F5 LIBERAL STUDIES

Cultural globalization
case study of Kung Fu Panda
 Lesson Objectives:

◉ What is traditional Chinese culture?

◉ What are some examples of traditional Chinese culture as revealed by the
movie Kung Fu Panda?
◉ What are the continuity and changes of these traditional values under the
influence of globalization/modernization?

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 Enquiry Question:
What is traditional Chinese culture?
Share the cultures of your home city/ country (Type it
out in the class notes)

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 5

Culture refers to a set of common and shared knowledge, behavior,

beliefs or values practiced by members of a specific community that
are transmitted across generations.

“
 Surface and deep culture

◉ Examples of visible culture: Food,

Fashion, Dance, Music, Movies, Art,
Architecture, Language, Literature,
Festivals, Religion, Traditions, Customs,
etc.
◉ Examples of invisible culture: Norms,
Feelings, Courtesy and Manners,
Relationships, Family Roles, Beauty,
Leadership, Concept of Self, Beliefs,
Core Values, etc.
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 Class Activity:

◉ Watch the special holiday series of

Kung Fu Panda.
◉ Identify the Chinese cultural element
in the movie Kung Fu Panda.
◉ Examples of cultures are food,
animals, fashion, festivals, traditions,
manners, relationships, values, etc.

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Any clues from the film
poster hint you the traces
of globalization?

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 Discussion: List as many examples of Chinese cultural characteristics
as revealed by the movie Kung Fu Panda.

Aspect Example Aspect Example

Food Bak Choy, Noodle, Soy Sauce Language Sifu, Kung Fu, Bak Choy
dancing, family reunion, Chinese
Animals Panda, 12 animal Zodiac Traditions couplets, Chinese culinary skills,
e.g. using wok, stewing, steaming

Festivals
Chinese Lunar New year / Mid- Manners
Filial piety (respect to the elders),
autumn festival colllectivism, authoritarianism

Fashion
Cheongsam, Chinese
Relationships
Father and son, Teacher and
embroideries students, friends
Architecture Shiheyuan Values

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 Discussion: List as many examples of Chinese cultural characteristics
as revealed by the movie Kung Fu Panda.

Aspect Example Aspect Example

Food Noodle, Bak Choy, Soy sauce Language Chinese, e.g. Sifu, Bak Choy

Animals
Panda, tiger (12 animal Traditions
Reunion/ family dinner/ Chinese
Zodiac couplets/ kung fu/ culinary skills
Respect to the seniors/ filial piety/
Festivals Chinese New Year Manners
collectivism
Chinese clothing with Chinese Father-son/ family/ family
Fashion Relationships
embroideries interests comes first
Shiyeuan, a courtyard with filial piety, collectivism,
Architecture Values
buildings on four sides authoritarianism

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Identify the Chinese cultural element as revealed by
the following pictures.

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Identify the Chinese cultural element as revealed by
the following pictures.

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 Picture A

◉ Noodles
◉ Utensils
◉ Filial Piety
◉ Father-son
relationships
◉ Inheritance

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 Picture B

◉ Zodiac Tiger: We think you might just need a

◉ Friend-friend little bit help.
relationships
◉ Inter-
dependence
◉ Group-
orientation
◉ Collectivism

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 Picture C

◉ Food
◉ Utensils
◉ Zodiac
◉ Feast
◉ Hierarchy
◉ Authoritarianism
◉ Happiness
◉ Emperor-subject, teacher-
student, friend-friend
relationships

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 Picture D

◉ Festival Father: We gave them a place called

home.
◉ Feast
◉ Teacher-student
Relationships
◉ Family Orientation
◉ Family Reunion
Shifu: This is your people. This is
your family.
Po: You are my family too.

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 Round #1:
◉ Identify the aspect and the example of
Chinese cultural element presented by
the following pictures:

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 Question 1
◉ What is the most important Chinese traditional family values as shown by the
picture? Explain briefly.

