Chapter 1. Reconfiguration of Local Cultures [305618]

INTRODUCTION

This thesis is intended to be a pragmatic way to explore the more general problem of consumerist cultural cultures in a world dominated by the discourse of globalization. [anonimizat].

[anonimizat]. The reasons I chose to analyze the situation of cultural and consumerist practices of Chinese communities are varied. Firstly, [anonimizat] a potential victim of globalization into its main beneficiary. [anonimizat], thus preserving its traditions and customs. Nowadays, [anonimizat]. Mastering the new world of goods and fashion systems helps create new forms of experience with a greater sense of individual authority and reflexivity. The remains of the past are still deeply rooted in the mentality of the population. [anonimizat]. [anonimizat] a changing phase in which consumers' mindset seems to be divided between rigid principles acquired in an age of shortcomings and aspirations to novelty inspired by western models.

Secondly, I considered an advantage the fact that I studied Chinese in faculty and I can use this language for translating their postings and comments. I [anonimizat], I could not find much information.

The paper is structured in 2 theoretical chapters and the case study. In the first chapter, I [anonimizat] – adaption of global culture to local culture. We will also address theories about deterritorialization and global culture. [anonimizat]. [anonimizat]. [anonimizat], we will analyze the way in which Chinese communities are influenced by globalization and will present their cultural consumption practices. [anonimizat]. [anonimizat]. [anonimizat]/banal cosmopolitism or banal nationalism. It will be interesting to find out how does the natural environment (them being located in Europe/China) influence their framing of cultural experiences. [anonimizat] consumers have a vast area to choose from. Therefore we will follow communities that talk about practices such as food, travel, music, movies, etc.

Chapter 1. Reconfiguration of Local Cultures

under the Pressure of Globalization

In this chapter, we will follow the first great theme of our paper. Therefore, we will analyse the discourse around culture and globalization. Firstly, we will start by explaining the thoeries about globalization, glocalization and the relationship between global culture – local culture – adaption of global culture to local culture. We will also address theories about deterritorialization and global culture. In the second subchapter, we will present some cultural practices that are important for globalization. Terms such as cultural globalization and multiculturalism will be explained, as they play an important part in the understanding of globalization processes. In the third subchapter we will discuss contemporary Chinese culture and will analyze cultural consumption practices and popular culture of the Chinese people.

Globalization and Glocalization

The discourse around the concepts of globalization and glocalization and the relationship between global culture – local culture – adaption of global culture to local culture have been very much analyzed. It is possible to find out that the outcome of the negotiations between globalization and glocalization is the discovery of cultural authenticity. Therefore, local cultures reactions are very important for the way globalization materializes, in the same way as globalization is important for the way in which local cultures change in the end.

Cultural globalization means transformations of the routine life and of the interpretations of the meaning of life. Tomlinson is the one that brings the cultural element of globalization to the fore. He argues that globalization “is understood in terms of simultaneous, complexly related processes in the realms of economy, politics, culture, technology and so forth.” (Tomlinson, 1999). The cultural globalization and the local responses to it are notable at both the micro-individual and macro-institutional level. Furthermore these two levels of cultures affect each other. We have the top-down processes by which the members, individuals of a culture are influenced by the macro level of culture and at the same time we have the bottom up processes by which the macro level of culture is influenced by the cultural changes at the individual level.

One major result of globalization is reflected by transformation of identity, how people position themselves in relation to the social environment. The global environment influences a person`s identity. Due to the fact that people have access to a worldwide culture, other practices, styles and information all around the world, there are people that develop a global identity. On the other hand, some people preserves their local culture, but also adapt to a global culture, therefore they gain a bi-cultural identity (Arnett, 2002). The more the two cultures are similar, the people better integrate and adapt to both cultures.

Globalization has affected in different ways the cultures. The openness to globalization differs greatly depending on the cultural values exposed at the national level. Harzing and Hofstede (1996) stated that collective societies are the most resistant to change, because the disobedience of the norm involves a risk for them, while individualistic societies are more open to globalization, because they want to prove their free will and rights of choice and control over their environment and culture. The level of adaptation to globalization is also linked to the dynamic nature of culture. Therefore, national cultures of high individualism, low power distance, and low uncertainty-avoidance will adapt to the global work environment more than their counterparts. Berry (1980) emphasized that acculturation depends on the level of interest in the global culture and how much people want to preserve their own culture. One of the significant features of the national culture of the Chinese society is “collectivism” or “low individualism” (Hofstede and Bond, 1988). The Chinese Confucian collectivism was important for the traditional Chinese family and it still applies today. Their culture dates back more than 4 thousand years and the cultural values still have an influence on the Chinese behavior. For example, Lockett (1988) suggests that four key elements can be identified as common to the Chinese people, namely respect for age and hierarchy position, group orientation, concept of face and importance of relationships. Tan (1990) has identified a number of significant values in Chinese culture, including the importance of family or kinship, respect for the elderly, obligations to friends and relatives, the avoidance of conflicts, the need for harmony and the concept of face. Some of these values can be used to explain the "Collectivism" of traditional Chinese. However, over the past two decades, Chinese society has changed rapidly. Now they are influenced by the economic changes and increased contact with the West, and their values have become more individualistic.

Beck (2002) presents the concept of “internal globalization” or “glocalization”, namely the combination between local culture and global culture. The internal globalization describes the reality in everyday life at a micro-level. Globalization influences and changes the local cultures, but we should analyze to what extent this happens. Political and economic system tend to homogenize at the global level. But it is hard for globalization to find out the global culture. According to Tomlinson`s ideas in terms of globalization, “deterritorialization” and “cosmopolitanism” are two important facts for discussing and explaining the cultural globalization.

As Giddens (1990) advocates places remain fixed, but space can be crossed:

“In premodern societies, space and place largely coincided, since the spatial dimensions of social life are, for most of the population, dominated by "presence" – by localized activity. . . . Modernity increasingly tears space away from place by fostering relations between "absent" others, locationally distant from any given situation of face-to-face interaction, In conditions of modernity . . . locales are thoroughly penetrated by and shaped in terms of social influences quite distant from them. What structures the locale is not simply that which is present on the scene; the "visible form" of the locale conceals the distanced relations which determine its nature.”(p. 50)

Traditionally, the local culture is closely related to the places and it is fixed and unchangeable. However, under the pressure of globalization, the relationship between place and culture is reconditioned. “Deterritorialization” is not just moving and transforming the culture, but also means broadening your horizon on the world. (Tomlinson, 1999). Scholte (2005) defines globalization as deterritorialization. Global relations, he points out, are "transborder exchanges without distance" (p. 49). Such relationships become more and more important because communication and production are increasingly producing without geographical constraints, cross-border organizations of many kinds proliferate, and more and more people see the world as a whole. In the past, human relationships and connections took place within a limited territory. Social interaction traditionally needed a certain geographical place to occur. Scholte notes that this link between social connections and a certain territory has been continuously weakened in the last decades as a result of the two developments, namely the technological development and the removal of political barriers. Thus, Scholte proposed the following definition: “Globalization is the progressive eroding of the relevance of territorial bases for social, economic, and political activities, processes, and relations.” (Scholte, 2000, p. 61).

Afterwards, the flowing of a culture affected by deterritorialization can change other cultures and even create new hybrid cultures. For example, the mixture between rock and roll and rap and Beijing Opera attracts a lot of audience. Tomlinson (1999) thinks that deterritorialization can engender cosmopolitanism that is described as “cultural deposition”, which is not restricted to locality, but it is spreading globally and cares about the concerns of others into the everyday practices. Tomlinson’s belief proves his enthusiasm for humanism. In cultural globalization, cosmopolitanism supports the mutual understanding, mutual support and nurtures the sense of responsibility for distant others.

What is global culture? It refers to “the emergence of one single culture embracing everyone on earth and replacing the diversity of cultural systems that have flourished up to now” (Tomlinson, 1999, p.71). There are different opinions about the globalization and the promise of a global culture. We have the utopian vision of a global culture that is an optimistic imagination of global culture. Although theoretically it is utopian, historically it is put into practice as guidance for people to fight for freedom and liberation for decades of years. Dystopians are pessimistic about the construction of cultural imperialism which refers to “westernization of the world”. As representative of western countries, the US draws on its military and economic power, selling American goods, more importantly its values and its style of living and its culture. Beside their local identity, young people develop a global identity that awards them a sense of belonging to a global culture and includes an awareness of events, practices, styles, and information that are part of the global culture. The global identity allows them to communicate with people from different places. Television is important in the process of developing a global identity because it provides information about people, events around the world. However, the Internet will be even more important for future generations of children and adolescents, because it is the fastest means of communication anywhere in the world. Along with their global identity, people continue to have a local identity, one based on local circumstances, local environment and local traditions from the place they grew up. Although the development of a bicultural identity means that a local identity is preserved alongside a global identity, it is undoubtedly that local cultures are altered by globalization, especially through the introduction of global media, free market economy, the democratic institutions, higher duration of formal schooling and late entry into marriage and parenthood.

Berger (2002) has also defined a typology with four possible consequences for the intersection of globalization and local culture: he considers that’s the local culture can be replaced by the globalized culture or there is the possibility of coexistence of the global and local cultures without any significant merging of the two. The last two assumptions are that there can be a synthesis of the global universal culture with the particular indigenous culture or the global culture can be rejected by the powerful local reaction.

Global culture is accepted but with significant changes locally, phenomenon called by James Watson "localization" (2002, p. 10). This can lead to a "revitalization of indigenous cultural forms" (Berger, 2002, p. 10). Another type of response, or rather the effect of meeting global culture with local culture is the "hybridization". Hybridization involves an attempt to synthesize the local features with the global ones. Berger (2002) believes that global culture is manifested in four forms: Davos culture, or international business culture; McWorld culture, or global popular culture; faculty club international, or world intellectual culture and new religious movements, or popular religious culture. The most visible manifestation of global culture is in the form of popular culture. It is transmitted by all kinds of businesses, such as Adidas, McDonald's, Disney, MTV and so on. Much of the consumption of this popular culture is probably superficial, in the sense that it does not have a profound effect on people's beliefs, values or behavior. In principle, a person could wear jeans and running shoes, eat hamburgers, even watch a Disney cartoon and stay fully embedded in the traditional culture. However the new global culture is very attractive, because modernization undermines the authority for tradition and collectivity, and therefore makes the individual more self-reliant.

