Arts and Culture - MA Blog

  In Douglass McGray’s article,  Japan’s Gross National Cool ,  he discusses the success of Japan’s appeal and reflects on its global influence (McGray. 2009). This is a form of soft power which is hard to measure yet is visible everywhere. Japan’s soft power ventures are successful, as they present cultural artefacts which are intrinsically Japanese, with an air of foreignness to overseas consumers whilst also pertaining to that country’s tastes and preferences. These products also appeal to the Japanese population for their representation of foreign tastes, whilst also being Japanese. For example, Hello Kitty has the appeal of being both English and Japanese, whilst Super Mario is Italian, yet inherently Japanese. This is particularly prevalent in the globalised Japanese food culture. The strawberry and goiabada sushi from my trip Japanese food culture has gained mass popularity on a global scale. In my recent travels to Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, t...

2020 was a year characterised by the Black Lives Matter Protests. The UK protests highlighted the aspects of Britain’s dark colonial past. The toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol epitomised a national acknowledgement of Britain’s implication in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and symbolised a rejection of the honouring of Slave traders. This period of confronting Britain’s colonial tyranny inspired introspection amongst museums, spaces with typically colonial  histories. National Museum Wales thus decided to revise the way it displays its large-scale portrait of Sir Thomas Picton, a British Army officer, crowned a Welsh hero for fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. Picton was involved in the colonial slave trade in Trinidad and was famous for his horrific torture of enslaved peoples, particularly for his trial for the torture of a 14-year-old girl, Luisa Calderon (Epstein. 2007). This case has been brought to light in the Reframing Picton Exhibition in National Museum Wale...