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Answer: Filial Piety
Filial Piety

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 Traditional Chinese
Values

Filial Piety ( 孝 ) 《孝經》：

■Children have to pay back 「人之行，
their parents
■Four aspects of filial piety: 莫大於
Respect, Support, Obey and
Ease (Do not do things that make parents worry) 孝」 ;
■Ancestor worship
■Numerous Offspring as blessing 「百行以
■Order of Seniority ( 長幼有序 ) 孝為先」
 Question 2
◉ Chinese traditional culture focuses on different types of relationships. Apart from
father-son relationships, what are some examples of relationships revealed in the
Kung Fu Panda movie?

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Answer: Teacher and Student; Employer and Employee;
Friend and Friend; Father and Son
 Question 3
◉ Explain some examples of good character traits of Kung Fu Panda in the movie.

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Answer: Benevolence, Altruism, Courtesy,
Loyalty, Humility, etc.
 Question 4
◉ There are a lot of scenes involving a lot of people in the movie series.

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 Question 4
◉ In addition, while Kung Fu Panda needs to rely on the furious five to complete
the tasks, the rabbit shamed the whole village by not getting the golden ladle.
What Chinese cultural value is revealed?

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Answer: Collectivism
 Traditional Chinese
Values

Collectivism

Clan-based: Families in a clan originate from the same ancestor,

inherit the same surname and continue from generation to
generation
share glory and dishonor: clan members were responsible for the
behavior of one another
Interests of the clan and family is valued over personal
interests
■e.g. carry on the family lineage (seeing offspring as a
blessing)
 Question 5
◉ Can you observe a characteristics regarding the characters of the Kung Fu Panda
series. What is the cultural characteristics revealed?

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Answer: Male Dominance/ Superiority
 Traditional Chinese Values

Male dominance/ superiority

Male dominated
Lineage traced through the male line (Patrilineal)
🡪✔ ancestor worship
🡺filial piety: children have to pay back their parents

Only male members can inherit family property or titles

Gendered Roles and Division of Labour
🡪 family ownership of property
■ 🡪 Father-son relationships
 Traditional Chinese Values

Gendered Roles and Division of Labour

Men Women
-Head of the family ☉Subordinates to men
三從四德
( 一家之主 )
-Breadwinner/ financial ☉Homemakers
相夫教子
provider
☉Work in the private sphere,
-Work in the public sphere
take up unpaid housework
☉Financial subordinates
 Enquiry Question:
What are some examples of traditional Chinese culture as
revealed by the movie Kung Fu Panda?
 Traditional Chinese Culture

◉ Filial Piety
◉ Relationship orientation
◉ Five virtues
◉ Collectivism
◉ Male Dominance

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Filial Piety

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Relationships

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 The Five Virtues

◉ 仁 (Ren):benevolence
◉ 义 (Yi): personal loyalty
◉ 礼 (Li): courtesy or
politeness or propriety
◉ 智 (Zhi): wisdom
◉ 信 (Xin): faith

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Collectivism

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Male Dominance

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 Chinese Traditional
Culture

• Traditional Chinese festivals

• Traditional Chinese eating culture

• Traditional Chinese technologies:

e.g. Chinese medicine, acupuncture

• Traditional Chinese arts:

e.g. music, dance, martial arts, Kung
Fu, architecture

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 Chinese Traditional
Culture
• Traditional Chinese family values
(learnt in F5): e.g. filial piety, order
of seniority, collectivism, emphasis
on family honor, male dominance,
gender roles, functions of family,
moral values of how different family
members should behave, family
formation (marriage and divorce),
etc.
🡺 reflected in different daily
practices (e.g. Shiheyuan housing
arrangements, ancestor
worshipping, burial arrangements,
etc.) 44
**Do you like the way that how the Chinese traditional culture is
presented in Kung Fu Panda? Why?

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 Actor - Positive impact on
The MNCs Chinese traditional
Chinese (e.g. the culture?
Dreamworks
traditional produced Kung Fu
culture Panda which Negative impact
features the Chinese on Chinese
traditional culture) traditional culture?