According to Appadurai, the central issue of global interactions is the tension between homogenization and cultural heterogeneity (1996, p. 32). Heterogeneity is increasing due to glocalization and hybrids, but also due to the diverse and contradictory forces of globalization. Arjun Appadurai (1996) finds out five complex, overlay and disjunctive dimensions of global culture flows without any organizing principle. These include (1996, p. 33): ethnoscapes, the cultural imaginary of mobile individuals; mediascapes, the world conjured in movies, television and other global media; technoscapes, the uneven distribution of technologies; financescapes, the disposition of global capital; and ideoscapes, the distribution of political ideas and values. These forces combine and disperse to increase heterogeneity, having the greatest effect on the cultural imagination. Ethnoscapes and technoscapes are of interest to the present work, because they are people who migrate beyond cultures and borders, they are transforming the world and its many communities into fluid and mobile places, instead of static one and bring new types of interactions and cultural exchanges through the power of technology, which can now happen at an unprecedented level.

Another author concerned about the relationship between globalization and culture is Jonathan Friedman. He distinguishes between two forms of globalization, when discussing the cultural dimension of globalization processes (1994: 203-204). It is about the weak form of globalization, globalization weak, and the strong form of globalization, strong globalization. The first concerns the establishment of a global framework of reference for common access to the same set of phrases and ideas. Global communication flows are facilitating this type of access. The strong form refers to the homogeneity of globalization. According to Friedman (1994), it is necessary that the global framework of reference that ensures access to the same set of expressions and representations coincide with the original, where the cultural object was first produced. Homogenization of the local context is the basic condition for a strong globalization. Weak globalization requires that locally the objects of globalization are assimilated in social practices of individuals. In conclusion, for Friedman the processes of globalization are social processes that shape the social conditions for producing the assignation of meanings (Friedman, 1994: 204).

Returning to the general theme of deterritorialization, I think that there is at least the germ of optimism in this process for the broader cultural-political challenges that global connectivity poses. Deterritorialization has both a positive and negative effects: it disturbs and transforms local experience, but also offers people wider cultural horizons. In various ways, through increased travel and mobility, the use of new communications technologies and the experience of a globalized media, people have the possibility to mix the local and ‘global’ cultural data in their consciousness. Thus, what happens in distant parts of the world, though not so intense as events in our neighbourhood, nonetheless has an increasing meaning in our lives – particularly since it may have readily traceable consequences for us. The positive potential of deterritorialization is that, in changing our experience of local life, it may promote a new sensibility of cultural openness, human mutuality and global ethical responsibility.

A global culture has no memory about the past, because it is not linked to any particular place and particular group of people. It does not help any living needs and people has no identity. In current stage of globalization, cultural experience and identification change within its coherent logical element such as: “complex connectivity”, deterritorialization, hybridity and cosmopolitanism. Culture is influenced by all constituents of the society such as: politics, economy, environment and technology. Thus, I share Tomlinson view that globalization produces a globalized culture rather than a global culture. According to Tomlinson, the main mistake of those who see in globalization a threat to cultural identity is that they often confuse the western forms of cultural imagination with the universality of human experience.

Significant Cultural Practices

Regarding the cultural issues, increasing the cross-cultural contact, the emergence of new categories of consciousness and identities which embodies cultural diffusion lead to a spread of multiculturalism and to a better individual access to cultural diversity. Kymlicka stated that cultural identity is providing people with an “anchor for their self-identification and the safety of effortless secure belonging” (1995, p. 89). Some consider that global culture is a threat because it can replace the local culture, causing reduction in diversity or even assimilation of it. Others consider that multiculturalism promotes peace and understanding between people. Others are considering the idea that multiculturalism leads to a new form of monoculture with no distinctions where people translates in different ways the music, fabrics, customs and traditions attached to a single culture.

Multiculturalism is a global practice and each country has its own habits that guide how things work. Sowel (2010) considers that “The entire history of the human race, the rise of man from the caves, has been marked by transfers of cultural advances from one group to another and from one civilization to another.” His opinion is that “Cultural diversity, viewed internationally and historically, is not a static picture of differentness but a dynamic picture of competition in which what serves human purposes more effectively survives while what does not tends to decline or disappear.” (Sowel, 2010).

Cultures are not distinct or strange; they have been interacted and influenced for a long time through war, imperialism, trade and migration. People from many places in the world have already a cosmopolitan culture, characterized by cultural hybridity. As Jeremy Waldron argues, “We live in a world formed by technology and trade; by economic, religious, and political imperialism and their offspring; by mass migration and the dispersion of cultural influences. In this context, to immerse oneself in the traditional practices of, say, an aboriginal culture might be a fascinating anthropological experiment, but it involves an artificial dislocation from what actually is going on in the world” (1995, p. 100).

Multicultural theorists agree that cultures overlap and interact, but they claim that individuals belong to separate cultures. In particular, Kymlicka argued that while the choices available to people in any modern society come from a variety of ethnic and historical sources, these choices become significant to us only if “they become part of the shared vocabulary of social life—i.e. embodied in the social practices, based on a shared language, that we are exposed to… That we learn…from other cultures, or that we borrow words from other languages, does not mean that we do not still belong to separate societal cultures, or speak different languages” (1995, p. 103).

Globalization has had an impact on different cultures around the world. Culture is what people eat, how they are wearing clothes, the beliefs that they hold and the activities they practice. Internet breaks down cultural boundaries around the world and allows easy communication between people anywhere in a variety of digital forms and media. Internet is associated with cultural globalization because it allows interaction and communication between people with very different lifestyles and from very different cultures. Websites allow the spread of local consumer products (eg food) to other countries (often adapted to their culture), which enables close contact between different cultures and civilizations. Global fashion and pop culture such as Pokémon, Sudoku, Origami, YouTube, Orkut, Facebook and MySpace are more affordable for those who have internet or television and covers a large segment of the population on Earth. All over the world the sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games are a constituent part of multinational media corporations as sponsors of teams that are part of these championships or Olympics.

Modernity has emphasized the interdependence and the interconnectedness and, slowly, it has established them as ways of being of society. Massive population movements and the reductions of distances, due to increased travel speeds, exploding the ways of communication such as mass media, newspapers, radio and television, have succeeded to pass more quickly what happens to the other end of the earth.

Watson (2016) defines cultural globalization as

“a phenomenon by which the experience of everyday life, as influenced by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, reflects a standardization of cultural expressions around the world. Propelled by the efficiency or appeal of wireless communications, electronic commerce, popular culture, and international travel, globalization has been seen as a trend toward homogeneity that will eventually make human experience everywhere essentially the same. This appears, however, to be an overstatement of the phenomenon. Although homogenizing influences do indeed exist, they are far from creating anything akin to a single world culture.”

The globalization of culture is building a common value, taste and life style. The basic problem of cultural globalization is whose culture is spread worldwide and whose not. In such a context, it is difficult to ignore the issue of cultural imposition and penetration of the developed West. Cultural globalization is actually a more complex process, its power is apparently invisible. It does not provoke public reactions unless politicized – that is politicization of culture and culturalization of politics.

Cultural globalization can be also considered as an agent of preserving cultural traditions alive, because increasing access and exposure to the media helps to have greater awareness of cultural diversity and put emphasis on local cultures. There is an ambiguity in the context of cultural globalization. On the one hand, it militates for worldwide cultural integration, while on the other hand, the global political scenario is determined and ruled by the notion of cultural and civilizational clashes. The problem we face is to examine whether different cultures and civilizations are integrated together and forming a new global civilization or facing each other to destroy the existing cultural diversity and civilization of the world. Nowadays people around the world understand the major cultural crisis, while the ideas of global peace and intercultural and inter-civilizational dialogues are getting more popularity than the notion of cultural and civilizational clashes. Regarding examining cultural globalization, the most relevant concepts in anthropology are acculturation, diffusion and integration. Evolutionary and relativistic approaches are considered the most appropriate anthropological perspective to examine the current cultural globalization.

Tomlinson (2003) states his concerns that:

“though globalization has been judged as involving a general process of loss of cultural diversity, some of course did better, some worse out of this process. Whilst those cultures in the mainstream of the flow of capitalism – those in the West and, specifically, the United States – saw a sort of standardized version of their cultures exported worldwide, it was the ‘weaker’ cultures of the developing world that have been most threatened. Thus the economic vulnerability of these non-western cultures is assumed to be matched by a cultural vulnerability. Cultural identity is at risk everywhere with the depredations of globalization, but the developing world is particularly at risk” (p. 269-270).

However, he claims that there is another way of looking at the relationship between culture and globalization. He thinks that globalization itself can be a catalyst for creating and shaping culture and it shouldn`t be perceived as threatening for the existing cultures. He advocates that, no matter what some critics say, it is difficult for globalization to change the culture as long as there is already a "national identity" and institutions in the country that continue to keep the identity. And even if states themselves can be changed by globalization, his reasoning is that it is not a "destruction" of the culture (Tomlinson, 2003, p. 271). So, the argument is that cultural globalization can lead to greater diversity instead of giving rise to dominant cultures.

When we think about significant cultural practices promoted by some communities, we are referring to projects, activities, events and significant activities in the cultural context. The people belonging to these communities are transmitting them consistently causing strong social impact in the collective memory of society. In order to understand China's situation in this era of globalization, we will seek the opinions of the Minister of Culture of China, Mr. Sun Jiazheng. The position of specialized institutions towards such events and cultural practices in China is very open. The influence of traditional culture on modern society, the mutual understanding of Chinese culture and Western culture and the interpenetration of popular culture with the classical, both representing the same human civilization are not insignificant elements that allow the development of culture, which corresponds to the unabated Chinese government policy on culture in the new century and reflects the flesh relationships and trends that are shown by human culture.

Serving Chinese people, meeting its cultural needs and having full access to culture for all citizens are all objectives of the cultural policy promoted by China. Applying reforms and the policy of opening up to the outside, the Chinese government has solved the problem of subsistence of its population which represents one quarter of the world population, it created the conditions for this population to be more prosperous, benefiting from increased cultural rights and a richer spiritual life.

In their long history, the Chinese nation has created its own cultural tradition, a spiritual identity which was the cultural foundation for the unification of the country and national unity. As society progressed, some cultural traditions have developed, others have disappeared forever. These traditions, the true pylons of the culture and life of the Chinese nation were passed from generation to generation until today and exerted a profound influence on the value systems, the way of life of the Chinese and the development path of the country. It is known that China's multimillenary history and culture is characterized by an undeniable originality.

