YVONNE EPPS WRITES – The United States prides itself on being “number one” in most areas, but it seems that social culture is its main point of interest to outsiders nowadays.
A quick search on the Vietnamese language version of ThanhNien News Network reveals that American social reporting seems to be of greater interest than its reportage about economic or political affairs. Since the start of the year, about 30 articles cited the American-centric Huffington Post, but most regard trivial, social-entertainment matters. Citing a photo from Huffington Post, ThanhNien reported netizens’ responses to a woman breast feeding a calf as shock. Responding to another photo, ThanhNien reported on the art of oil wrestling. While these photos appear in the Huffington Post, they actually originated — were ‘aggregated from’ – from other countries; the breast feeding woman hailed from Brazil while the oil wrestling came from Turkey, where it is a traditional sport.
Could this mean that America’s culture of reporting on strange, unimportant things is making us look bad to the Vietnamese community? Our culture is reinforced by Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter while Vietnam’s culture is much different. To them, America’s reporting might seem like a game of Trivial Pursuit.
Go to:
http://www.thanhnien.com.vn/pages/20130108/vu-khi-khong-gian-cua-trung-quoc.aspx
http://www.thanhnien.com.vn/pages/20130311/moi-nguoi-dan-ganh-8007-usd-no-cong.aspx
http://www.thanhnien.com.vn/pages/20130325/dau-vat-dau.aspx
http://www.thanhnien.com.vn/pages/20130331/nguoi-dep-va-con-be.aspx