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Bhutan's MTV Generation
Police
may fine and reprimand Bhutanese people not wearing the required
traditional dress in public places; men have to wear the robe-like
gho, while women wear the apron-like kira. But
cable TV has provided new "fashion police." How have Bhutanese
teenagers responded to cable TV's constant barrage of new clothing
styles, new music and popular slang?
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Sherub Dorji
Rinzy Dorji's daughter:
We like to wear clothes like they wear in MTV. You have
to buy diamond necklaces or something like that. It is really
cool when you wear these clothes for dance parties. Everybody
is wearing pants now. Before we were wearing kira,
and now, when you go to parties, we only wear pants. Now
teenagers are starting to wear miniskirts... I like channel
V, MTV, Star World, Star Movies. ... They make me feel jumpy
and really nice. |
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Ninda
Dorji
Rinzy Dorji's wife:
[My teenage daughter] Sherub used to do very well at school.
But since we started the cable TV, she doesn't do quite
as well as she used to. So maybe the TV has affected her.
But I don't know. I think when we are out, my children must
be watching a lot of TV and not studying. So she's not doing
very well these days. |
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Kinley
Dorji
editor of Kuensel, Bhutan's only newspaper:
Now there are the young people who would like to dress like
the MTV stars, whether it is jeans or whether it is a bit
of leather, studs, earrings, all that you see among our
youth today. We can see the generation gap right now emerging
with greater contrast. ... Then the language. We try and encourage
all the Bhutanese languages here, and now you will find,
especially the young people, dotting their sentences with
phrases they picked up from television. ... Now children get
together and emulate their favorite MTV stars, movie stars.
That's how they entertain themselves. A few years ago they
would pick up a piece of bamboo and make bow and arrow and
play archery. But now they switch on the tape recorder and
they start dancing. |
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Lyonpo
Jigmi Thinley
Bhutan's foreign minister:
You see traditional Bhutanese music being corrupted by these
MTV tunes and rhythms and so on. And yet, on the other hand,
the paradox is that there are those traditionalists who
are becoming very conscious of this kind of influence and
are taking certain steps to again popularize what is traditional,
and what is truly Bhutanese. This is the paradox of modern
and external influence, you see. One [takes] you away from
what you are rooted in, and the other [makes you] conscious
of this, to try to prevent that from happening. So it's
a question of which pull will ultimately prevail, and one
would like to hope that in this country, it will be balanced.
That the people will choose the middle path. |
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