With over 2,000 years ago, Confucius opened a school transmitting to the society his Confucian ideas represented by the five essential virtues: benevolence, righteousness, honesty, wisdom and faith. Loyalty, respect for parents, dignity and justice have set the social standards, and, together with the five cardinal virtues of Confucius, they laid the foundation for social and personal morality. With these principles, the Chinese culture promoted honesty, kindness, harmony and tolerance. Traditional Chinese culture sought harmony between man and the universe and emphasized the ethics and morality of the individual. It was based on the beliefs of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism and gave tolerance and social progress to the Chinese people, being the protection of the human morality and right faith.

In this era, China is supporting the development of national culture of all countries and also the culture of less developed regions and countries must be protected and supported so as to avoid the cultural uniformity in the process of globalization. China continues to highlight their own conditions, to appreciate their traditional culture, because the Chinese culture with its depth oriental style, its very strong nationality and its contemporary spirit shines on the great stage of the world. Efficient protection of cultural heritage is a very important and urgent task of China in this century.

Globalization spread around the world and reached local communities where traditional values used to dominate. These values (work, family and religion) are changing under its influence. However, they do not change simultaneously on the same level with equal intensity. If you study the reaction of local cultures to the impact of globalization it is not possible to distinguish only one answer from the local communities. There are more ways to react depending on the generational factor, education and social position. In most cases, residents of old traditional communities adopt external forms of global culture (clothing, lifestyle, consumption), but at the same time, they preserve and continue their traditional values. We have also the case of young people that sometimes accept the global culture and reject the traditional culture, being fascinated by consumption. A minority of people well educated of traditional communities participate in the local culture and preservation of traditional values, especially family and religion, while at the same time, they assimilates the universal cultural code and participate in global culture.

Contemporary Chinese culture

Globalization does more than simply increase the availability of foreign – made consumer goods and disrupt traditional producers. It also encourages the international trade of cultural goods and services, such as movies, music, and publications. The spread of trade in cultural products is increasing the exposure for all countries to foreign cultures and this exposure brings frequent changes in local cultures, values and traditions. Although there is no consensus on the effects of globalization on national cultures, people consider that the exposure to a foreign culture can undermine their own cultural identity.

Among the effects of globalization on culture, the growth of “pop culture” tends to win most attention. Many complain that this form of globalization is actually Americanization because USA is by far the largest producer of popular culture goods. Pop culture manifests itself worldwide through movies, music, TV shows, newspapers, satellite broadcasts, fast food and clothing, entertainment and consumer goods. Ray Browne in his essay “Folklore to Populore” give the following definition: “Popular culture consists of the aspects of attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, customs, and tastes that define the people of any society. Popular culture is, in the historic use of term, the culture of the people.” A key feature of popular culture is its accessibility to the masses. Graeme Turner stated that:

“Popular culture is a site where the construction of everyday life may be examined. The point of doing this is not only academic – that is, as an attempt to understand a process or practice – it is also political, to examine the power relations that constitute this form of everyday life and thus reveal the configurations of interests its construction serves” (1996, p. 6).

For Bourdieu (1984), the consumption of culture is “predisposed, consciously and deliberately or not, to fulfil a social function of legitimating social differences” (p. 7). Global consumer culture involves a society that goes beyond national boundaries and has certain behaviors models.

Consumer culture is a system which is dominated by consumption of commercial products, a system where the transmission of existing cultural values, rules and common ways of doing things from generation to generation is not well preserved. Consumer culture is linked to modernity and is an economy in which value was divorced from material satisfaction and the sign of goods takes priority.

In China, the distinctive features of consumer culture are emerging. These include the idea of consumption as a palliative for the continued strict state control of political freedom and the media, articulating different understandings of local history and Chinese character in its branding practices and the role of consumer goods in vitalizing China's gift economy and in particular the network of interpersonal relationships. Others have commented on the interaction between one-child policy in China and the special role of children in creating more hedonically oriented Chinese consumer today. The speed of development and the success of one-child family has plunged children and parents from all social status in a consumer revolution. As Mintz (2007) stated:

“It is at table that children learn to become adults; at table that babies meet their grandparents; at table that people display their civilization and communicate it. To watch the giver of a restaurant banquet — some paterfamilias welcoming the family of a son's fiancée, celebrating a grandchild's birth, or just treating friends — is to get a sober lesson in etiquette, self discipline, and joy. The etiquette is also often self discipline.”

For the Chinese people, the participation in consumer culture is associated with cosmopolitan values like modernity, democracy, and even liberation.

Anti-globalization activists affirm that American television shows have corrosive effects on local cultures by highlighting Western notions of beauty, individualism and sexuality. Although many of the titles are considered second-tier shows in the United States, there is no dispute that these programs are part of the daily rate for viewers worldwide. Collective viewing in bars, restaurants and teahouses were common during the early stages of television broadcasting in many parts of the world, including China. Live sports programs continues to attract some of the biggest global audiences. Hollywood movies have also a great influence. The most popular movies in China are love affairs with high doses of song and dance, Bollywood films. CCTV (China Central Television), the monopoly central television network, has a channel dedicated to art show similar to MTV in the United States. MTV and karaoke are among the most popular forms of entertainment. Also VCDs reproduce all kinds of songs and lyrics available anywhere and anytime, especially in pirated copies. Karaoke shows are so popular that they take place anywhere: in restaurants, in bars, on streets, in classrooms and student dormitories.

Chinese fashion is also affected by other cultures. It has changed after the death in 1976 of Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong and the resultant economic liberalization. Western suits or casual wear became the norm and they are not using any more their traditional costumes, like qipao. Teenagers have also replaced the red bridal dresses with the Western models. Another important aspect that is influenced by globalization is the food, which is the oldest global carrier of culture. In fact, food has always been a driving force for globalization, especially in the earlier stages of European trade and colonial expansion. Food and beverage companies, such as McDonald’s, KFC and Coca-Cola, draw attention because they deal with the most elemental form of human consumption. In-depth study of cultural trends at the local level shows that the globalization of fast food can influence the behavior of people. For example, McDonald's and KFC have become the main venues for East Asian birthday parties with special rooms and services. The introduction of fast food has had a great impact on children, especially since so many ads aim to appeal to them. These and other symbolic effects make fast food a powerful force for dietetic and social change because a meal at these restaurants will introduce practices that younger consumers can not experience at home – especially the chance to choose their own food. The concept of personal choice is a symbol of Western consumer culture.

The progress of globalization is strongly constrained by religious and political barriers. There are considerable ethnographic evidence gathered by anthropologists and sociologists who suggest a fast spreading of religious and cultural systems throughout the world. For instance, in China, unauthorized "house churches" have become a major concern for Communist Party officials who have tried to control Muslim, Christian and Buddhist religious activity. As a result, they were almost impossible to organize and the level of knowledge about religion is very low.

Chapter 2: New Media and Forms of Socialization

In the second chapter, we will follow to define all important aspect related to socialization. Firstly we will explain the characteristics and functions of social networks, trying to find a complete definition. We will justify why a term like cultural diversity is important when using social networks and will describe some specific social networking sites. Then, in the second subchapter, we will present some definitions for New Media. We will focus on the social interaction in the new media, summarizing the differences between new media and old media and differences between generations.

2.1. Social Networks

Social networking sites (SNS) are increasingly drawing the attention of academic and industry researchers who are intrigued by their availability and reach. Since their appearance, social networking sites (SNS), such as MySpace, Facebook, Cyworld have attracted millions of users. Many of them have integrated these sites networks into their daily practices. There are hundreds of SNS with various technological advances that support a wide range of interests and practices. While their key technological characteristics are quite consistent, the cultures that appear around the SNS are varied. Most sites support the maintenance of pre-existing social networks, but others help connect strangers based on common interests, political visions or activities. Some sites appeal to different public, while others attract people based on common language or racial, sexual, religious belief or nationality. Websites also differ according to the information they present and communication tools they possess such as mobile connectivity, blogging and photo/video sharing.

Although social networking sites have existed since the mid-1990s, they really became prominent only after one decade or later. They vary in approach; some are built around business networks, others are purely social. Different networks call for different demographics usually based on age or geography.

Online social networks have technical, structural (Boyd, 2011) and social functions (Parks, 2008). The technical features allow users to create their public and semi-public profiles in a limited space, have a list of friends, access other users' friends list, comment and update their information. Structural features are: persistence (digital contents are automatically recorded and archived), replicability (content is easy to publish), scalability (broad distribution) and ease of search and retrieval (content can be accessed through the search function). Social functions are group membership, expression, and user-friendliness.

All users who interact using social networking sites also establish a collective / group identity using a cyber-language: cyber-English / French / Romanian language, etc. Cyber-language can be seen in Facebook's young people's speeches because their texts contain digital elements and online practices. For example: abbreviations, voice omissions, exaggerated repetition of letters, exaggerated punctuation, missing punctuation, use of small letters, use of emoji and special symbols.

Cultural diversity is a predominant feature in all digital spaces: culture and subculture are inputs that mediate interpretation because participants build and perceive identities mediated by cultural signs and symbols. “The multicultural world is enhanced by the experiences of sojourners, immigrants, and others who successfully make the transition from one culture to another” (Kim, 2001, p. xi). That is why young users create a digital subculture due to idiosyncratic linguistic behavior (E.g., Internet slang) and non-linguistic behavior (videos, pictures, links, pictures, Facebook tags, etc.).

The discussion of cultural identity shows that digi-participants are involved in a process of glocalization (globalization and localization): users all over the world are in the same space and create a polyphony of cultures and subcultures. Glocalization is understood as the main process of cultural change in the process of globalization. Roland Robertson defines it not as polarity but as a complex relationship between the global and the local (1995, p. 35). According to Ritzer, “individuals and local groups have great power to adapt, innovate, and maneuver within a glocalized world,” they are “important and creative agents,” and “social processes are relational and contingent (globalization provokes a variety of reactions – ranging from nationalist entrenchment to cosmopolitan embrace – that produce glocalization)” (2015, p. 216).

Digi participants build a cyber-identity (individual and group identity) in one cyber-community that can be macro-cyber-community (Facebook community, Couchsurfing / LinkedIn / Myspace / BeWelcome etc.) or micro-cyber-community (Various online groups). It is asserted that the rules that users have to follow change from one digital space to another and are fluid even within the same digital space due to the micro-communities that are formed. The minimum arbitrary requirements for belonging to a cyber-community are: a user must have activity on the platform in the last three / two months / weeks, have a personal picture, have a certain number of friends, and have a certain number of comments from friends (Cf. Parks, 2011, p.193).

