The Influence of Developed Nations on Asian Culture and Traditions

Every nation and even every region or every group of people for that matter has their own well defined culture and tradition. And their unique cultural identities have come a long way and played a vital role in maintaining their sovereignty. For the small country like Bhutan who has less military equipment, the unique national identities play a very significant role in defining our own territory among other huge nations of the world. But like a prism, whose colors depend on the surrounding colors, every nation (People) has been influenced by its neighboring countries and for some it has even resulted in the loss of their independence and sovereignty. The developed nations will have everything developed and the developing and underdeveloped nations tend to follow their way thereby losing their own cultural identity. Since most of the Asian nations are either developing or underdeveloped, their lifestyle and way of living have been greatly influenced negatively by those of the developed nations which we usually term as "western culture". Firstly the way of dressing has been influenced where many people now go on with dresses which are sometimes socially and culturally unacceptable. Secondly the language we speak and the way we speak to different kinds of people. There are different ways to speak to different people and also depending on the situation we change our way of speaking. Thirdly every region of a country, like for example if we talk about Bhutan, every nook and corner of the country, people engage in different kinds of festival which have been a practice for a longtime. These significant values that have been a practice in various regions of a nation have been lost to a greater extent that present generations don’t even know that such values were being upheld by their forefathers.

If we happen to read ancient civilizations, every region will have their unique way of dressing. For example in Bhutan, we have Gho and Kira as our national dress and similarly in India they have Dhoti and Sarri as their national dress and goes on. But today almost all the people, both in India and Bhutan wear pants and shirts which are supposed to have flourished from the western nations. Our great leaders have been promoting our unique national dress but with modernization coming in, it brought in different kinds of technologies, the people of underdeveloped and developing countries are being exposed to various other developed countries and the way of dressing in those developed countries were seen as comfortable, easy to wear and more fashionable. One way by which the people were exposed was the social networks like face-book and you-tubes. On facebook people from all parts of world meet, they chat and became friends and they imitate those from other parts of the world. People also watch different kinds of videos through YouTube and television by which they are being deeply influenced especially in the way they dressed. These technologies along with the temptation for those fancy dresses worn by people in the developed world, people in the developing countries have been highly influenced and they developed such feelings that people who dressed in traditional way are considered primitive. This social stigma has led many people to imitate western cultures thereby deteriorating their own unique beautiful culture and tradition.

One way by which the people from various backgrounds unify is the similar culture that they share and the same language that they speak. For example in Bhutan we have Dzongkha as our national language and other countries have their own languages which signify that they are from the country they belong. We Asians are fond of using many honorifics while talking to other people and also to our elders. In Japan, they even have respect to their family members and to the outsider like we have in our country Bhutan. We speak with respect and clarity, with soft tone and polite. We speak with love and affection to our younger ones, to our friends and those at our age we speak in a friendly and equal manner and to our elders we speak with loyalty, in a humble manner and with respect. 

But these days, people feel themselves great when they speak other language than their own language. With the introduction of various technologies, people get exposed to many other languages. Watching movies and visiting many other developed nations have highly influenced our people. Like for example, our youths tend to imitate the language after watching movies especially the Korean movies. This would decrease the love for our own language. Even while speaking English, the accent our people pick up are all influenced by the accent of western people. Some elder people say our generation lack manner while speaking. This is true because, this generation has been exposed to many other life styles which are sometimes socially and culturally not acceptable. 

Festivals are the times when all the family members and also the community get together to celebrate and share. In olden times, all people used to wait for such festivals to come but these days it is not the same with this generation. After having listened and watched the life style of those people of the developed countries, our youth today tends to lead a life of those. People in the developed countries are busy in their own world; they will have either less or no time to spend times with their families or loved ones. They don’t have time for the community gathering and as result even they don’t know who their neighbors are. These people need not have to depend on their neighborhood because they are all developed and are independent.  This type of life style keeps oneself away from the people around and will never trust others or will never be trusted. This type of living style has influenced our people in the developing countries.  

   

The festivals in Asian region are all connected to religious practice. In Bhutan people in far flung villages practice various kinds of festival which have very significant purposes. Besides family gathering, most of the festivals are a day of offering to please their local deities. There are also a number of Hindu festivals that are celebrated, including Diwali, a five-day festival known as the festival of lights and marks a time of home-based family celebrations. Also the Tibetans still celebrate a variety of festivals and are the only time when their relatives from very far-away places come to spend time with them. Festivals in Asia are of great importance for the people here because it connects people. But these days, with people growing more westernized, they start giving scientific reasons and tends to avoid such important family festivals. Many of our youths in Bhutan today do not go out with their family to attend Tshechhus (Festivals) in Dzongs and Goendeys. This is because our youths are influenced by the scientific believes of the west. Also people have been talking about the change of religion especially to Christian mainly because people are influenced. However choosing a religion is one’s right of choice.

All the nations of the Asian Continent share similar values which have been practicing by our ancestor long time ago. We Bhutanese value many things like respect for others, peace in the society, love and affection for every living being around us. Now with the change of time, people are losing all these values. Today’s generation doesn't care about the respect for others, doesn't value peace and other values. Influenced by some movies and acts of western people, youths involve themselves in city fights, vandalism and behave like hooligans in the city. Where have the values gone? This is mainly due to the influence of the lifestyles of western people. It has a greater impact on our traditions.  Before in Bhutan, we never used to hear someone stabbing or being killed but now even in a small peaceful country like ours, we get such news. Girls and boys romancing in the crowd, use of abusive languages are socially and culturally unacceptable but are now being seen in the street. This is really thrilling and it is not inborn but is due to the influential acts seen in television or internet of people in developed countries. The use of honorifics in Bhutan, Japan, India and many other nations is also a very good practice and it is still being practiced. But some people even doesn't know how, where and when to use. This is because they are being exposed to other culture where there are no such practices and therefore these values will soon be lost from this generation.

Culture has to be changed with the time but it should not compromise the good practices that we already have. Culture like use of time, thinking globally and the use of technologies in farming, etc. are in fact a boon for our societies. Effective use of time and using our mind effectively are some of the good values that we have learned from the western people. And also the use of technologies in farming and many other activities have eased hardships for our people. These are also the practice originated in the developed countries and we have picked up. The developed countries will always be ahead of the developing and underdeveloped countries and therefore those countries will have influential effect to the later ones. Therefore we as developing countries will have to follow the path of the developed countries but it is in our hands to pick up the good practices and those practices which does not compromise any of our culture and tradition. But until today, our culture and traditions have been influenced by those of the developed nations. So it is the duty of every citizen of a nation to uphold the unique national identities of one's own nation.