Deconstruction on advertisement

 If you have watched the advertisement, you would consider the food Jjamppong as Korean traditional food because of several factors; language that they use, clothes that they are wearing, and the spiciness of the foods.

The product, however, actually came from China and Japan. The food has been improvised and developed into Korean food by adding some Korean taste on its original food. As a result, I approached with Birmingham School's idea on cultural commodity and post-colonial discourse analysis on the food.

Critical Comments#3. Indigenous Filipino Theories and criticism

      Due to several and long colonization, Filipinos have accepted several different culture, tradition, and beliefs. Through this process, some theorists such as Virgilio Enriquez have asserted the need for Filipino indigenous theories.

     The theories that have set by the Western theorists can be applied in Filipino contexts. On the other hand, the these theories are not universal and need to be reconstructed in Filipino context.

       I believe having a Filipino indigenous theories is very important because it fits for Philippine society. The theories that have set by the Westerners cannot be applicable to Philippine situation at all times. In this reason, the movement for having own theories is worthy for the Philippines.

        On the contrary, I also believe that this movement would also bring ultranationalism which would bring hostility to the other culture and tradition. 

     Sikolohiyang Pilipino(SP), one of the well-known theories for indigenous Filipino theories, focused on Filipinos' own voices, thoughts, and beliefs. Therefore, it set different perspectives on negative Filipino traditions such as Bahala na and Talangka mentality. On the other hand, i believe, this set of ideas would bring unconditional acceptance of indigenous culture and tradition.

       Students should always have critical minds on not only in indigenous Filipino theories but also Western theories. The most important thing that i believe is one's assertion and logical reasons instead of unconditional acceptance.

Critical Comments#2. Critics on Western Theories; Feminism and its counternarratives

Most countries in the world have experienced or are experiencing patriarchal society, because the nations have created through several wars resulted by men's greedy. The modern society, on the other hand, puts more weight on the woman's right to participate in the society. Nowadays, women actively participate on employment and suffrage. As a result, women have well recognized.Feminist theories also unraveled the objectification of women in politics and culture.

My question arises from here, 'wouldn't this marginalize the men?'

The logo on the left is from Ministry of Gender Equality and Family(MGEF). The picture on the right side is LRT1 and MRT line in the Philippines. The similarity in these two pictures is that it strengthens the women's role and position while it marginalizes the men.

Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has been created in South Korea since 2003. The main purpose of this institution is to strengthen and empower women in society. As a result, the institution receives massive amount of budget from the government in order to fulfill the goals that they have set. The outcome for this institution, however, marginalized men's position with massive support for women.

In MRT and LRT, I personally found marginalization of men. The first car of the train is only served for disabled, children, and women while there is no specific car assigned only for men. Even the purpose of this project was to ensure women's security by separating them from the men, men are marginalized by this system. I believe this system is contradictory for what women are asserting, sexual equality. 

Reflection#6. Critical comment on popular culture: advertisement and gender role

The advent of globalization and Information Technology(IT) allowed diverse ideologies, theories, and information to propagate from one society to another. The idea on Confucianism on patriarchal society, however, has strongly been constructed in Korean society. Despite of several cultures and theories accepted in 21st Century such as Feminism, the socially expressed idea on gender role through advertisements has now become the constructed idea in Korea and affects several youths.

<Advertisement on air freshener>

           Most advertisements depict woman as a ‘living person in a house’. Woman is usually depicted as a person who takes care everything on house works such as laundering, washing dishes, and nurturing children. In this advertisement, a husband brings his colleges and a mother-in-law visits the house. Due to the bad smell in the house, a woman uses air freshener to get rid of odor. Both of them complain on the smell instead of thanking a woman for preparing all foods.

           From this advertisement, we could know how gender role is divided and constructed in the society. Woman in taking care of all the house works is socially accepted and constructed as shown in this advertisement, otherwise, woman is considered as lazy.