Facebook has become one of the most ubiquitous social networking sites in the world; friends and acquaintances are up to date with each other`s news. Having more than 70 million active users and a market value estimated at a couple of billion dollars or more, Facebook is a good example of how technology is used by this generation, who likes to share information. They always connect with friends and family with the help of technology, from mobile phones to social networks. They are not like their parents who used to watch the TV, for them TV is just a background while they search for information or talk to friends online or via text message. Due to the fact that phones are increasingly connected to the Internet, the Net Geners introduce can stay online with their friends anywhere. (Don Tapscott, Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation, 1998).

Facebook is just an example of popular social networking sites that transform the Internet into a place of sharing and connecting, a sort of cyber community. Net Geners converted the Internet from a place where information is found into a place where information is shared, giving the opportunity to cooperate for projects of mutual interest and solving some of the most difficult problems.

Certainly, social network are an excellent way of sharing information. When you upload a picture on your personal profile page, you don`t have to tell your friends about it. They can automatically see the picture on their wall, because the communication is instant and automatic.

Social networks are driven by youth, who started to share their lifestyle: playing games online, listening to music, watching TV online, and going out to see movies. They have also begun to influence the civic life and the politics. Probably in the next years, social networks will become more important even for doing business in other spheres of adult life.

As seen in “Studying On-Line Social Networks”(1999), Garton emphasizes the fact that social networks are about “patterns of relations between and among people”(p. 76) and this is why he declares that when “a computer network connects people or organizations, it is a social network”(p. 75). In other words, the new media networks are of no interest in themselves unless they give the opportunity of new connectivity between human actors, moment when they become social in form. Garton et al. explain: "just as a computer network is a set of machines connected by a set of cables, a social network is a set of people (or organizations or other social entities) connected by a set of social relations, such as friendship, coworking, or information exchange "(p. 75).

Social networks have become important, because they are creating searchable and relevant content. For example, on LinkedIn, the business-oriented social network, you can try to search for a combination of the name of the people you know or the company name they are in. This type of search is done on a regular basis and usually whenever we are considering entering into any business partnership with someone new.

Social networks have developed into online communities. Millions of people are using the most popular social networking sites on a daily basis. They can have as ground different things like friendship or common interests. With every passing day, the different ways in which users can interact in social networks are increasing. These include e-mail and instant messaging or chat messaging. They allow file sharing, blogging, and often include content from all kinds of other platforms, such as those that publish video. Social networks are revolutionizing how we communicate and share information. Social networks are not only very popular in terms of numbers of users that they have, but there is a very high level of involvement with the sites. This is one of the many reasons why they have become of such interest for marketeers. For example, Seiter (2008) observes that “Young people famously use digital communications—instant messaging, cell phone texting, and social networking Web sites—to maintain their social capital, at least with those peers who can afford to keep up with the costly requirements of these technologies” (p. 39).

2.2. Social interactions in the New Media

New media is an umbrella term that embraces diverse technologies. New media can consist of blogs, podcasts, video games, virtual worlds, wiki encyclopedias, and any mobile device, interactive televisions and even websites and email. Some specialists think that blogs and the virtual media have their place in the social media category, because they also encourage the formation of virtual communities and social networks. Despite the differences, a number of researchers have identified two common features to most definitions:

– disseminating information to a theoretically infinite number of recipients in customized ways, depending on the specifics of the target categories;

– having equal control over the information of both transmitters and receptors.

The most general definition is based on a consensus that the new media refers to the innovative forms of interaction between people and technology, the relationship between people and communication tools that are creatively used for elementary reasons such as information, communication and relationship. New media refers to “those digital media that are interactive, incorporate two-way communication and involve some form of computing,” (p.15) Robert Logan writes in his book Understanding New Media (2010). New media is “very easily processed, stored, transformed, retrieved, hyperlinked and, perhaps most radical of all, easily searched for and accessed” (p.16). Other definitions are vague, considering that the new media represents all the texts, sounds, images and computer graphics. They would in fact be true databases and their existence depends on the existence of computers and the Internet.

As in the case of Web 2.0, the new media does not refer to completely new technologies that have recently appeared, but to technologies that have existed for some time and which, through a creative way of using and through multiple improvements, have come to the attention of public opinion.

In the volume "New Media: the key concepts (2008)", Nicholas Gane and David Beer highlight the features of new media that can easily be transformed into an evaluation grid that applies to the various recent communication systems and about which many confusions are born. One of the main features is the ability to operate a huge amount of information. By encryption, the information is stored, occupying digital space and being transmitted with an unprecedented speed up to this category of means of communication.

Interactivity is another defining feature of new media, which, according to the authors, derives from the maneuverability of information or data. Network connectivity as well as other technical features such as density of information are other defining elements of the new media. “This is particularly important in an age in which new media are commonly marketed as interactive, and are lauded for their potential for facilitating new social and cultural activities.” (2008, p. 84)

Moreover, Roger Fidler captures the characteristics of new media and speaks of a true mediamorphosis, by which he understands: "the transformation of the means of media communication, determined by the complex interaction between the experienced needs, the political and competitive pressures and the social and technical innovations” (1997, p.9). In the explanation for the concept proposed by Fidler, there is an increase in the convergence between technical and human, which transforms the subject of new media into a new one, about change, with many implications and a surprising extent even for authors, as Filder (2004) remarked, and Kim Veltman in "Understanding New Media (2006) ", who argues that “the revolution in new media, which most persons assume is only about computers and the Internet, is not really about computers as such: it is about a reorganization of all knowledge”(p. xii).

From the perspective of communication theory, the new media assume many transformations. There are some typical aspects of new media, such as feedback, the possibility of active participation of an unlimited number of people, the opportunity to communicate through various means at the same time. When a person writes on the blog or posts on the wall from Facebook, she is waiting for reactions. Due to the speed of transmission of information over the Internet, feedback does not delay to occur most of the time. Or when it is not received, even its absence can provide information about a previous activity carried out in the digital space or communicated through new means. Moreover, the public has the ability to react to messages much easier than traditional means, so participation is favored. Accessibility and extension of the sphere of coverage are defining features of new media. An unlimited number of people, at least theoretically and technologically, unconditioned by spatiality, have the opportunity to engage in a discussion or any other kind of activity carried out through the new means of communication.

According to the theories of John Palfrey(2013) and Don Tapscott (1998), there are several categories of users. People who were born before the emergence of new media and for whom new media represents a technological progress are called the digital migrants by Palfrey and baby boomers by Tapscott. Individuals born after this change and for which new technologies are a natural thing are called digital natives and respectively Net Geners by the second author. Although both authors highlight the large number of people excluded from the two categories, due to the fact that many of them did not even have contact with the old media, Don Tapscott emphasizes the difference of intergeneration, while John Palfrey is forerunner for the ethical and social aspects of New Media.

Differences between generations are not a novelty, but in the context of New Media, they present a particularity, namely: members of the previous generation adopt behaviors or ideas promoted by new generations. Both authors mention situations where adults learn from young people or even children how to use new media.

Unlike the old media, where the public consumes what is being delivered to it, the new means offer not only the possibility, but also the freedom to select the information, and also to manipulate it, to intervene on it, a feature highly appreciated by the representatives of the new generation: “The Net Geners don’t just take what they are given either. They are the active initiators, collaborators, organizers, readers, writers, authenticators, and even strategists, as in the case of video games. They do not just observe; they participate. They inquire, discuss, argue, play, shop, critique, investigate, ridicule, fantasize, seek, and inform.” (Tapscott, 2008, p. 21).

The interconnectivity of the virtual space, social and general-human characteristic are a premise and a way of accessing the online world. The complexity of the virtual public space of the Internet determines a multitude of interactions and feedback reactions at the level of specific components: electronic platforms, blogs, social networks, etc.

The main social network, Facebook, is a useful tool in developing and consolidating inter-human relationships, in building various types of social and human capital. Secondly, we analyze the educational dimension developed through social networks. Access to information, to contextual social practices is marketable, for example a certain food trend is tradable, in other words, it exceeds pre-existing social or cultural barriers. That's why the different segments or social groups are directly interested in the interactive online life specific to the virtual environment. Thirdly, the economic dimension is highlighted in the social networking space through services that promote diversified products for various social audiences. The realities of the virtual environment support and substantiate the concept of social impact, defining the evolution of contemporary society.

Social networks are the core of social media action and have become the most frequently accessed and used online systems after 2005. This modern means of communication offers many benefits to users, either through proper socialization or through posting useful and accessible information to customers in this virtual environment. New media, especially social networks, shapes and directs audiences for the specialized purposes of politico-economic, military, strategic decision makers, but also to test the reaction of different audiences. Compared to traditional media, especially television, new media is a focal point of social space, which allows complex, multidimensional interactions at the level of user receivers.

The potential of social interaction generated by new media systems is an indicator of social development in the contemporary world, beyond the reluctance and limitations to which the Internet is subject in some states. For Kiousis (2002), there are two sides to the study of interactivity: “interactivity levels only fluctuate by altering technological properties” (p. 357), and second, “interactivity levels rise and fall within a medium dependent upon people’s perceptions” (p. 357).

The direction of evolution of social media systems shows a constant interest of the social audience, materialized in the receptivity of heterogeneous categories of audience for social networks, online platforms, and virtual communities. Digitization has become the second nature of contemporary man, a necessary but not sufficient condition of the social life. We note the increasing number of domains, specializations, and user segments that adhere to the values of the postmodern, digitalized society. In this respect, the future of the public and private space is represented by the values and models specific to the computerized society.

Social networking sites are much more powerful and are used not only to keep up with friends' travels or their love stories. Their true use is the ability of sites like MySpace and Facebook to connect people around their various interests, from politics to music. Social networks are now the channels through which new trends in music, fashion, technology and other aspects of youth culture are shared.

The Net Geners have begun to use the extraordinary power of this digital instrument and they have the power to realize the dream of the boomers, namely to give people more power. However, this great new opportunity raises a new, important challenge – for privacy, the right to remain alone. Facebook is starting to tackle this challenge, Net Geners are not fully understanding the long-term consequences of sharing intimate information about themselves with the world. But in other respects, young people who have grown up with these technologies that are very challenging, are well prepared to master this new ground and all the future developments.

