music diplomacy
This video features a hip hop music festival to celebrate 60 years of Myanmar-Japan diplomatic relations and was held in Yangon, Burma. The festival was organized by the Japan embassy in Myanmar and featured hip hop artist from both Myanmar and Japan. Cultural diplomacy was on display by celebrating shared music and dance.
“There were no YouTube videos, online sites, or DVDs. The culture wasn’t there yet. I could hardly find any video cassettes to learn the dances from,” explains Sargis Andreasyan, better known as Godfather Flash among fellow break-dancers in Yerevan, Armenia.
Psy, the K-pop sensation and king of YouTube views, achieved an uncommon level of success in the West. While he may be the best example of an Asian pop singer breaking through the so-called “bamboo ceiling,” Asian artists face an uphill struggle attracting support from English-speaking fans.
There are at least a couple of documentary films on Pussy Riot, the art collective notorious for lip-synching a punk protest song in a Russian Orthodox cathedral. But Russian authorities had made it clear, as recently as a month ago, that they didn’t appreciate public attempts to screen such films.
Last year, ASP hosted the all-female bluegrass band Della Mae, discussing their cultural diplomacy trip to Central Asia. This year, Della Mae’s The World Oft Can Be is up for a Grammy for best bluegrass album. Judging by what we heard, what we saw, and what we learned from Della Mae as they recounted their American Music Abroad tour of Central Asia, this is no surprise.
In prosperous Hong Kong, arts and culture are commodities, with institutions increasingly blurring the lines between retail spaces and galleries. Yet despite being the third largest auction market in the world, the city is lambasted, often and loudly, for its lack of sophistication and cultural vacuity. Therein lies the cultural paradox: its focus on big hits and big profits doesn't always create fertile ground for homegrown talent.
The Tuareg, known amongst themselves as the Kel Tamasheq, have long been recognised as warriors, traders and travellers of the Sahara Desert - known both for their grace and nobility as well as their fierce reputation. Tuareg communities in the Sahara, who have often felt overlooked and unrepresented by their governments, have been seeking self-determination for generations. And years of rebellion have escalated in recent times.