What's the Big Deal?

This past Thursday I had the pleasure to venture off campus and have dinner at a local Durham restaurant located just minutes off east campus. My dorm house council decided that it would be nice to substitute our weekly meeting with a reflection on our achievements so far this year and discussion of what we want to do with the remainder of our freshman year in Brown dorm. No surprise then, as college students, we thought the best place to hold this discussion was around a table of delicious food. Inevitably the intention of the night got a bit lost as we began telling stories about our experience at Duke so far, sharing who our best friends are here at Duke and asking each other questions about our heroes, our families and our favorite cuisine.

However this blog entry is not concerned with my house council dinner. Rather, I am fascinated with cultural inquiry, evolution and how it can be applied to Disney. The restaurant we decided to go to was Vine. From afar, one would infer that Vine is primarily a Japanese restaurant and they need look no further than the menu, half of which, is composed of sushi items. However Vine is actually a fusion of Asian cuisine, with its full title Vine: Sushi & Thai. The menu had traditional Japanese sushi, sashimi, but also Pad Thai, Thai Curry and Asian Green Vegetables. As someone who has lived my life in Australia, I can appreciate the amazing authentic Asian cuisine one can find in Sydney. The proximity to Asia and the large Asian population in Australia means one can find terrific authentic Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Khmer, Vietnamese and Thai food. However, a Chinese restaurant serves Chinese food and a Thai restaurant serves Thai food. So returning to Vine, I was amazed at the clashing and seeming inconsistencies of the restaurant. Apart from the diverse menu I described, the lady who greeted us was of seeming Japanese decent (probably a first generation American) yet the waiter who served us had a thick southern accent. The cooks had an array of ethnic heritage, from Hispanic to American to Asian. The décor was immediately Japanese with chopsticks, Japanese characters and lighting but also Chinese, Thai and American. What was particularly brought to my attention was the juxtaposition of nice Japanese dining and then the bar with TVs, very American-esque. The center TV was playing the Disney classic Mulan, a Chinese legend, in a Japanese restaurant! I was perplexed by these inconsistencies. This restaurant wasn’t Japanese and Thai, it was a melting pot of all things Asian.

The contradiction of the restaurant first puzzled and frustrated me. However, once I looked around at the people on my table, a mixture of students with Indian, Nigerian, Australian and American heritage, as well as the other patrons in the restaurant, I realized that we exist in a melting pot of cultures. No longer is Japanese, Thai or Chinese culture independent of international interpretation. So too, American culture is interpreted and misrepresented by other cultures worldwide.

Disney is no different in its portrayal of other cultures in their feature animations such as Mulan and Aladdin. Stereotypes, misrepresentations and inaccuracies are ripe in our globalized society. In fact, I would argue that a singular historical or cultural accuracy is not defined. Cultures are constantly evolving and merging in unique and unpredictable ways. The fact that Mulan is playing in a Japanese restaurant is now probably an oversight for much of the American population. Our cultural distinction is slowly amalgamating into an interweaved universal culture network. In this cultural network, cultural accuracy is often violated. From Disney’s perspective, in many of their more controversial films and cultural fairytales, they are simply using their artistic liberty to bring stories to life and to entertain an audience. This cultural interpretation is illustrated perfectly in Mulan. Adored by a wide global audience, Mulan was not released in China until a year after its global release and after Chinese New Year. Upon release, it was criticized for its misrepresentation of the ancient Chinese legend and portrayal of Chinese culture. Yet to draw a comparison, DreamWorks 2008 animated release of Kung-Fu Panda, starring Jack Black along with Angelina Jolie as lead voice characters, was well-received and adored by much of the Chinese population despite its comedic and Hollywood production. In Aladdin, Disney has been widely criticized for its portrayal of the Middle East and Arab world, using thick accents for villainous characters and not for others. While I agree with much of the widely held criticism, I would also add that Disney is using their artistic liberty to enhance the characterization of the film.

While noted critics such as Henry Giroux have argued that Disney has misrepresented, insensitively treated and dumbed down cultural fairy-tales, I would ask them to consider the evolution of cultures and these stories. Disney has given these fairytales, which have spanned centuries and different modes of representation and media, new meaning and new life through the medium of animation just as Vine has redefined the paradigm of an Asian restaurant in America. Culture evolves, culture is not singular and any text, Disney or otherwise, is a art-form with unique representation.