Net Geners can pass through the tasks and block the background noise. They can work effectively with music and news coming from Facebook. They can maintain their social networks while focusing on work. They seem to need this to feel comfortable. Probably they have learned to live in a world where they are bombarded with information so they can block the TV or other distractions while focusing on the task at hand.

Today, social networks, whose most of users are young people, are the key solution through which young people talk to each other, meet new friends and keep up with acquaintances. It is not just the case of networks like Facebook or MySpace, but also the case of countless places on the Web where people can meet and share information. They constantly exchanges views about movies, music, clothes, and dozens of topics on these networks. When they think about what to buy, Net Geners go to online social networks to see what their friends are buying.

Back in 1992, Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, suggested that the natural size of a group, which contains high school friends and people you want to see is about 150. This is the number of people that most people can keep a connection.

Today, internet and social networking technologies are destroying the limits of Dunbar. The Net Geners use communications networks that are bigger, more complex, and more effective than those when their parents were young. Their parents could only keep a handful of friends, because they had to keep up with them face-to-face. Phone calls were expensive, flights were not even taken into account. But many young people now participate in larger and more complex social networks than we would have imagined 10 years ago. As Buckingham (2008) suggested: “Simply keeping pace with the range of young people’s engagements with digital media is an increasingly daunting task.” (p.18). Geography and time zones are no longer a problem. Social network members can contact other people more quickly and easily than we would have imagined a few years ago.

The dangers to which users are exposed are high and sometimes unpredictable, but on the other hand, networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn, or Xing, from the professional networking category, offer great benefits in terms of global communication. Through online communities, the interaction between people located at thousands of miles away is easier and much faster. Also, hierarchical barriers are malleable in virtual space, where users can come in contact with inaccessible people. Moreover, as John Palfrey points out in his book “Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives”, connections are also made during sleeping time, with many users starting their day with checking and accepting people who ask for virtual friendship.

According to Manuel Castells, an essential feature of this development is that individuals are placing more and more people in their social networks for their potential use rather than their intrinsic value. Castells calls this "‘a new pattern of sociability based on individualism " (2001, p. 130) and argues that computerized communications networks have caused its manifestation. He considers ‘it is not the Internet that creates a pattern of networked individualism, but the development of the Internet provides an appropriate material support for the diffusion of networked individualism as the dominant form of sociability’ (2001, p. 131). Castell's argument is that the new media, has not caused the growth of networked individualism, but has provided the technical infrastructure for it to develop, be sustained and perhaps even intensified over time.

According to Lev Manovich, the analysis of social networks is more concerned with the human connections between nodes that make the network possible than with the technological structures of the networks. In this perspective, social networks are about human connections made through new media, rather than protocols, hardware and information flows of new media infrastructures that are at the center of other more techno-centric approaches.

In conclusion, the new means of communication are producing new forms of culture and subjectivity. Through new media, the individual builds his identity based on the freedom of choice from the variety of communication offers. Social networks provide the framework for the interaction of a great number of users through the virtual contacts. These modern means of communication offer many benefits to users, either by socializing itself or by posting useful and accessible information to customers in this virtual environment. New media give the audience the chance to move from the simple status of receiver to the status of the transmitter, communicator. The new media is the scene on which a multitude of opinions are present, everyone can be a journalist theoretically.

Chapter III. Case Study – Comparative analysis of interactions

in Chinese Communities on two Social Platforms (Facebook and WeChat)

The case study aims to show the differences and similarities between the cultural consumption practices of Chinese people. We will focus on the cultural consumption practices present in their posts on two different social platforms, Facebook and WeChat. We will analyze their cultural experiences and will explain why we have focused our attention on this community and why have chosen the two social platforms.

The purpose of this study is to analyze consumer practices and consumer profile. We are interested in cultural consumption practices because they are the proof of the development of society and represent an effect of the globalization. At the beginning, we will focus on several groups on Facebook and WeChat where people discuss about different forms of entertainment, such as travel, music, movies, food, etc. To this purpose, we tried to subscribe to several Chinese groups living in Romania and to meet Chinese people from China, choosing to track only those few groups that are of interest and reveal important details for this research.

Carrying on, we are investigating the posts and comments of the Chinese people, using qualitative research instruments. We also aim to see the strategic positioning of the actors involved in the posts on these groups, how they frame their cultural practices in terms of ecstatic/banal cosmopolitism or banal nationalism. It would be interesting to find out how the cultural environment (them being located in Europe/China) influences their framing of cultural experiences. At the same time, we will try to understand how they interact on Social Media. We are interested in the cultural practices they are sharing and which is their opinion about the evolution of these practices and what they want to learn, preserve or exclude from their activities.

3.1 Brief case presentation. Relevant data

The main theme of our study is the comparative analysis of cultural consumption practices in communities of Romanians and Chinese on two social networks. We are interested in the significant cultural consumption practices that we have identified in the Chinese people’s posts on Facebook and WeChat. Consumer culture is more commonly spoken of than high culture on Facebook and other social networks. Among the consumption categories associated with lifestyle, we can include: food, clothing, interior decoration of the house, furniture, music, television and movies, reading, art, sports and hobbies. We will only select certain activities under the category of cultural consumption, given that consumers have a vast area to choose from. Therefore we will follow communities that talk about practices such as food, travel, music, movies and we try to find foreign holiday that are celebrated by Chinese people.

Another importand aspect of the case study is that I chose to follow Chinese communities. I wanted to analyze them for two main reasons. Firstly, China has an important role in economic globalization, managing to turn from a potential victim of globalization into its main beneficiary. For many millennia, China isolated itself from the rest of the world, thus preserving its traditions and customs. Nowadays, there is an emerging consumer culture where new goods circulate, where hierarchies and taste ratings become important. Mastering the new world of goods and fashion systems helps create new forms of experience with a greater sense of individual authority and reflexivity. Secondly, I considered an advantage the fact that I studied Chinese in faculty and I can use this language for translating their postings and comments. I should mention that generally their level of English is not very good, so without translations from Chinese, I could not find much information.

I should explain why I have chosen these two social platforms. According to statistics, there are 8.4 million Facebook accounts in Romania, so it is the most used social media platform and the possibility that I can find groups of Chinese people living in Romania is the largest. I excluded Twitter, due to the most obvious reason, the small number of active users. After 8-9 years of Twitter in Romania, we only have 330,000 open accounts, of which only 1 out of 11 is active monthly. Instagram is evolving faster and the number of active users is growing, but I should mention that China banned access for Twitter and Instagram. So we chose accounts on the most used social networks in Romania and China.

China is one of the countries that also banned access to the social networking website Facebook. After a series of violent riots in 2009 in Xinjiang that led to the death of 197 people, China banned Facebook, because Xinjiang independence activists were using Facebook as part of their communications network. As stated in an article from the Guardian, on 4 January 2015, the Chinese government wants to control content, whether user or company-generated, on the Internet. While it can control, restrict, and delete content created in China, it is unable to control the content of servers located outside of China. As a result, the only action is to ban access. According to a government transcript released in the fall of 2014, Lu Wei, director of China’s State Internet Information Office, said that “foreign Internet companies entering China must at the base level accord to Chinese laws and regulations. First, you can’t damage the national interests of the country. Second is you cannot hurt the benefits of Chinese consumers. If China’s laws and regulations are respected, we welcome all of the world’s Internet companies to enter the Chinese market.”

WeChat is a combination of WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype, Amazon and much more with over 889 million active users. WeChat's innovations, particularly its mobile-first, app-within-an-app model, make other messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger seem rather primitive in comparison and it could move westward and present a challenge to Facebook. It is very fun and user friendly, you can do just about anything on this one app. WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing. In China, users who have provided bank account information may use the app to pay bills, order goods and services, transfer money to other users, and pay in stores if the stores have Wechat payment option. WaChat has 800 million users of Chinese users and it can be accessed worldwide. This application ca be used, because the Chinese government can control it.

The reasons I chose to analyze the situation of cultural consumption practices of Chinese communities are varied. Firstly, China has an important role in economic globalization, managing to turn from a potential victim of globalization into its main beneficiary. Nowadays, cities are full of Santa Claus, Marilyn Monroe's pictures, giant malls, people are going crazy after sport world stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Lebron James, or Kobe Bryant. There is an emerging consumer culture where new goods circulate, where hierarchies and taste ratings become important. Mastering the new world of goods and fashion systems helps create new forms of experience with a greater sense of individual authority and reflexivity. Si aici The acceptance of products of foreign origin by Chinese consumers has a genuine enthusiasm for various reasons: better quality, good reputation, greater diversity of options, more attractive appearance, a sense of freedom, new arrivals, etc. The arrival of foreign investors and the invasion of imported goods make the Chinese face a new reality that is not easy to integrate. The remains of the past are still deeply rooted in the mentality of the population. They coexist with the new trends in life, consumption practices from the developed countries.

The cultural experiences vary according to where Chinese people live. Chinese in Romania will have many experiences of ecstatic cosmopolitanism, but also banal cosmopolitanism, while those in China will have more experiences of banal nationalism, but also some cosmopolitan experiences, allowed by their existence in a social network where cultural flows are more intense. While the ecstatic cosmopolitanism will be passionately described in their postings, we will turn also to the mundane, the quotidian, the everyday and we will examine the unremarkable, the common, the practical: habits of eating, manners of speaking, ways of seeing. In terms of banal nationalism, we will analyze their tendency to preserve traditional Chinese culture, their patriotic nationalism, their everyday conversations about the country.

We think it is very important for the outcome of the analysis whether there are any experiences that the Chinese borrow and adapt. For example, how interested they are to try and learn to cook Romanian food, if there are Romanian holidays they celebrate, etc. Another important aspect is their desire to keep and celebrate Chinese traditions even outside of China.

3.2 Methodological aspects

The research methodology used is direct participant observation, which lasted for 3 months, between 13 February – 15 May, a period in which I have been part of Chinese groups on Facebook and WeChat, I have always followed their posts, being able to observe all the details related to the practices and everyday events of the Chinese communities. I used the direct participatory observation, because it allows the holistic study of the organization and of the human group in terms of the practices, the beliefs and the interactions.

