Genesis

“It is not for the love of all that all is dear; but for the love of the soul in all that all is dear”.
- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad


Last September, I had been to Hong Kong as part of a sourcing trip and while watching the light show alongside the harbour, I had one of those moments where I felt I was a rootless individual in a city clearly ‘Manhattanised’. Where was the ‘China’ in it? Five months later, I happened to witness the dragon dances as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations in Trafalgar Square, London. Ironical as it may seem, it is the very homogenisation of cultures that pushes people to experience cultural nuances elsewhere.

Globalisation is indeed a complex phenomenon that creates spaces of commonality but also spaces of difference but it isn’t new in Asian countries which have long been under colonial rules. However, what is of utmost concern is the rate of acceleration leading to standardization of values among the young, dismantlement of communities, rampant commercialization and extreme cases of nationalism.

As poignantly depicted in the movie Slumdog Millionaire (a by-product of commodification of Indian culture), most metropolises of Asia are faces of contrasts where high-rise buildings and slum dwellings; kucchha roads and flyovers; kirana shops and high street boutiques co-exist. In a time-space compressed urban landscape, the conservation of cultural heritage; both tangible and intangible, is therefore pivotal in restoring the identity of a place that may otherwise be lost.