Looking at another side of globalisation

A chance encounter with an Ethiopian owner of a hip-hop shop in Footscray led Doug Hendrie on an adventure across the world in a bid to try to find out how people make their own meaning in cultures and societies.

He documents his findings in his new book, Amalganations: How Globalisation is Good, published by Hardie Grant

Mr Hendrie travelled to the Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea and Ghana in the hope of uncovering how globalisation works at the coalface. 

He essentially wanted to know how people’s lives were affected by globalisation and what impact (long lasting or otherwise) it had, and, continued to have, on local cultures. 

An interesting example of this is the seemingly easy absorption of the American gaming phenomenon StarCraft and its enthusiastic take-up among South Korea’s large gaming community. 

The real-time strategy game has become embedded in societal norms of behaviour so much so that Korea’s largest companies sponsor gamers full time in competitive gaming leagues. 

Talking with gamers, Mr Hendrie was able to explore Korean notions of individuality, sexuality and even patriotism – and juxtapose these against his own cultural upbringing.

Travelling a path less travelled, Hendrie also turns his attentions towards Ghana’s film industry, and its love for Christianity-meets-pre-European demonology flicks. 

The writer’s innate ability to meet the right people at the right time enables him to get behind the veil of usual tourist visits and witness, at a grass-roots level, the effects that globalisation has on culture. 

Interspersed with historical facts about each country he visits, the book is an interesting insight into what Mr Hendrie refers to as ‘cultural hybridity’, where host cultures modify and transform transplanted cultural practices and turn them into something that has meaning and impact domestically.

www.alumni.unimelb.edu.au