DeWALT & DeWALT (2002) defines participant observation as:

“Participant observation is a method in which a researcher takes part in the daily activities, rituals, interactions, and events of a group of people as one of the means of learning the explicit and tacit aspects of their life routines and their culture.” (DeWALT & DeWALT, 2002:1)

So I started with a general inspection of the context and I chose the place of research and I waited to be included in the group. I focused on certain aspects of human practices and interactions, presented in posts about the cultural consumption practices that I want to analyze, namely food, travel, music, movies, borrowed practices,etc . I had a critical attitude in order to select only the essence (too many data would become impossible to process and analyze), leading to a constant evaluation of the selection. The criteria on which we made the selection was to detect the most active groups that post as often as possible about the above mentioned practices. Research has assumed a long-term relationship with the studied groups. I had access to concrete information and detailed aspects about the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of the study group.

The most time-consuming part of the research was to find the right groups on Facebook that reveal the information I needed. I started by looking for public groups where I can join and follow how active they are and how interesting their posts are. I have submitted applications to 15 groups of which 12 have accepted me, but after reading their posts, I chose to follow only 3 groups. The majority of the groups did not have active posts and 3 of them were dating groups, although this was not obvious from the group's name, like “Asian Romanian Friendship Group”. I was a bit disappointed, because a group like “Chinese Community in Romania” has only 22 participants who have only few postings.

Consequently, I contacted several Chinese people I know from University and my three Chinese colleagues from job and asked them about any secret groups where they can invite me too. In this way, I succeeded to be part of four interesting groups where I had the ability to analyze a lot of postings including cultural practices. The closed group in which I was invited consists of Chinese pupils and students who study in Romania. During University, I taught the Romanian language to a Chinese group aged between 14 and 18 and one of them added me to this group. There are 63 people, but they are very active and have many posts about how to learn Romanian, places they visited in Romania, Chinese food vs. Romanian food, music and movies.

Regarding the groups on WeChat, I was added to a group consisting of Bucharest office colleagues and their friends still living in China. In this group they share their daily activities, feelings and emotions. The second group I belong to is made up of 40 employees of G2 Travel living in Beijing and Shanghai. I work in the multinational company, G2 Travel, and I was on a business trip last October, the moment I personally met all my colleagues in Beijing and Shanghai. Because we are working in the field of tourism, they share a lot of experiences about travelling, but also about their lifestyle. I think that being on a group of employees is significant, because there are other types of group relationships, they know each other very well, they trust each other and I assume that all their discussions and posts are more open and sincere.

In order to identify the Chinese cultural practices, their typology and the specific views for each practice mentioned in the above groups, we formulated the following research questions:

RQ1: What cultural consumption practices are present in the posts of the Chinese communities?

Through this research question, we are interested in finding out the most common consumerism practices present in the Facebook and WeChat postings, how important they are in their daily activities, how their relationship with their acquaintances are influenced by the cultural consumption practices and if they want to adapt to new trends and exclude their old habits.

RQ2: What are the differences between the experiences of the Chinese living in China and Chinese living in Romania?

Through this research question, we are looking at what are the differences at the level of cultural consumption, what kind of cosmopolitan or national imaginary is present in their posts and try to find out if there are any social, political or financial restrictions that limit their experiences.

To better understand why I chose these research questions, I will give you all the important details of each group. The public groups that I follow on Facebook are: “Romanian Friends of China & CRI”, “Chinese Traditional Culture 传统 文化” and “Chinese Movies”. The name of the private group I was invited is “Chinese Students at Adis”. Conversations on Facebook groups are mostly in English or Chinese and very few postings are in Romanian.

“Romanian Friends of China & CRI” has 2337 members. I noticed that the vast majority are Chinese living in Romania, but also Romanians who have studied Chinese. I should mention that CRI is the People's Republic of China (PRC) state-owned international radio broadcaster and we notice that people are sharing a lot of publications, interviews and cultural aspects presented by China Radio International (CRI). Reading the posts, we notice that Vicentiu Daniel is one of the most active members of the group. He posts almost daily in this group and declares that his greatest interest is in East and South-East Asian culture, science, technology, tourism and cuisine. Another interesting observation is that the number of postings done by Romanian people is higher than the number of posts done by Chinese people, but this does not mean that the Chinese are less active on this group. In fact, they are the ones who appreciate the most these posts, the majority of likes are from the Chinese people. Unfortunately, the number of comments is lower than that of the likes.

The topic of the postings in this group are related to China's economy and culture, they inform about various political visits of Chinese officials and greatly supports Chinese people who have careers in music or film. Also, the relationship between Romania and China is encouraged, they emphasize the teachers – rephrase teaching Chinese in Romania and places to visit in China.

The second group I am following, “Chinese Traditional Culture 传统 文化”, has more than 10000 members and since January when I joined this group, I noticed that many Chinese are constantly requesting to follow it. In this group there are very few Romanians or other Europeans, more than 90% of members are Chinese living in Romania or other countries in Europe, but also in China. We can see an average of more than 5 posts per day. Although there are many members, we can notice that the number of likes is very small and there are not many comments from the others. It is quite difficult to explain this situation, but I suppose that it is related to their culture, because they are not open to people they do not know very well.

Amongst the large number of posts, we can also find topics of interest for our work, such as the culture of tea and food, beautiful places to visit in China, their favorite sports and music, or other funny or difficult situations, which represents their everyday mundane life.

The last public group that I am following is “Chinese Movies”. I tried to be part of more groups that focus on a single cultural practice, but this was the only one I managed to find. I think it is easier to analyze a cultural practice when all the posts are addressed only to it. This group has 3742 members. People in this group have different nationalities but have a common feature, namely their passion for Chinese movies. However, the Chinese are majority and they have the most posts. They like to distribute the trailers of the movies they see, give additional details and encourage others to watch these movies. The average is of 3-4 postings a day and we can see that there are posts with many appreciations and comments while others are missing. This seems to me significant. Here we can see people's preferences better, while the number of likes on the other two groups is constant.

The last group on Facebook and the only one that is private, “Chinese students at Adis”, is made up of only 63 members, including 8 Romanians and the rest are Chinese people that live in Romania. I have to explain that six girls including me from the Chinese faculty taught the Romanian language to many Chinese teenagers aged 14-18 during one semester. This activity was organized by ADIS (Association for Defense of rights and Social Inclusion), from where we get volunteer diplomas. ”Asociația pentru Apărarea Drepturilor și Integrare Socială” (ADIS) is a non-governmental and non-profit organization. ADIS aims at promoting, defending and supporting the values of democracy, human rights and freedom, improving people's quality of life from a social, economic and cultural point of view. (see more details http://www.asociatia-adis.ro/acasa ). The Chinese teenagers from this group know each other very well, live in the same area of the city, often meet and many of their parents work or have business together. They have posts every day, because they always discuss some translations in Romanian, they correct each other. However, they have over 50 posts related to cultural practices during my analyzed period. They post lots of photos from restaurants where they eat and places they visit. I noticed they go out in groups of 5 6 people to watch movies at the cinema and they also share a lot of music videos. The first significant difference between this group and the three public groups is the number of likes and comments. Although members are much less, we can see that almost all members appreciate posts. I can assume that this is due to the fact that they are almost all the same age and the links between the members of this group are much closer than those of the public groups.

Before presenting the two WeChat groups I belong to, I have to explain the difference between the general uses of a group on WeChat than on Facebook. Groups on WeChat look like a group on Skype, where people can post pictures, but there is no option to give like. You can reply to a comment or post of your friends as a response to a conversation, there is not a post with 10 comments, for example, simply an exchange of replies. I also noticed that the two groups I belong to do not have names. They can choose a name for their group from settings, but they probably did not want the group to have a name, they just added to this group the people and friends they want to talk to and share experiences with. You can not access these two groups unless one of your members sends you an invitation. They are similar to a private group from Facebook from the perspective of entering the group.

Of the first group on WeChat, the members are 3 Chinese boys living in Romania and working with me in the G2 Travel department in Bucharest and 12 other Chinese people who live in China and are close friends with my 3 colleagues. They are between 22 and 26 years old. They explained to me that this group is the easiest way to keep in touch with their Chinese friends and to share their everyday experiences, because WeChat is a free application that can be used everywhere in the world, but the only social network that is allowed in China. They speak daily in this group, the only problem they encounter and makes it difficult to talk is the time zone difference. When we use the winter time in Romania, this difference is 6 hours and during the summer hours, the difference is 5 hours. Apart from the strict friendship-related discussions, they post a lot of pictures of food. Also my colleagues who live in Romania show them many pictures of places they have visited in our country and describe how beautiful they are. I have noticed that the most important topics for them are food, travel and movies.

The last group I am following in order to make this analysis is made up of 40 members. 25 of them are living in Beijing and the rest of them are living in Shanghai. Because they are colleagues working in the field of tourism, I expected all their posts to be related only to office topics or to various tourist attractions and the cities they visited. Fortunately, these people have tied friendships and discuss the events of their daily lives. In this group, the youngest member is 23 years old and the oldest is 40 years old. The majority are married, with the exception of 6 of them. As mentioned earlier, I was lucky to know all of them personally during a business trip, when I spent two weeks in each city. They share events about their children, women give advice on cooking recipes or where to shop, what new makeup products they use. Among all their conversations, there are many interesting posts about cultural practices that I will later analyze. As we have seen in Chinese culture, food is very important for them. But they also like a lot to travel around, to do various Chinese sports like Kong Fu or Tai Chi, talk about sports in Europe, watch western series and movies.

Forwards, I will continue by explaining why I chose this period, 13 February – 15 May, to analyze the Chinese consumerism practices. An important date I wanted to eliminate was the Chinese New Year. The new year of the Chinese calendar, the year of the Rooster of Fire, began on January 28 and will end in 2018 on February 15. New Year is the most important traditional Chinese celebration that lasts for 15 days. If I had included this period in my analysis, I think I should have focused only on it, because it is the biggest festival for them. But since I wanted to spend more time with Chinese groups and analyze their posts in various hypostases, I chose to start this analysis starting with February 13 and stop analyzing the postings after 15 May. I consider 3 months as being a proper period to learn as many cultural consumerism practices and to analyze them accordingly. At the end of the period, I will be able to draw some appropriate and representative conclusions about their consumption pattern.

I have investigated whether there are posts related to some Romanian holidays, such as Dragobete, 1st of March, Christian Easter, Labor Day and how they are celebrated. It will be interested in watching how the Chinese outside China celebrate their own traditions. For example, Qingming Festival takes place on the 12th day of April and represents a tribute to the memory of the ancestors.

I think I should give more details about these cultural consumerism practices and why I chose to analyze them. The elements of cultural consumption are found among the activities with

both entertaining and recreational character. They can be classical traditional activities as well as creative activities, merging with cultural production and respond both to the interest in the traditions and in the opening to the knowledge of the outside world.

