Page 194 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

178 Transnationality, Globalization, and Postcoloniality

“ career. ” Restrictions on women are still prevalent in India, and many
programs continue to portray women primarily in traditional service -
oriented roles. But the new imported shows that are cloned offer alternative
identity possibilities for women. In Adarsha Dampathigalu , women are
given equal say with their husbands in a way that poses an implicit
challenge to the ideology of the Hindu conservative cultural tradition.
Nevertheless, the introduction of this foreign hybrid into India required a
slow process of acculturation. Initially, the questions asked of contestant
couples were general and concerned impersonal issues. But as the show
progressed over the years after its introduction in 1994, the questions
became more intimate. But as the questions became more intimate, women
felt more liberated to put forth ideas that went against India ’ s conservative
cultural norms by, for example, suggesting that “ love marriages ” were as
successful and stable as traditional arranged marriages. The moderator of

the show always controlled such remarks and reaffirmed the norms that
were being challenged. The moderator put his arm around one husband,
for example, and said, “ You have a good wife. She stepped on the stage

with her right foot first, she has brought harmony in your relations with
your parents when things were not so good, and she has borne you a child.
You are a very lucky man. ” In this instance, a global and potentially threat-
ening cultural product was made safe for domestic consumption in a way
that diminished the threat it posed.
Transnational cultural pollination works in the other direction as
well. Cultures that are not dominated by enormous long - standing fi lm
industries, for example, that have well - established generic formulas and
conventions often can afford to be more inventive than the dominant

(especially American) film industry. They also need to be more inventive
both stylistically and in terms of thematic range in order to attract
attention and to compete with the very popular American fi lms.

That inventiveness has caught the eye of American filmmakers such as
Quentin Tarantino, who regularly draws on Hong Kong gangster fi lms,
for example, in his own movies. And popular Hong Kong films such as

Infernal Affairs have been remade as American films with an American

cast ( The Departed ). It is interesting to compare such remakes to see
how cultures differ. One remarkable difference is the emphasis on male -
male friendship in Hong Kong movies. Such friendship is less available
as a cultural model in America, and in The Departed , the emphasis
shifts to a more competitive relation between the two primary male
characters.