Is dubbing foreign films good or bad for society?

Is dubbing foreign films good or bad for society?

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Post put forward two important
questions in its editorial on Aug. 11, 1997. "Is the practice of
dubbing foreign films good or bad for our national culture and
values?" and "what is meant by 'national culture'?"

These are difficult questions. To answer them in a sensible
manner it is necessary, I think, for these questions to be
dissected. For this purpose I shall follow the systematic
definitions of anthropologist Timothy C. Weiskell. He makes a
distinction between "high culture" and "culture in the
anthropological sense".

High culture is defined, by Weiskell, as: "the self-conscious
creations of artists, musicians and literary figures as they seek
to express personal or collective understandings, insights or
emotions concerning their position in the world or their inner
creative processes." While culture in the anthropological sense
is defined as "the totality of learned behavior that has become
habitual in a given society or social subgroup."

In other words, culture in the anthropological sense is
culture of the ordinary people or "people's culture".

To quote Weiskell again, this ordinary culture primarily
consists of "whole sets of common habits of thought and of
perception that people learn as a natural part of growing up in
any culture and they continue to share these assumptions and
conceptions with others of that culture for the rest of their
lives."

This is, to be sure, not the only valid definition of
"culture". I choose Weiskell's definitions for the purpose of
delimiting accurately the intended meaning of the phrase "our
national culture and values". Seen within the context of the
above editorial there can be no doubt that what is meant by
culture is "people's culture". This is the culture that shapes
the behavior of the people who are watching those dubbed foreign
films.

Within this context, to ask whether dubbing foreign films is
good or bad for our national culture and values means asking
whether watching such films makes the habitual behavior of the
viewers become noble or vulgar. If watching dubbed foreign films
brings about good behavioral patterns among the viewers then
maybe dubbing foreign films is a good thing. If it turns out,
however, that those who regularly watch dubbed foreign films
develop undesirable behavior, then maybe the opposite is true.

It should be noted in this regard that changes in behavioral
patterns among members of a society indicate changes in values
and value systems in that society. The increasing incidence of
violence in our society, for instance, is an indication that
changes have taken place in the values that people actually
uphold. There is no change in people's behavior which is not
rooted in changes of accepted values.

What is the probable impact of watching dubbed foreign films?
Good or bad? I think it depends on the film and not whether the
film is dubbed or subtitled.

Bad foreign films, whether dubbed or subtitled, will have a
negative impact on those who watch them, while good foreign films
will have a positive impact. Thus if we are really concerned
about the impact of foreign films on our culture, then it is the
quality of foreign films that should be the focus of regulation,
and not their dubbing.

Dubbing foreign films is an activity, I think, spurred more by
commercial considerations than cultural ones. From a cultural
point of view it is the quality of imported films that
should constitute the main issue. Bad films which displays vulgar
and violent behavior should not be imported. Good films which
help us enrich and ennoble our national culture should be allowed
to come into the country.

But will "good films" sell? Here we see again that the issue
is primarily commercial and not cultural. Are we really willing
to treat the problem of importing foreign films as a cultural
matter? I doubt it!

I think that what can still be done, in this instance, is to
find a better balance between economic and cultural
considerations in viewing and treating foreign films. At the
moment the emphasis is very much on the economic side and we are
not too happy with the resulting situation.

We come now to the second question: What is national culture?
The definition that national culture is the totality of the peaks
of regional cultures is an old definition, stemming from a
"summative view" of our nation and our culture.

It was formulated by the late Ki Hadjar Dewantoro in 1938, if
I am not mistaken, when we still viewed the Indonesian nation as
the sum of all ethnic entities in the country. Gradually this
view progressed to become what may be called a "unionist view", a
view emphasizing the unity of our nation in spite of the apparent
differences among the various parts of the nation. This view also
emphasizes the need for interaction.

Subsequently this view gave birth to our national motto: unity
in diversity. The problem with this motto at the moment is
implementation. Many groups of people have felt that our way of
implementing this motto is unbalanced. The unity element has
received much greater emphasis than the diversity element. Can
this unionist view guide us to solve the problem?

Again, I do not know! My impression is that our present
unionist view is gradually, if silently, growing to become a new
view: an "integrative view". In this way the existence of the
various parts of the nation and their respective cultures are
more strongly acknowledged and recognized. While the oneness of
the nation is viewed as the result of integrative interactions
taking place among the various regions and their subcultures.

If this perception is correct, then the development of our
culture depends on our ability to generate and sustain these
integrative interactions. I do not think that such interactions
occur at random.

If we try now to answer our main question -- are dubbed
foreign films good or bad for our national culture and values?--
in terms of the above analyses, then the answer will depend upon
our judgment concerning two things. One, whether foreign films
will stimulate good or despicable behavior among the viewers, and
two, whether such films will promote or hinder integrative
interactions among our subcultures.

Good foreign films should generate what Weiskell calls
"transcultural experiences" among the viewers, and strengthen
their capacity for "cultural transcendence."

The writer is an observer of social and cultural affairs.