Page 195 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

Transnationality, Globalization, and Postcoloniality 179

Student Exercise

View Chungking Express (1994), a film that makes a motif of tran-

snational cultural influence. What role does the popular American

song “ California Dreaming ” play in the film? How are the characters ’
lives shaped by globalization? How are the tensions between tradi-
tional culture and the new global culture portrayed?
Pick two fi lms from the list below and compare their representa-
tions of trans - or intranational travel and migration. What are the
conditions of voluntary or involuntary migrations, their causes and
effects, according the films? How do the films listed below narrate

local and global migrations?
Fighter (2000)
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Broken Rainbow (1985)
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Inch ’ Allah Sunday ( Inch ’ Allah Dimanche ; 2001)
Head - On ( Gegen die Wand ; 2004)
Perfect Stranger ( Gadjo Dilo ; 1997)
Given the multicultural makeup of Western nations, creative
industries in England, Australia, and the US have begun to represent
that cultural diversity in films. Pick one pair of films from the list

below and think about how they represent multiculturalism and the
challenges it poses.
Crash (2004) and When the Levees Broke (2006)
Love Actually (2003) and Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
Australia (2008) and Rabbit - Proof Fence (2002)

Sources

See Divya McMillin , International Media Studies ( Malden, Mass. , 2007 ); Patrick
Murphy and Marwan Kraidy , Global Media Studies: Ethnographic Perspectives
( New York , 2003 ); James Curran and Myung - Jin Park , De - Westernizing Media
Studies ( London , 2000 ); and Diana Crane , Nobuko Kawashima , and Ken - ichi
Kawasaki , eds., Global Culture: Media, Arts, Policy, and Globalization ( New York ,
2002 ).