What fueled my desire to understand other cultures?

When I was in university, I remember an interview on TV where Bono from U2 talked about Live 8, a concert in 8 countries. The whole reason for being put together was to try and raise awareness about poverty in Africa and convince the G8 nations to give more monetary support. Something similar had been done in the 80’s called Live Aid.

8 concerts in 8 countries was what we were told, and each concert had some big names. Of course U2 was playing but also Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Elton John and Coldplay, and a bunch of artists from those 8 countries and more.

I wasn’t sure if throwing money was going to “end global poverty” as they were promising, but at the very least, maybe it would be a chance for the world to come together and honor each other, to look directly at each other and outside of our little cultural boxes. Maybe it would help people care about each other a little bit more?

I remember getting excited to hear music from France and Japan and South Africa. I had never heard any foreign music short of a few Spanish songs and a handful of international classics from Italy or Brazil.

“8 concerts in 8 countries, All available here”

That’s what was promised by AOL, who was still my email provider at the time and one of the main broadcasting partners. I eagerly watched the concert in Paris, hoping to see lots of French musicians. I wanted to see the Cure and Muse who I knew. I recognized Andrea Bocceli, the Italian opera singer who had become famous in America thanks to his collaboration with Celine Dion. The local acts never came though....

I soon realized though, that if it was an act that didn’t have a following in America, the performance would be cut from the video or cut down to a few second clip.

W...T...F

I had been most excited for the Japan performance because Bjork was playing. If you don’t know Bjork, you should. She’s the Icelandic experimental pop singer who shattered my exclusive interest in Rock and opened my mind to all different styles of music and art. (I recommend her first 4 or 5 albums, especially Vespertine).

I got ready for Bjork performance as I looked for the Japan tab…but there was no Japan tab. Japan was not being broadcast at all…

W...T...F

8 concerts in 8 countries (I learned later that there were 10),,,only 6 were being streamed….

What was that about? Why wouldn’t they want to show us music from around the world? Why were we only shown English speaking artists and the few others that we may know already. Did the promoters think we were so self-centered and simple that we wouldn’t be interested in music that we couldn’t understand the lyrics to?

I was infuriated. The United States is a country of immigrants and yet we really only know things from within our borders. “What a waste…” was all I could think.

The world is painted in a way to keep up with certain narratives. If America is to be “the greatest country in the world”, it couldn’t have its people too curious about the rest of the world. And at that time Americans still had the most money to spend, so everyone catered to that preexisting image of America that we wanted to believe. Hollywood, Silicon Valley, New York City….we were the melting pot…no need to look any further, right?

I decided that week that I wanted to leave the States and I wouldn’t be going to an English speaking country. I enrolled in French and Arabic and took up Japanese on my own. I later decided to focus on Japanese. It was probably the Japanese loose take on religion that swayed me in the end. It’s the only country I had heard of where you could take part in 3 religions and not be questioned. That really attracted me and so I wanted to know more about how the people think.

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I immersed myself completely through music and television, language partners and food from Japanese supermarkets. I wanted to know everything, especially things beyond anime, karate and games which was all that people in the US cared about with regards to Japan. I didn’t trust the image painted of a country when we were so arrogant as to think EVERYTHING was better in America.

I later realized that one reason America was so America-centric is because most of our immigrants have fled from terrible conditions and persecution. Of course they’d only have great things to say about America. It’s not a terrible place, in the end... But the world is big enough where I think it’d be a waste to spend it all in one place, so long as there is an opportunity to explore.

I had no idea how to fund myself but I didn’t even bother looking for jobs in the US. For me the priority was to leave and so I did as soon as I could.

So that’s the story of how I started out so interested in culture. It’s probably also the story of why I do my best to adopt as much as I can from friends who come from various places. Of course I pick and choose my favorite parts, but that's half the fun of learning about other cultures, learning and growing.

I realize now just how fluid culture is. It’s not just about where we come from, or who our parents are, or what we look like. It’s the stories we tell ourselves and the stories we share with each other. So if you want to understand someone, you have to get at the narratives that helped shape their understanding of the world. By narratives, I don’t just mean literal stories, but also the things we learn from our parents and peers.

Many people have already had many chances to understand the narratives of the English speaking world, especially the US and England, thanks to Hollywood movies and massive media corporations who push the likes of Coldplay, Lady Gaga and so much more.

I want to learn more about what shapes the thinking in other countries. More than that I would like us to come together to create new narratives that fit what we want to become, and allows all people a chance to participate as equals. I want to talk about difficult topics but have fun while doing it. I try to encourage this kind of things in many ways. These days I am focused on thinking of my audience as being very diverse and not necessarily sharing all the same cultural assumptions.

Cross culture community is also a project that ultimately aims to help us see each other as individuals but also understand better how our collective society has shaped us. These next few weeks we'll be making starting some new projects. For now, come join us in the chat, which is coming back to life

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If you like this post, you’ll surely like what I share at Youtube:

or my mini-novella series:

Confessions of the Damaged - Out Now!

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🎬Self Help For Trolls

🎸I + Everything

📕 Confessions of the Damaged OUT NOW :-)

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Come join us in Hive Cross Culture where we talk and share ideas about Culture, language and travel and share any bilingual content. Join our discord

We also have a @crossculture account curating bilingual posts and running contests to support local communities. If you like what we do, please consider delegating to @crossculture or follow our trail 🙂

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