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Key concepts in the competing views
• Threaten? = become less important; inferior;
being marginalized; fading out … eventually
lead to the disappearance of local culture…
homogenization / cultural invasion/domination
(esp. westernization) [replacement]

• Not threaten and even strengthened? = hybrid

culture, stronger motivation to maintain,
spreading own culture around the globe
heterogenization / cultural diversity
[integration]
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 Cultural Globalization
Past paper practice DSE 2012 Paper 2 Question 3

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 Discuss the requirement
• Through what ways do you think globalization might
influence (+ / -) Chinese culture on the mainland? (8
marks)

Structure:
1st - MNC’s localization strategy (way) - fast-food culture
(efficiency/ effectiveness/ cost-effectiveness) - stir-frying / steaming
(Chinese culinary culture) > replacement (-)
2nd - Technological advancement (way)
3rd - Government’s promotion (way)
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 Discuss the requirement
• Through what ways do you think globalization
might influence Chinese culture on the
mainland? (8 marks)
• Multiple perspectives: different ways: features
of glob + different impacts: different aspects
of culture
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Elaborating the impacts
Possible outcomes of globalisation on cultures:
•Values upheld / undermined?
•Practice / ways of norms and customs kept /
changed?
•Richness of culture enriched? diversified? uniform?
•Identity e.g. awareness/ superiority
•Spread/coverage of own culture (local/ overseas)
•Existence? Strengthened? Co-existence?

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Elaborating the impacts
• Check if you have examples to support
your impacts analyzed
• Americanization
• Other cultures spreading overseas
• Two way: These cultures being
introduced to others + how they are
being affected
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 Examples
• China’s local culture is not static. It is
constantly evolving throughout the years…
– E.g. Erhu ( 二胡 ): was something foreign introduced
to China during Tang Dynasty ; Hu tribe acquired the
skills in playing this instrument, composed more
songs that could be played by Erhu 🡪 forms part of
our culture in Chinese music
– E.g. drama: Chinese story with stage effects learnt
from the west 🡪 freshness 🡪 revitalize local traditions
and values …
• E.g. 花木蘭 (Disneyland), Kung Fu Panda 55
 Examples
• Japan’s socio-economic development X
globalization X soft power
– The auto and electronics industries have served as the
economy’s main locomotives for decades, but now they are
being eclipsed by heavier global competition, particularly from
their aggressive Asian rivals
– 🡪 government turning to Japan’s cultural exports, including
animation, fashion and food, to promote Japan’s soft power in
the “Cool Japan” promotion strategy

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 Identifying relevant clues
►How globalization might influence Chinese culture on
the mainland
• Source A: McDonald in Beijing (McDonaldization)
• Source B: * McD + other examples
⮚ “the integration of cultures”
⮚ the free flow of info, opening up a wave of globalization in
int’l business
⮚ bringing together cultures in sometimes unpredictable ways
⮚ has brought Western-style prosperity
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 Agents of globalization
► How globalization might influence Chinese culture on the
mainland
• Source A:
• McDonald 🡪ways = MNCs (shrinking space & constraints)+
McDonaldization
• The process of McDonaldization takes a task and breaks it down into
smaller tasks. This is repeated until all tasks have been broken down to the
smallest possible level. The resulting tasks are then rationalized to find the
single most efficient method for completing each task. All other methods
are then deemed inefficient and discarded

Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability & Control 59

 Agents of globalization
► McDonaldization
► Scientific management to achieve efficiency and control of
process and outcome. Everyone is replaceable in a
standardized production setting.