Many people think about Chinese that they are a homogeneous community, but few know that there are considerable differences between them due to regional diversity, including the membership to a certain ethnic groups with different customs as well as the multitude of dialects. Although embracing the traditional values of Confucianism is widespread in all regions of China, there are major differences between these regions due to variables such as individualism or openness to change. Such an individualist and consumerist orientation may have easier access to the diversification of offers, a characteristic of the consumer society, which leads to the multiplication of desires. This openness to consumption urges you to discover more and more forms of consumption because what you have previously consumed does not give you satisfaction. Therefore, Chinese consumerism practices are very interesting to analyze, and I hope to notice important nuances about this trend.

3.3. Case Analysis

In this part of the paper, we will analyse in detail all the relevant posts on the Chinese groups. We will investigate in a qualitative manner all their interactions on the groups, trying to understand their cultural practices. Then, we will draw some general conclusion from their activities on social networs, which will help us answer to the research questions in the last part of our case study.

I will analyze their postings point by point, following the same cultural practice on all 6 groups. When we talk about significant cultural practices promoted by the analyzed communities, we refer to significant cultural actions and activities that the people of these communities carry and transmit to society consistently with social effects in the collective memory of society.

The first cultural practice that I will analyze is related to the food culture. I noticed many of their posts are related to food and I think they are still influenced by their tradional culture of food an tea. Since antiquity, the Chinese people have regarded food as a means of improving health. In China, it is considered that if a person is eating properly he feels better and does not get sick. For this reason, the Chinese paid great attention to the study of the various herbs and plants and their action on the human body. Tea consumption in ancient China can be assimilated with cultivation or art. It representted also a way to enjoy life.

Analyzing their posts related to food, we can observe that Chinese people living in China are in love with their Chinese food and are not trying other cuisins. But Chinese people living in Romania are really eager to know the Romanian food. As we can see in annex 1, the Chinese girl is doing shopping in a supermarket, from where she buys chips. This kind of food is not consumed in China, where people go to the supermarket to buy different sauces and noodles that are used during the cooking process (see annex 2). The comment added to the purchased items expresses perfectly the Chinese people activities in the kitchen: ”Week-end spent at home making a lovely breakfast with my aunt Dong that brought me noodles. We love the spicy soup, its taste is awesome. Thank you aunt Dong, great way of spending the week-end”(my translation). We can see in one post the interest for food and for family and spending time together.

As seen in annex 3, Chinese people living in Romania are really fascinated by Romanian possibilities of combining the food. The Romanian burger presented in the picture is really authentic, I could say that neither me as Romanian would have thought of making burger with hominy. This picture is indeed surprising for other members of the group, we can see a remark such as ”I`ve never seen such a thing and I`ve lived there for 18 years.” I think that this innovative way of cooking food expresses their interest in Romanian food. We can also see postings with Romanian tradional foods, like stuffed cabbage rolls or sweet bread (annexes 4 and 5). The fact that they go to restaurants to eat Romanian food or the fact that they are cooking home the tradional dishes is very significant for our analysis, because they incorporates the Romanian practices in their daily routine.

But the Chinese people in Romania go to restaurants to eat Chinese food as well. A common feature of these posts with Chinese food at Romanian restaurants is the fact that the other Chinese ask where the restaurant is located (annexes 15 and 16). The girls present the pictures as ”eating Chinese pancake in Romania” (my translation) and the first reaction is ”where”.

Another example where we see that Chinese people living in Romania are adapting to our culture of food can be seen in annexes 6 and 7, where people are sharing photos with their coffees. We can notice that they are aware of the fact that Italian coffee is famous for its taste, the description for the cup of coffee is ”Bunogiorno”. Also we see that they begin to replace the pleasure of drinking tea with the pleasure of drinking coffee: ”After this coffee, let us forget every unhappinnes, start another beautiful life.” This kind of opinion is not shared by Chinese people living in China, as is shown by annexes 8 and 9. They share pictures with their pots in which tea is made and they invite their friends to taste a cup with fruit tea.

While people living in China are very proud of their tea culture and the art through which tea is prepared, it is interesting to see that people living in Romania receive a type of Romanian tea as gift and they are really excited about this product (annex 10). People living in China are also interested in tea fields and how tea is cultivated. They learns about types of tea and their benefits and distributes a lot of articles in order for all the members of the groups to know better the advantages of drinking tea (annexes 11 and 12).

Looking at the posts of the Chinese people living in China, we see an abundance of food, due to the fact that they like to eat in large groups (annex 13), as expressed by his comment: ”today`s lunch, me + my sisters + perfect moment, having a proper lunch”(my translation). Another interesting fact is that they are encouraged to cook at home and bring food at the office to share with the colleagues. As seen in annex 14 and 15, they are happy to eat jiaozi at the office: ”this is life, this is G2”, this food being a tradional type of Chinese dumplings. A nice situation I can analyze about Chinese people living in China is their behavior when somebody from Europe is visiting them. In annex 17 we can see some pictures when a colleague from Bucharest that visited the Beijing office and the relationship they had. Altough the European girl was only one, they accepted to change their Chinese food with the western one. It is surprising that they eat pizza and pasta, as all their other posts are with Chinese food.

Another cultural practices analyzed for this paper is travelling. We can discribe very well this action with a quote by Mark Twain: ” Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.” So it is very interesting to analyze what type of experiences the Chinese people have.

A general observation for all the groups would be that they like to distribute a lot of information about different places in China or Romania. They like to read also some tricks about traveling before going to a place (see annexes 19, 20, 21). The fact that Chinese people are following Facebook pages about ”The Beauties of Romania” is very significant, this means they really want to know better our country.

I noticed that Chinese people that are travelling in Romania visit vast areas and are very impressed by the beauties of our country. The first stop is Mogosoaia Palace, near Bucharest (annex 22). The Chinese boy added 9 photos of the tourist attraction in the group and received many likes. We can assume that people are excited by this palace and there is the opportunity to be visited by more Chinese.

As seen in annex 23, they are also interested in statuary, as they are visiting the sculptures of Brancusi in Targu Jiu. Another attraction visited by them was Peles Palace. We can notice that for every place they go to see, they upload in the group more than 5-6 photos. An interesting thing is that they are also curious to visit the monasteries in Moldova (annex 25). They are impressed by the paintings in our churches, describing the piscture simply: ” Fresco chapel” (my translation).

Another favourite place of the Chinese people living in Romania is the seaside. (annexes 29, 30). We can notice that one of the posts is from 1st of May, having the description ”sseing the sea, the place where you always want to go”. This means they have adapted to the Romanian customs to go to the sea on 1st of May.

We noticed that they are also trying to visit the neighboring countries of Romania. As seen in annex 26, they went to Belgrade, Serbia. The description ” visiting Belgrade in a hurry for just 24 hours”. We can understand that they take advantage of any opportunity, regardless of the length of time they have at their disposal to visit something new. Another country where we observed that they are travelling is Bulgaria (annexes 27, 28).

When we analyze the posts of Chinese people living in China, we see they are visiting their country. As seen in annex 31, one of the tourist attractions they are visiting is Terracotta Army. This attraction is related to China's ancient history, the emperor who commanded the construction of the terracotta army reigned between 220 – 210 AD, and remained known in history as the most effective emperor who unified the states of China. I think this is an important reason why they like to visit the place.

But they are also interested in some exotic experiences as we can see in annex 32. The description of the photo expresses very clear their desires: ” We want to go to see Serengeti and Maasai Mara, have our own experience together in the future” (my translation). So they are excited by the idea of having a unique experience in a geographical region in Africa and in an area of preserved savannah wilderness in southwestern Kenya.

Maybe such exotic experiences are hard to realize for them, so some of them are happy with simple hiking excursion (annex 33). When posting the picture, they describe the activity: ” today we go for a walk, we spend the day in a happy way” (my translation). As an overview, they like to travel and take every opportunity to see something new.

The following cultural practice that I will analyze is related to sports. It is interesting to see that Chinese people are interested in basketball. I can assume that this type of sport is very hard to be practiced by them taking into account the average of their height, but this does not mean that they do not watch TV basketball matches from abroad (annex 34).

We can notice that they like to play football matches (annex 35) or go to the stadium to support their favorite football team (annex 36). The description ”it is really revange, they had been defeated and humiliated by our coach” (my translation) explains perfectly how fascinated they are by this sport.

The two sports presented above are taken from abroad, demonstrating the power to assimilate foreign sports, but they continue to practice their tradional sport, too. As seen in annex 37, they are still practicing Taichi. It is used for both its defense training and its health benefits. Today Taichi has spread worldwide, being a modern style os martial arts.

The following cultural practices are very common in posts on all 6 groups. They are distributing a lot of videos with music or movies. We can see that most of the postings are with Chinese music or movies. They share their favourite music tracks, because they love this kind of music (annexes 38 and 39). The description ”my favorite chinese song, really nice song” is very suggestive and does not require additional explanations. They also are using Chinese songs in order to make strangers learn Chinese (annexes 40 and 46). Language is very important in the communication process, so we can observe their interest as people from other countries to learn Chinese.

Annex 53 is very important demonstrating that some Chinese living in Romania really respect this country and our culture. We can see a Chinese singer that played a very famous and beloved Romanian song ”The tree”, first performed by Aurelian Andreescu that is considered the greatest voice in Romanian history. A significant aspect for this interpretation is that the Chinese singer speaks perfectly all the words in Romanian.

Regarding the movies, although most of the movies they share are Chinese ones, we can notice they are following also serials from US (annex 41). The description ”I have been watching them for 8 years…the great end of the movie came” (my translation) is accompanied by many sad emotions, demonstrating how much they like this type of foreign series, too.

We can see that Chinese people are also watching movies about their ancient history (annex 42) or about classic books of literature (annex 43). This means they are interested in history and their own culture. It is very important to know your history from the beginning to the present and you prove that you are an educated person who constantly develops your knowledge area if you read and inform about as many books of literature.

Another example that they are watching movies produced by Americans is the postings with pictures from the movie ” Hacksaw Ridge”. The descprition added to these picture is ”the more you know about war, the more you like peace”. So he clearly expresses his interest in learning new things constantly, but he also has a cosmopolitan remark that peace is always the best.

Another cultural consumption practice that we meet only in the Chinese groups living in Romania is going to the cinema (annex 45). Due to the fact that the number of Chinese films that are broadcasted in cinemas in Romania is very low, we notice that they choose to watch a movie produced by Americans, namely ”xXx: Return of Xander Cage”.

