With how competitive the global stage is, the media and governments sometimes have a tendency to cast a negative light on other countries. This leads to misunderstandings and quite often stereotypes or discrimination. Add this to rampant nationalism (in some countries) and invisible borders keep us as a human race from reaching some kind of unity.
I come from a multi-ethnic family though I was born in Canada. On my father’s side, I have English/Welsh ancestry. My mother’s parents are both Chinese and they moved to Canada from Guangdong province in the south in 1941. They had moved separately but were from the same village. They eventually got together due to an arranged marriage but that’s a story for another day.
Due to my family ties, an obsession with delicious food, and a love for anime – I’ve always had an interest in Asia. I’ve been living in China for the past three and a half years and I’ve traveled extensively in my time here. While I feel more enlightened compared to my days back in Canada, there are still some parts of the culture and the people I don’t understand.
I’ve been to Japan twice and Thailand once and while it gave me a glimpse into the cultures and lives of the people there, it was incomplete. How long do you need to stay in a country to really understand a culture? Not to mention the language difficulty and how much of a barrier that is.
Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels
I recently stumbled across a YouTube channel called “Asian Boss”. At first I thought it was just like any other channel, purely for entertainment but lately I’ve been more and more intrigued with their content. They have bilingual reporters/correspondents from China, Japan, Korea, India, and the Philippines and their topics usually touch on the beliefs or perspectives of the different cultures. They will regularly interview people on the street (along with subtitles) and I’ve learned a great deal from them.
They even did a video on cryptocurrency in South Korea recently. They mentioned in the video that their company is “dedicated to decentralizing the media itself” and I think they’ve been doing a great job. I have no affiliation with this channel, I just feel the need to share it and I feel like the Steemit community will appreciate the content just as much as I do.
What prompted me to write this is their most recent video from South Korea (not the crypto one). They took a South Korean citizen and a North Korean defector and put them in the same room to have a debate over reunification. It was utterly fascinating and I grew to understand both sides of the argument. It really gave me more understanding on issues facing both South and North Koreans.
Here it is: A South Korean and a North Korean Meet For The First Time