Progress in communication and transport technology during the 20th century has enabled us to overcome geographical boundaries and revolutionize our way of living. The world is now linked to such an extent that a local happening cannot take place without impacting on the international community and vice versa. It is not surprising to find that the great differences between countries, which used to be exist in almost every sphere of people"s life, have become less obvious. Nowadays we Chinese are sharing the same Hollywood movie as the American, enjoying the same fashionable clothes as the young girls in Paris and even chasing after the same brands as the people all over the world.
Now that American films can be easily accessed to, it goes without saying that people in other countries can have more opportunities to know more about the American culture since films are frequently refered to as the carrier of a particular culture. Thus, some people welcome these decreasing differences among countries without any reservations in the wish to see a better chance to link the cultures among individual countries, which appear to be the greatest merit steming from it.
But pause and reflect. This kind of chance for communication may not seem so surpring after considering some disheartening facts indicating that the potential demerits may well outweigh the relatively weak merits. To be exact, globalization, in its powerful extension of market principles, by highlighting the culture of economically powerful nations, has created new forms of inequality. Just look at several figures you"ll have a more clear idea on this point: 90% of the world"s languages are not represented on the Internet; Some 5 countries monoplize the world cultural industries trade and in the field of cinema, for instance, 88 countries out of 185 in the world have never had their own film production. Therefore, it has understandably ignited severe anxiety and confrontation in almost every comparatively powerless country, thereby fostering cultural conflict rather than cultural pluralism.
In a nutshell, this phenomenon, in some sense, depicts what is called "cultural hegemony" by some sociologists and thus contains several disquieting factors which will inexorably destroy the naive wish of some people about a better world where communication are much more easily to handle.
责任编辑：张梦璇