Finally, I chose to analyze different foreign holidays that are also celebrated by the Chinese. I find it very important that they adapt and celebrate foreign cultural practices, this being a good proof of the effects of globalization.

As seen in annex 47, they are celebrating Valentine`s Day. The description of the photos ”Happy Day of the lovers” , the big bouquet of roses and the romantic photos from seaside make up a perfect way of celebrating this foreign cultural practice. Then in annex 48, we can observe how they are celebrating 1st of March, first day of spring. We can see a workshop where the Chinese people create manually March trinkets. So, we can notice that the American practices are borrowed and celebrated, but they are also impressed by the Romanian practices.

But the Chinese in China also celebrate various foreign holidays as can be seen in annex 53. In Shanghai, they are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, a religious feast day that begun in the 17th century and has evolved into a variety of festivals across the globe celebrating Irish culture with parades, special foods, music, dancing, and a whole lot of green.

The next posting is about April Fools' Day. Although it is popular for many contries, in China, the meaning of this day is not known. But people that are living outside China have come into contact with this practice and we can notice that they also informs the Chinese living in China about the history of this day (annex 48).

Another great celebration that is not known by Chinese people in China is Easter. It is very difficult for them to understand the significance of this day because their religion has nothing in common with Christian religion. However, the Chinese living in Romania have started to know these traditions very well and even practice them, as seen in annexes 50, 51 and 52. We can see that they like to dye the eggs, to teach children about this holiday and they even distributes religious messages.

As a general observation, I am sad that their level of interaction is very low. Although they appreciate each other's posts, they don`t try to start a discussion about a particular topic. The few comments they were addressing are related to information about location or simple greetings and encouragements. I could conclude that they really like to post pictures, probably they let the pictures talk in their place, because the number of photos compared to the number of comments is clearly superior.

3.4 Findings

Cultural consumption practices appear very often in the posts of the Chinese communities on Facebook and Wechat. Although we did not include hundreds of such posts in the analysis and annexes, I tried to include an example for each specific situation of the analyzed practices. Regarding the importance of these cultural practices, all the actors present in the analyzed posts are interested in distributing and knowing as many practices as possible through the new media.

After the above analysis, I will continue with the answers for the two research questions.

As you could have seen in the analyses, we have a clear answer for RQ.1: What cultural consumption practices are present in the posts of the Chinese communities? Therefore, the most common cultural consumption practices are food, travelling, sports, movies and music. There were also many cases when they celebrate foreign festivals.

These practices have been highlighted in their posts almost daily, which is why I could say they are very important in their day-to-day actions. Activities that are related to the consumerist practice of food are highlighted by going to the supermarket to do shopping, cooking different Chinese or Romanian dishes, going to restaurants. We noticed that their relationship with their acquaintances are influenced by this practice, because they spend time together to cook or visit each other and share their dishes. In terms of the level of adaptation to Romanian dishes, we can see that they are excited about the Romanian cuisine, they even cook at home traditional Romanian dishes or go to restaurants to try new Romanian dishes.

Travelling is another common practice for the Chinese communities. We observed that people who post different places they visited are often the same, so that the travelling is a very important practice for those who like to travel. From the analyzed posts, we can not conclude if they travel with their friends or relatives or alone. They do not focus on socializing when it comes to traveling, but they are really fascinated by the places they visit and they want everyone to see how beautiful these places are. The fact that they share on their Facebook pages articles from ”Frumusetile Romaniei” proves that they are really interested in visiting our country. The very large number of places visited in Romania also show this. However, the travelling is an important practice for the Chinese people living in China, too, as can be seen from the analyzed posts.

Sport is another important cultural consumption practice for Chinese people in China. They watch football and basketball matches or even practice football. Although these two sports are taken from western activities, they also keep traditional sports such as Taichi. The football matches are even a way of interacting with friends because they know each other very well, sometimes being working colleagues.

In terms of music, we can see that the Chinese people are trying to help strangers to learn Chinese from the lyrics of songs. This can be seen as a way of making friends, maybe they want to speak Chinese with the people they know. Another important aspect observed during the analyses is that a Chinese man competed in a Romanian music contest and sang a very famous and beloved Romanian song. The fact that the Chinese singer interpreted perfectly all the lyrics in Romanian show that they like to learn Romanian and also adapt to foreign songs.

Activities that are related to movies are presented by going to the cinema, watching movies at home or distributing movies that they really liked. They watch both Chinese movies and films produced by Americans, and we can see that movies influence their way of thinking. Some of them are still impressed by their ancient history and like to see this kind of movies, but others even forms cosmopolitan views about peace or war.

The last cultural consumption practice analyzed, the celebration of various foreign holidays by the Chinese people proves very well that they borrow consumerist cultural practices from other countries. The Chinese living in China celebrate an Irish festival, namely St Patrick day, and also learned about April Fools' Day. The Chinese living in Romania know so much about the Romanian holidays that they also respect different traditions, such as giving March trinkets on the first day of spring, the painting of eggs on the Easter holiday, etc. In the analysis of these holidays, I noticed that they are adapting to foreign festivals, and sometimes they even do not respect their own traditional holidays because we have not found any posts related to Qingming Festival that takes place on the 12th day of April and represents a tribute to the memory of the ancestors.

Forwards, I will present the answers for RQ2: What are the differences between the experiences of the Chinese living in China and Chinese living in Romania?

In terms of the cultural consumption practice of eating, it is very clear that Chinese people in China eat only Chinese food, while Chinese people in Romania are also trying the Romanian cuisine. Eating at the restaurant or cooking at home with friends is a social practice for both Chinese people living in China or Romania, and they use this practice to spend time with friends. We also noticed that in all their pictures there are many kinds of food, so we can conclude that there is no financial restriction.

While we analyzed posts related to travels, I noticed that Chinese living in Romania share a cosmopolitan image of the world, wanting to visit every place in Romania or neighboring countries with Romania, as we have seen from their travels in Bulgaria and Serbia. As expected, the Chinese living in China have less access to exotic experiences, they are just posting their wishes about visiting African countries, but are not having the opportunity to fulfill these desires so easily. I assume that it is more difficult for them to travel abroad because of the visa, not because of the money, because we can see that they allow for other expensive things. Although the Chinese in China have the opportunity to go to the sea quite easily, we could not find postings related to such trips, while the Chinese people in Romania are really excited to spend time at the Black Sea. It is possible that after spending more time outside China, they adapt to the pleasures of other people from the country they live and start practicing the same trips.

Regarding sports, we can see that Chinese living in China overtake their national barriers and watch American or European sports. We found posts in which they practice and follow football and basketball, while posts related to their traditional sport only share information without showing that they practice or are excited about this sport.

As far as music and movies are concerned, I noticed that they continue to listen to Chinese music and watch Chinese movies, but they are very excited about the films produced by Americans, too. The fact that they have some serials that they have been watching for about 8 years shows that this openness to borrowing foreign trends began many years ago. They are still following their national identity by watching historic Chinese movies, but are also open to hear the cosmopolitan views on movies. As we mentioned in the analysis, the Chinese singer who plays Romanian songs demonstrates very well their level of adaptation to foreign cultural consumption practices.

With regard to the last topic analyzed, the celebration of various foreign holidays, we can conclude that the Chinese living in Romania are more exposed to adaptation to foreign practices than those in China. Yet we have noticed that some practices have also begun to be known in China such as for example April Fools' Day and St. Patrick’s Day. I think that this lower exposure to foreign holidays is due to political restrictions, because the Chinese government can decide the level of information of the population through new media. The fact that the Chinese living in Romania borrows very easily many foreign holidays and does not even follow some of their traditional celebrations demonstrates very well the effects of consumerism and globalization on cultural practices.

As a general observation, we can conclude that cultural consumption practices greatly influence Chinese people`s daily activities. They show their interest in knowing a lot of new things, information and foreign practices. They sometimes change their old preferences or shape their own practices, bringing new improvements or changes based on cultural consumption practices. Although they like to post a lot of pictures with their cultural consumption practices, they are not as generous in descriptions, and most of the time the level of interaction is low.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper highlights the effects of globalization on cultural consumption practices and its purpose is to follow these practices presented in several groups of Chinese people on social networks sites. Starting from the fact that I studied Chinese culture in faculty, I deepened this knowledge to find out more details about the contemporary Chinese culture. In the case study, we wanted to see what is their reaction to actual cultural consumption practices and how they apply them in their daily life.

In the first chapter, we tried to cover as many theories about globalization as possible. However, it is such a complex process that we have focused our attention on the importance of cultural globalization, on the relationships between local and global culture, their interactions, and how each of them can dominate or be dominated. We have also presented the concept of deterritorialization and its importance as defined by Arjun Appadurai  and John Tomlinson. Moreover, we stated that the globalization is not identical for the entire world and not even for a country, because there are age, regional or educational differences between residents of the same country. The progress of globalization is strongly constrained by religious, political or social barriers.

Because the extensive transnational networks, social movements and relationships are results of the globalization, in the second chapter we wanted to focus on explaining the utility of new media and social networks. We considered that the cultural diversity can be very well analyzed on the social networks, so we were interested in defining the social interaction in the new media and presenting the differences between new media and old media. We also presented the defining feature of new media and the functions of online social networks. The new means of communication are producing new forms of culture and subjectivity, giving the individual the opportunity to build his identity based on the freedom of choice from the variety of communication offers. These modern means of communication offer many benefits to users, either by socializing itself or by posting useful and accessible information to customers in this virtual environment.

In the case study, we analyzed the strategic positioning of the actors involved in the posts on these groups, how they frame their cultural practices in terms of ecstatic/banal cosmopolitism or banal nationalism. We found out how the cultural environment (them being located in Europe/China) influences their framing of cultural experiences. In the end we could give answers to the two research questions. For the first research question, we found out that the most common cultural consumption practices presented in their posting in groups in social networks are: food, travel, sport, music, movies and celebrating foreing festivals. We have also noticed that the cultural consumption practices are very important in their daily activities, and their relationship with their acquaintances are also influenced by them, representing a way to spend time together. Another important aspect is that they adapt easily to new trends.

For the second research question, we concluded that both Chinese living in China and Romania showed their interest in knowing a lot of new things, information and foreign practices. They sometimes change their old preferences or shape their own practices, bringing new improvements or changes based on cultural consumption practices. There was much interest in knowing new cosmopolitan views about the world and they seem eager to become acquainted with them.

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