QUESTION
Assessment 2. Reflective Essay (35%) due 17 Apr
Length: 1000 words.
By drawing on what you have learnt in the course, write a reflective piece on the following topic. You must refer to at least three weeks ofreadings to pass this assignment. You can refer to any three weeks of readings in the entire course except any readings you used/will use in your presentation. Every week has more than one reading so you may refer to one or more readings for the weeks you choose. You may also refer to lectures tutorials and tutorial presentations to help you in this assignment. It is not necessary for you to do extra research for the reflective essay.
Question: Why is popular culture significant in Asia?
In answering this question, you may refer to specific countries and/or cultures AND/OR to popular cultural texts. Popular cultural texts may refer to specific artefacts (eg. a film, a television show, an online website etc.), to genres (eg. martial arts cinema) or to a weekly lecture topic that has been or will be dealt with.
A reflective piece is unlike a research essay as it requires you to think about the issues and themes in the course. Think about what was said at lectures and what has been discussed during tutorials. You may use your own knowledge of cultural products or those mentioned in readings, lectures and tutorials as examples to back up your arguments. You will be marked on your ability to reflect on material from the course (argument and analysis) and presentation (language and writing style). Please use the Harvard Referencing Style for citation and presentation of references and popular culture artefacts used; examples of are listed in your course reader and course guide.
**IMPORTANT NOTE: Readings used in your presentation CANNOT be used as your readings of choice for Assignment 2: Reflective Essay. You will be asked to rewrite your essay if this is the case.
The following are some general pointers on writing a reflective essay (from The Department of History, University of Melbourne)
- Writing on a “horizontal” axis: an overview of the course. First, if you think of a research essay as a “vertical” axis (delving quite deeply into a quite narrow field of inquiry), then the reflective essay works on a more “horizontal” axis, attempting to range quite broadly over the whole course and, consequently, not trying to go into as much detail as you might for a research essay.
- Telling the reader what you make of the topic. The topics of reflective essays are often much broader, and more general, than those of research essays. This is a deliberate ploy to open the course up as widely as possible to your speculation. Nonetheless, the greater breadth can be a problem, and can put you at risk of writing a very general and vague essay. Far more so than a research topic, the reflective essay question usually puts the onus on you to state what you have made of a general topic, and to explain to your reader how you intend to address it. Look out for deliberately vague terms such as “political” revolution and “social” revolution, or “conservative” and “radical”. They are open invitations for you to weigh in and do some purposeful personal definitions.
- A (relatively) decreased emphasis on substantiation. A corollary of this is your substantiation. In a research essay, you are trying to prove that you have read and understood the texts on a set list of readings: you have to put them on an extensive bibliography, and you have to footnote extensively, if only to demonstrate that you have really read them. These readings are extra readings, in addition to tutorial readings. In a reflective essay, you are not expected to do extra reading, although you may do so if you wish to. You are really responding to work you have already done in the course, so in a sense you may take it as “read”. True, if you refer to a reading, you should do so clearly by author and title, so that your reader knows exactly to whom you are referring. You would not be expected to footnote extensively unless you quote directly from the author’s text, in which case you are obliged to do so. Your lecturer might tell you to put only a minimal bibliography, or none at all.
- The secret of revision: “trawling” through your notes. A reflective essay might require some ingenuity, as well as some basic revision. It is true that, in many history subjects, you could write a basic sort of an essay using only the readings from the final weeks of semester, but a truly excellent essay would seek to engage with the course as a whole. In a sense, you are trying to throw a broad net over the whole course, both in terms of addressing the large themes that run through it, and in terms of mentioning some of the key readings.
- Demonstrating your intellectual mastery of the readings. You should also try, however, to tie in some of the more specific articles, and you should learn to refer to an important article in one short, deft statement which demonstrates that you have understood the essence of its argument or historical significance. This does not mean that your essay should become one monotonous review of every reading: you should weave these references meaningfully into the overall line of reflection you are pursuing. In a sense, you are giving a “cameo sketch” of a piece of scholarship, showing that you have a command of its broad significance, and that you have now reflected upon how that unit of meaning fits into a broad reflection on the period of study. One of the most painless ways of doing this is to cruise back through your book of readings, perhaps also your tutorial notes, maybe even your lecture notes, and you will be surprised how much information, both factual and analytical, will come flooding back to you. With so much information ready at hand, you will find that your mind will be free to concentrate on the more difficult part of the exercise, which is that of pondering the broad themes and significance of the period of study.
- Setting up time-frames.Remember that because you are pondering the broad span of an historical period, rather than the highly specific time-frame typical of a research essay, it might be useful to set up a distinction between the short term and the long term.
- Showing awareness of the changing meanings of key terms. One of the most useful distinctions you can draw is a linguistic one: remember that it might be relevant to take key words from your field of study – words which are so common as to have a fixed, universal meaning – and to do a subtle analysis of how they had radically different meanings a) between different social types and b) at different times.
- Demonstrating a sense of the definition of social class. As in a research essay, remember to avoid vast social categories which can be meaningless. Remember that a category that is too broad can lead you into a statement that is absurd. If you are doing a course which involves writing about a social class, try to “nail it down” before you get too far into your essay: try to give a quick little definition of who they are and what sorts of people you are talking about. Remember that in the vast majority of cases, the terms we use to describe classes, such as ‘bourgeoisie’ and ‘working class’ are woefully inadequate to capture their full complexity, so you can impress your reader with a sense of real accuracy and sophistication by setting up clearer definitions and distinctions.
SOLUTION
Adventures in Asian Pop Culture
Why is popular culture significant in Asia?
For me popular culture is the usage of ideas, thoughts, images, cultures and messages are very significant. Asia has been a diverse and large region. This region has been marked by individuals belonging to various cultures, ethnicity, and religion. I see that there are innumerable mediums of transmission of popular culture and they are namely, movies, music, comics, television, and magazines. I have come to know by research that this culture though was originated in Europe and United States, a major proportion was originated locally.
When I take a closer look at the operations which imparts the popular culture, I come to know of the fact that it initiates and propagates the mutual learning across different cultural platforms, enhances the trade and distribution of various products, and the governments’ initiatives on various policies. When I think of what it does to the people, I am compelled to comment that it brings people closer by giving them the opportunities to share and learn via the cultural elements and products. I remember studying that India had become home to musicians of the African American jazz in the 1930s and 1940s. Roy Butler was a saxophonist and he had spent more than a decade in India. He travelled from Calcutta to Mussoorie and then relocated to Mumbai and he became one of the prominent member of the orchestra at the Taj Mahal Hotel. His orchestra contained Anglo Indians and Goans. This to me is perfect example of the exchange of pop culture. After Butler returned to United States of America in 1944, his companion Teddy Weatherford who was a jazz pianist who was very famous in Chicago relocated to India and started playing his music in the country and also in several places in south east asia at various hotels and clubs. This addition of African American music in the Indiana and South East Asian database was a great enhancement in the knowledge pool of the aboriginals of this region and they got to know many things about the culture, tradition, music and their religion.
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