All of us appear to be living in a “shrinking world”, a world that connects people together much easier. Therefore, it is safe to say that people feel more open to a wide range of cultures and embrace cultural appreciation. The majority of us do acknowledge the importance of cultural appreciation since it can increase one’s knowledge of various cultures, thus broadening perspectives. However, cultural appreciation on social media is a different story. The following case will get you a closer step to understanding the face of cultural appreciation on social media, especially on Tiktok.
The case is about a male food reviewer on Tiktok who uploaded a video about his experience with a signature dish called “Hột gà trà”, a sweet soup cooked with tea and eggs, originating from Vietnamese people of Chinese origin.
Image of “Hột gà trà”
Although the combination of this dish sounds unfamiliar to many people, this Tiktoker went overboard by using Vietnamese words like “dị”, which means “weird”, to describe this sweet soup and show excessive facial gestures. The act of depreciating one’s food culture in exchange for views on social media led this food reviewer to come in for a lot of criticisms from the public. Most importantly, Vietnamese people of Chinese origin felt culturally disrespected and condemned this case so heavily that this food reviewer had to turn off the comment part in the video permanently. Besides, other food reviewers on Tiktok spoke up their voices by supporting “Hột gà trà”, showing cultural appreciation towards this dish.
As can be seen from the above example, it is obvious that social media is a place where people can have freedom of speech and opinions. However, when it comes to cultures, there is a certain extent that all of us should appreciate it as a minimum etiquette.
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