Cultural Politics distinguished by space

Paseo

The very first that I have visited was Paseo. The structure and design of the place was pretty much Western. It was open space where the typical Filipino malls are indoors. As a result, the place had beautiful view. The stores were well-divided by section and they were all located in one common section. For instance, the stores for cloth were located in one side where the bars and restaurants were located in the other side of the load.

Even though I arrived there on Friday, there were only few people because, according to security guard, the place is usually occupied in the evening. Since I have arrived in the place around 2 pm, I was not able to observe much of the mall culture among the customers. According to the sales clerks, on the other hand, I was able to find out that most of the customers are foreigners such as Koreans, Japanese, and Americans (or minorities/riches). Most of them were assumed to live in nearby villages. Since the main customers are foreigners, the mall seems to be developed as modern as possible to satisfy the foreigners.

SM Calamba

          Compared to Paseo, the mall had its very distinguish structure, indoor and lengthy. The structure and designs of the mall was pretty much same with other SM in Metro Manila. So, I was able to distinguish SM Calamba with other SM. Moreover, I was also able to compare this place with Paseo where I have observed in the very beginning.

         



      It is not very sure whether the social class of the customers affects on the size of the space and number of stores. But, compared to other SM, SM Calamba had smaller space and limited stores. I was able to ask one of the customers on the reason why they visit SM Calamba. They said it is cooler than the outside and has everything they want; ‘buy everything you want in one place’. The place is usually occupied by family members and the masses of the Philippines. It is more approachable for the masses compared to Paseo.

Liliw

           Among the places that I have visited, Liliw was the most impressive one, because I was, somehow, feel the tradition Filipino market. I said ‘somehow’ because the modern(commoditized) and the traditional culture was coexisting in the place. The cultural product in this place is shoes. In order to commoditize this culture for tourists(foreigners/minority) and other visitors(masses), the products have been commoditized and the shoes became the symbol of Liliw. In addition, some stores were located with one another in order to strengthen the products.

           The traditional foods were well-observed in this place such as bibingka and buko wine. I have tried some of the foods that were sold in this place in order to experience the cultural products in this region. The whole street, as a result, became one traditional culture for the neighbors in that place.

Night Culture

           I also had a chance to experience the night culture in Laguna near UPLB(University of the Philippines Las Banos). The place was similar with University Mall(U-Mall) near De La Salle University-Manila. The main differences were price of the foods and the customers. Compared to U-Mall, the price of the foods was really cheap and satisfied. Most foods were sold with almost 70% of the prices in Manila. Furthermore, the place was very calm, not noisy, and had very pleasant environment. I assume that the socially different accumulation of wealth and price of the land estate defined the difference in these two regions. 

Aerobic

          The other cultural differences that I have observed was on performing the aerobic. The aerobic that was performed in SM Calamba seemed to be more commoditized compared to the aerobic that was performed in UPLB. In SM Calamba, the purpose of performing the aerobic is more on showing the people on their cultural practices. The purpose of aerobic that was performed in UPLB, however, has weighted more social network between the neighbors and the health issues. Even the common cultural practices were performed differently in one region. This indicates that even in small community, diverse culture is existing. 

Critical Comments#1. Post-colonialism and its critical comments

The idea of post-colonialism is a product of resistance on colonialism. Colonialism argues that the self becomes other where the other become new self. In this process, the indigenous group of people absorbs the idea of one's colonizer. As a form of resistance, the post-colonialism has emerged.

The main idea that post-colonialists argue is to seek the damaging effects of colonialism/imperialism by uncovering them and construct its own identity. In this process of decolonization, two phases are mainly introduced. First phase focuses on political-economic nature of the colonial state and seek on how to transform the idea into one's identity. Second phrase focuses on ontological nature of the colonized and locates the struggle on identity politics. On this phrase the process could be divided into two; (1)project of recovery or (2)project of reconstruction.

