Disney Worldwide

Globalization has become a major factor in the way the world is shaped. Globalization is the process of increasing interconnectedness among nations, cultures, and people. In other words it is the widespread exchange of ideas between different areas that cause changes in culture. It is greatly facilitated and increased with technological developments, especially ones that accelerate communication.

Globalization is highly connected to cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism is where one nation’s culture becomes strongly present in another nation’s everyday activities, but not the other way around. This means that there is a very unequal flow of culture. Often, cultural imperialism is referred to in terms of one culture forcing itself upon another or manipulating a market to cause culture to be adopted.

One wonderful example of cultural imperialism is the Disney Corporation. Disney has performed cultural imperialism to the full extent of its definition. I would like to discuss two examples of this; first, Disneyland Hong Kong. I have embedded a guide to Hong Kong Disneyland. If you watch it and compare it to Disneyland or Disney World in the US, you may notice that is practically identical to the US versions, only with Asian people riding the rides. The guide talks about “stepping back in time to a turn of the century street.” This is not a turn of the century street in China. It is definitely an American Street. However, Disney has transferred American culture to Hong Kong to such an extent that the Disneyland visitors don’t seem to feel out of place while immersed in a very American Fantasy World. This shows cultural imperialism because a large amount of American culture has become present in Hong Kong, but, in comparison, America has adopted almost no Asian culture. Another example of Disney’s cultural Imperialism is in the movie market in Taiwan. When I was in Taiwan last summer, my youth ambassador delegation went to the movies with our hosts. We were expecting a Taiwanese film, but found ourselves watching Toy story 3 in English. Disney has so successfully embedded American culture in Taiwan that my Taiwanese friends there don’t even think twice about watching an American Movie in English. Disney has done this all over the world, which makes the Disney Corporation a perfect example of globalization via cultural imperialism.