/quote]
       We have so much decolonization to do.....
       (And some people think Xi is anti-Western. No, Xi is
       anti-Counterculture, which makes him pro-Western since the
       Counterculture itself was an anti-Western movement.)
       [quote]The results of this nurturing of classical music across
       East Asia can already be seen in Western orchestras, where
       vacant positions are increasingly filled by players from China,
       Korea, Singapore and Japan. And at the level of the
       globetrotting star, Chinese performers and composers are
       ubiquitous, fired up by a love of an art form they are
       determined to make their own. Yuja Wang, possibly the most
       famous pianist on the planet, has declared that “music, in the
       Chinese mind, is the most sublime thing you can do”.[/quote]
       It would logically follow that Western classical music, in the
       mind of Eurocentrists from "New China", is the most sublimely
       Western thing you can do. Which of course is the very reason why
       the Eurocentrists from "New China" do it.
       Wang also looks like what we would expect:
       [img width=741
       height=1280]
  HTML https://seatgeek.com/images/performers-landscape/yuja-wang-c06be2/8464/1100x1900.jpg[/img]
       Here is a video of her trying her hardest to be as sublimely
       Western as possible:
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9crd3QyeT4
  HTML https://smallimg.pngkey.com/png/small/129-1297667_clip-free-stock-collection-of-free-failing-clipart.png
       Woke comments:
       [quote]It's the Chinese trying to prove how civilized they're
       society is by subsidizing things they think are high status
       which includes pretentious traditions of the white elite of
       yesteryear.
       I hate to be the one to point this out but it's incredibly sad
       and pathetic.[/quote]
       [quote]China has long admired and sought to posses western
       technology, building styles, and culture with a chinese twist, a
       hybrid, as opposed to creating something authentically
       Chinese.[/quote]
       However, it is the following based (ie. pro-Western) comment
       that (without intending to be) is even more revealing about the
       evil of Western classical music:
       [quote]Classical music interest has sprout up in unexpected
       areas, such as in Venezuela, in the Congo, in Mexico, in
       Vietnam, and in Arab lands. Classical music forces people to
       become more focused and disciplined to understand its
       complexity. Would heavy metal music do that? I doubt it. Heavy
       metal leads one to drug usage. Most parents force their children
       into classical music training not so much due to their favoring
       the music but more so to develop inner discipline.[/quote]
       #Post#: 17033--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Media decolonization
       By: 90sRetroFan Date: December 12, 2022, 10:13 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
  HTML https://www.yahoo.com/news/mindy-kaling-other-south-asian-215721954.html
       [quote]Mindy Kaling, other South Asian comedians called out for
       perpetuating stereotypes
       ...
       Dhanani calls out Kaling and stand-up comedians Russell Peters
       and Lily Singh in particular:
       "If you're in America and you want to be racist against
       Black people, you can deep dive into the ancient tomes of racism
       and find a stereotype or a slur. Same with East Asians, same
       with Latinos. But if you want to make fun of South Asians, where
       do those insults usually come from? South Asian comedians," he
       says. "Mindy Kaling, Russell Peters, Lilly Singh, what do they
       talk about? Our parents talk funny and they beat us and we eat
       stinky food and we are stinky and there's hair all over."
       Singh faced backlash in 2019 for comparing turbans to towels on
       her late-night show. Peters, who was the first comedian to have
       a Netflix stand-up special, is known for his imitations of
       Indian stereotypes, with his most famous bit being about his
       father's penchant for corporal punishment, which ends with his
       signature catchphrase: "Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad."
       Dhanani says the popularity of comedians who promoted harmful
       South Asian stereotypes affected the way he was treated in high
       school.
       He points out that audiences feel comfortable repeating these
       stereotypes "because a Brown person said it on TV."
       "Russell Peters popped off when I was in high school, and I had
       white people coming up to me in the hallway and quoting Russell
       Peters and laughing about it," he explains.
       "And I just played along! I laughed along, I added on, because
       that's how you fit in with white people. You let them laugh at
       you."
       ...
       The TikTok creator also calls out the popularity and use of "the
       voice," referring to an exaggerated Indian accent, by stand-up
       comedians.
       Dhanani explains that a cousin of his who is a professional
       stand-up comedian on TikTok uses "the voice" in "every single
       one of her videos."
       "In her stand-up routines, just like Lilly Singh, she does the
       voice to make fun of her parents. And just like Lilly Singh, her
       parents don't have that accent."[/quote]
       The part in bold is one of the most concise summaries of
       Eurocentrism that I have encountered to date.
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