What is culture

2022 - 9 - 5

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

K-everything: the rise and rise of Korean culture (The Guardian)

From music to film, technology to food, the world has fallen in love with everything South Korean. Tim Adams visits Seoul in search of the origins of hallyu ...

There has in this time also been a threefold increase in the number of articles.” In her 13 years in that department, she has seen the Korean wave move from a ripple to a deluge. She said: “It’s fantastic that we can now share a lot more elements of Korea with the world.” There was a confidence that nothing needed to be modified to find those viewers, even in the west. She puts her own health, mental and physical, down to her adherence to the subtle checks and balances of Korean cuisine. With a mixture of authoritarian repression and collective will, the “hermit kingdom” had by the late 1990s turned that around to look like a tech and manufacturing success story. [major exhibition](https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/hallyu-the-korean-wave) at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London at the end of this month called Hallyu! “In the north, dramas and films are all about making sacrifices for the leader,” the defector The Korean model, by contrast, was “culture first, economics second”: export the idea of “Korean cool” and watch Samsung and LG, Hyundai and Kia reap the benefits. He returned to Seoul “with the dream of globalising Korean music”. “There is only one reason for that flag: because they feel, perhaps for the first time, that Korea is cool.” The building is home to a company called SM Entertainment, which has strong claims to have invented one of the most potent cultural movements of the 21st century, the phenomenon of Korean pop music – It is designed as an inside-out place, with every room a stage set for press conferences, fan chats and livestreams; one floor is an “artist’s house”, a place where “idols” can chill or do some cooking (while their fans watch and scream outside); another is a “song camp” where songwriters from across the world are flown in on rotation to create a global sound.

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Image courtesy of "Gizmodo"

Tell Us About Your Pop Culture Month: August 2022 (Gizmodo)

This month, we got Saints, we got baseball, and we got Civilized. What about you?

Since it’s a podcast, the gimmick here is that the entity has control of Arthur’s eyes, meaning that the entity has to describe what he sees for Arthur and the audience. A lot of it was [A More Civilized Age](https://amorecivilizedage.net/), a rewatch podcast for the 2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars series. [stop listening to “Renaissance”](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/beyonce-renaissance-album_n_6307af6fe4b035629c027a4b) before doing it again, August was a podcast heavy month for me. “It’s not wrong to call Inu-Oh an anachronistic, a-historical musical, but that downplays the sheer artistry of the animation, the ambition of the themes, and the expansiveness of the inspiration. The pitch is private investigator Arthur Lester finds himself attached to some...thing that speaks in his head, constantly berating him and getting him to do its bidding. [Xenoblade Chronicles 3](https://gizmodo.com/xenoblade-chronicles-3-characters-monolith-soft-1849410640), I decided to replay some of the Saints Row games ahead of the then-incoming reboot. From Noh theater to Iggy Pop, Inu-Oh takes creativity from whatever font suits the story, and is better for the unique blend of storytelling and storytellers.” But I also dipped back into [Agents of Mayhem](https://kotaku.com/agents-of-mayhem-which-is-good-btw-plays-way-better-o-1846252157), the other Saints Row reboot from back in 2017. I think it would’ve been in Marvel’s best interest to release the first two episodes together, since the second gives a better idea of what this show actually is, but I like it. It’s just very charming in an old school, sincere sort of way, the sports scenes are all great, and the cast is fun from top to bottom. For those split on the departure to realistic crime after Saints 2, the reboot feels like a perfect bridge between that and Volition’s much odder sequels. Self Made doesn’t light the world on fire or go for broke with its wackiness like Saints Row 3 did, but it manages to carve an identity all its own by the end.

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Image courtesy of "Reading Eagle"

Sounds and tastes of Latin culture on display at FirstEnergy Stadium (Reading Eagle)

FirstEnergy Stadium played host to the third annual Berks Latin Fest on Saturday afternoon. The event aims to highlight the various Hispanic cultures present in ...

“We can be together and do a good job together.” “I’m not Hispanic, but I grew up in Reading and all of my neighbors, all of my friends were Hispanic,” he said. “We want people to experience what it is like to be Hispanic — the music, the food, the dancing.”

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Image courtesy of "The Sydney Morning Herald"

Pain in the arts: Why it's time for a ministry of culture (The Sydney Morning Herald)

A sign on the back of the door in the ladies' bathroom at Old Parliament House sums up the neglect of Australia's cultural institutions.

Taking it seriously as a public good that touches everyone is the first step. From being considered an artefact of a dying race, First Nations culture is recognised and celebrated for itself and as something that is unique and central to Australia. First Nations cultures, which we now celebrate in all the arts – and recognise as its own unique way of seeing, being and doing – has withstood two centuries of assault. In Australia, the arts is a proxy for this bigger realm of culture. Participation in culture, as a creator and consumer, is a human right. But as the jobs summit last week demonstrated it is easy to overlook the hundreds of thousands of people employed, often precariously but with huge impact, in the cultural and creative economy. The instrumental value of cultural activities was grudgingly recognised in health, welfare and First Nations policy; social cohesion and language sat somewhat uncomfortably in Home Affairs; commercial, public broadcasting and social media in Communications. In most comparable countries there is a ministry of culture, often linked to education, media or heritage. As the Russians began invading Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky declared you cannot kill a culture. The party room, where the decisions that shaped the nation were debated, is an essential part of the national heritage, but its preservation is now in the hands of visitors with some money to spare. Heritage found a home elsewhere, national institutions shrank, archives became part of national security, cultural diplomacy waned in DFAT, creative industries were bumped around, Freedom of Information a battlefield rather than a principle. Australia has been good at the first three but has often left the cultural to languish.

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Image courtesy of "Forbes"

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) Is An Important Predictor Of Success ... (Forbes)

Here we look at the importance of cultural intelligence and why it is one of the key skills required for the future of work. We also look at ways to improve ...

[Future Skills: The 20 Skills and Competencies Everyone Needs to Succeed in a Digital World](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Future-Skills-Competencies-Succeed-Digital/dp/1119870402/ref=sr_1_1?crid=GM37JNBGY0A4&keywords=future+skills+bernard+marr&qid=1660925978&sprefix=future+skills+%2Caps%2C55&sr=8-1), Written for anyone who wants to surf the wave of digital transformation – rather than be drowned by it – the book explores why these vital future skills matter, and how to develop them. If you travel to a new country, for example, get out there and wander through the food markets, ride public transport and generally soak up the culture (it’s more effective than purely reading about it). I like to read news stories and watch news broadcasts from countries like India and China because it helps me understand how other cultures view the world. Think also about the biases that may exist in your organization. Underneath our cultural beliefs, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or whatever, people largely want similar things – to live a decent life, do a good job, be happy, have a family (in all the forms that may take), have a safe roof over our head, achieve some level of financial security, cultivate friendships and relationships, and so on. I’m not advocating downplaying the many ways in which people differ – recognizing our differences is important – but we should also recognize that our own culture and experiences aren’t necessarily “better” than others. But what exactly is cultural intelligence, why does it matter for workplace success, and how can you become more culturally intelligent? This ability to work successfully with people who have different backgrounds and life experiences is crucial. For this reason, cultural intelligence is often referred to as “cultural quotient” or CQ, reflecting its importance alongside EQ and IQ. Think about the sorts of biases that may narrow your vision. It makes sense, then, that cultural intelligence is fast becoming a highly desirable attribute in the workplace. I work with brands from all around the world, and I've noticed that organizations are – thankfully, finally – becoming much more diverse.

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