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 Agents of globalization
►How globalization might influence Chinese culture on
the mainland
• Source B:
- way: free flow of information in globalization
the shrinking importance of space & distances
• Your own knowledge: the growing inter-
dependence / inter-connectedness & interactions
among different countries & people
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 Marking Guidelines
The candidate:
• explains HOW globalization might influence Chinese
culture in the right context – the mainland China (hint:
Source A – the word “Beijing/ 北京麥當奴” )
• explains HOW it might influence Chinese culture BOTH
positively & negatively (hint: Source B – competing views
of globalization)
• utilizes the sources & makes use of his/her prior
knowledge to explain the answer
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 Linkage Positive impacts Negative impacts
(what ways)
Multinational Learn new ways of business McDonald’s makes fast food popular
companies operations (scientific management; in China, changing Chinese food
from Western efficiency-based) by local Chinese culture. (Source A)
countries food companies 🡪Loss of Chinese food cooking skills
operate and 🡪learn business strategies to
promote their promote / preserve local Chinese
products in delicacies successfully ( 真功夫 )
China. (Source
A)
Hybrid culture (with Chinese McDonald’s also changes Chinese
characteristics) people’s values, making them
newly injected elements; more emphasize efficiency in producing
fashionable food rather than culinary skills like
🡪 being accepted by kids & youth balancing yin & yang in food (food
🡪 solidify Chinese culture curing). E.g. chain fast food restaurant
(Source B: integration of culture) Gong Fu sue McDonald's model to
produce and sell Chinese food

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Linkage (what ways)
Advancement in
information technology
makes it easy for people
from around the globe to
share information,
exchange ideas and to gain
exposure in other cultures.
Source
(Source B: free flow of
information)
Positive impacts Negative impacts
More exposure to other More exposure to Western songs, TV
cultures drama, movies etc.
🡪Through comparison, 🡪identify with the values embedded
learn more about the in those productions
uniqueness of one’s own subconsciously 🡪affect the
culture preservation of traditional Chinese
🡪or through “threat” cultural values (e.g. individualism vs.
🡪Raise cultural collectivism; equality vs. respect for
awareness seniority ; sex liberalization / casual
sex vs. chastity etc.)
(Source B: People are tuned in to the
same news, the same music, and the
same sports events
‘the imposition of Western cultures
on other cultures’, spiritual pollution)
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 DSE 2012 Paper 2 Q.2b
‘Globalization causes Western culture to
replace other cultures.’ To what extent do
you agree with this statement? Explain
your answer. (12 marks)

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 DSE 2012 Paper 2 Q.2b
‘Globalization causes Western
culture to replace other cultures.’ To
what extent do you agree with this statement?
Explain your answer. (12 marks)

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 Operationalizing key terms
■ “western culture replacing other cultures”
• People no longer practice traditional/local way of life, instead
they lead a westernized lifestyle
• People are attached to western values/beliefs rather than
traditional ones

■ Approach
• How globalization leads to the above?
• Counter: how is globalization does not/ unable to cause such?
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Requirements for questions asking about ‘Cause’
❑Approach
Agree:
Main arguments: (70%)
- How factor A leads to the impact

Counter-argument & rebuttal (30%)

-counter-argument: how other factor(s) instead of the
factor A leads to the impact
-Rebuttal: how factor A leads to the impact (weigh the
relative importance of factor A and other factors)
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Requirements for questions asking about ‘Cause’
❑Approach
Don’t spend a great
length on arguing why
other factors lead to the
Disagree: impact, without
Main arguments: (60-70%) addressing factor A

- why factor A does not lead to the impact

(may argue how weak the causal linkage between factor A and the
impact is)
Counter-argument & rebuttal (30-40%)
-counter-argument: how factor A leads to the impact
-Rebuttal: how other factor(s) instead of factor A leads to
the impact (weigh the relative importance of factor A and
other factors) 71
 Marking Guidelines
The candidate:
• states his/her stance clearly and consistently
• demonstrates multi-perspective thinking and provides a well-
balanced evaluation of the statement
• argues for/against the role played by globalization in replacing
other cultures by Western culture
• evaluates the role played by other factors which might hinder the
survival of other cultures OTHER THAN the globalization force
• uses appropriate examples (cannot be confined to Chinese culture)
to substantiate his/her stance
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 Structure
Stance - I agree/ disagree.

1st argument - western cultures through different ways (MNCs / government / technology / tourism)
> replace / dominate / twist / enrich / revitalize / popularize / co-exist other cultures?

2nd argument - western cultures through different ways (MNCs / government / technology / tourism)
> replace / dominate / twist / enrich / revitalize / popularize / co-exist other cultures?