In project of recovery, people usually seek to recover their own identity in pre-colonial era. From this process, they can recover its own indigenous culture which have been lured due to colonizers. In project of reconstruction, people usually seek to transform the idea of colonizer's into their own. The constructed idea or traits by colonizers are transformed into applicable form for colonized. I find the product in the Philippines that contain both recovery and reconstruction from Jeepney. Indigenous Filipino culture is recovered from pre-colonial period and practiced inside the Jeepney where Western culture such as the structure of the Jeepney is transformed to be adopted in Philippine society.

I, however, will make a criticism on this theory. The post-colonialist idea has a tendency for a people to have ultranationalism and, as a result, have hostility in mind toward colonizers or culture of any other countries. The idea of post-colonialism is good because it tries to form an indigenous idea or one's own cultural product. From this process, on the other hand, the people usually think that their culture is the best compared to other foreign culture. Nazism also has occurred due to ultranationalism from the leader to the masses. Since the importance or greatness of the culture can not be measured, people should acknowledge and recognize the difference. 

Reflection#5. Indigenous Filipino food; post-colonialism and its relation to dishes

From the documentary that I have watched during the class was about Filipino food culture. It was very interesting film because I was able to interconnect the political issue, specifically post-colonialism, with food culture in the Philippines.

The documentary was titled as ‘No Reservation’ and it was all about the food and cultural trip led by Anthony Bourdain. He travels all over the countries and experiences the culture, especially through food. It seemed that he enjoys the Filipino dishes including lecheon, sisig, and other street food.

<Documentary 'No Reservation'>

No difference with him, I do really like Filipino food. What I like the most are sisig and ballot. The reason behind my preference is this; a unique and traditional food that could only be found in the Philippines. One day, my professor asked our classmates the reason why there are no fine restaurants in other countries while there are prevalent fine Vietnamese, Thai, and, Arab restaurants. The most supported answer regarding this question was ‘because Filipinos value kinship or network rather than the food itself. With whom you are with is much more important than what you eat’. I agree on this argument. I, however, would like to answer his question by elaborating my supports from post-colonial era. From now on, I would like to write my personal opinion and it might seem to be discriminating Filipino culture when reasoning out this question. But I do not have any offense to any Filipino culture, rather, I am just writing my own opinion based on my understanding regarding lack/absence of fine Filipino restaurants in other countries.

The Philippines has been colonized by three different countries; Spain, America, and Japan. On the process of colonization, Filipinos accepted several culture, practice, traits, and, even, food from its colonizers. The key point of success in terms of colonization is harmony through hybridity of Filipino and colonizer’s culture. Once the culture is rejected by the mass, it gradually declines and disappears in the end. Japanese colonization could be perfect example for this. Even though Japan colonized the Philippines before World War II, no or rare cultural traits, practices, or tradition is remained among Filipinos. American and Spaniard colonization, on the other hand, could be considered as the most influenced ones in the Philippines.

Based on my research and observation, BBQ and Lecheon came from America and Spain. Mixing them with vinegar and calamansi and eating with all family members could be seen only as Filipino indigenous culture. The hybridity of Western food and indigenous practices completes the work of post-colonialism and explains its survival in present time.

I do not consider barbeque and lecheon as indigenous Filipino dishes rather as Western. If I ask other foreigners, they also do not consider these as Filipino food. Moreover, if I ask any of my foreign friends except Filipinos or those who have been to the Philippines, their main idea on Filipino food are fruits such as mango, pineapple, and banana rather than any fine dishes.

In order for Filipino fine restaurant to be prevalent, I would suggest two advice. First, promote the dishes that are really unique and indigenous rather than popular dishes in the Philippines. Second, develop popular dishes by empowering Filipino traits in terms of taste, decoration, or any other unique Filipino culture on the way of eating the food.

Through the passage, I am not saying that all popular food are not indigenous Filipino food because the hybridity of culture creates another unique Filipino culture. In other word, there should be a movement on creating its own image of food from the hybrid outcome on which the Western image is more strengthened than indigenous culture.