3rd argument - western cultures through different ways (MNCs / government / technology / tourism) >
replace / dominate/ twist / enrich / revitalize / popularize / co-exist other cultures?

Counter argument - western cultures through different ways (MNCs / government / technology /
tourism) > replace / dominate / twist / enrich / revitalize / popularize / co-exist other cultures?

Rebuttal (4th argument) - western cultures through different ways (MNCs / government /
technology / tourism) > replace / dominate / twist / enrich / revitalize / popularize / co-exist other
cultures?
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 Marking Guidelines
• Points of agreement:
– explains how Western culture (represented by MNCs) drives out local businesses
with local characteristics
• Lack of competitiveness (resource, manpower etc.)
– further elaborates how youngsters might not feel interested in the production of
local products by joining MNCs > fading away of local cultures / skills e.g Dragon
Beard Candy; Hand-made lanterns; Aeroplane olives
– argues how Western culture can be spread through the world easily due to the
advancement of information technology and influences the way of thinking of
local people/sense of identity (e.g. global citizen, modern citizen) (aspire to be
modernized; sense of superiority 🡪 give up local cultures / products / dialect 🡪
ENG)

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 Marking Guidelines
• Points of agreement:
– explains how the spread of MNCs replaces traditional fashion style,
everyone in different parts of the world emulate their outfit from the
west (e.g. wearing sports shoes, jeans)
– explains how the promotion of universal values (through IGOS &
INGOS = global governance) such as human rights replaces local
cultures which are inhumane in nature (e.g. the killing of twins in
Nigeria - taboo against twins in Nigerian tradition: twin babies
derived from the devil, non-human and punishment from the gods
for sinfulness) or (WHO promotes the right to health & women right
e.g. contraception in Catholic countries, e.g. Nigeria & Namibia
/patriarchal society which contradict their beliefs) 75
 Marking Guidelines
• Points of disagreement:
– explains how local culture can be repackaged to exist in a hybrid form
rather than being wiped out (e.g. ice-cream mooncake)
– explains how MCNs usually adopt the ‘localization’ strategy to blend in local
elements to gain acceptance from local people (e.g. Nike, Starbucks e.g.
Date Frappuccino during the month of Ramadan in the Middle East (F3))
– explains how local cultures can grasp the opportunities of globalization to
counteract Western culture and gain global influence (e.g. Chinese Kung
Fu ; Japanese cuisine etc.)
– argues how other factors cause the replacement of local cultures (e.g. low
awareness of local culture, local traditions cannot adapt to changing social
structure/ circumstances e.g. earth burial 🡪sea burial; indigenous lifestyle)
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 Marking Guidelines
• Points of disagreement:
– explains how local culture can be repackaged to exist in a hybrid form rather than
being wiped out (e.g. ice-cream mooncake, rice burger – MOS Burger, the
reinvention of traditional clothing that embodies tradition and modernity)

Burdock rice burger

available at MOS Burger

traditional kimono pattern Contemporary outerwear (Pagong)

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 Marking Guidelines
• Points of disagreement:
– explains how MCNs usually adopt the ‘localization’ strategy to blend in local
elements to gain acceptance from local people, reinforcing local cultures (e.g. Nike,
Starbucks e.g. Date Frappuccino during the month of Ramadan in the Middle East
(F3), vegetarian menu provided by McDonalds’ in India)
– explains how local cultures can grasp the opportunities of globalization to
counteract Western culture and gain global influence as well as strengthening local
identities (e.g. Chinese Kung Fu ; traditional Confucian values, traditional Indian
dance and music in Bollywood production, Japanese cuisine, Korean cuisine like
Kimchi etc.)

Common scene in Bollywood movies: Indian dance & music

 Marking Guidelines
• Points of disagreement:
– argues how other factors cause the replacement of local cultures (e.g. local
traditions cannot adapt to changing social structure/ circumstances e.g.
earth burial 🡪sea burial e.g. indigenous lifestyle)
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 Point to ponder
• Globalization provides channels to spread
western culture/ opportunities for local culture to
compete with foreign culture
🡪It depends on the relative strength of local
culture to determine if the foreign one replaces
the local one or not

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