Introduction
Popular culture refers to a lot of aspects that we might encounter in our society. In this case, it can be the totality of ideas or other images that we might encounter as time goes by. Through popular culture that might be portrayed from our attitudes or perspectives, individuals are likely to come to an informal consensus that ends up being the mainstream of the society. It is undeniable that popular culture is mostly influenced by various things in the society.
This can be either through media that will end up having an influence on everybody’s life as time goes by. As a matter of fact, many people are influenced by such turn of events as time goes by (Storey 12). In this case, this is possible from the happenings that might be seen or experienced. There are some people who have referred to popular culture as the culturedness of the society. As far as popular culture is concerned, it can also be used to mean mass consumption in relation to the word culture.
Various people argue that popular culture is what is left behind after we have had various experiences and events that come from the totality of ideas. This therefore leads to an informal consensus based on the images that we have seen from a given encounter. It should be known that there are various forces and relations that draw people to certain things and this can be in relation to popular culture.
The authentic culture of different individuals can also be defined and described as culture but this can always be problematic (Storey 34). It has been argued that popular culture is always changing because of the events and images that we will be exposed to which is acceptable. This means that it constantly occurs in a unique way over a given period of time. In this case, it implies that it is purely unptrediactable.
As far as general popular culture is concerned, it can be formed from eddies and currents that occur. Most of them are always interdependent which will therefore instill certain values in the society thereby influencing it. As a matter of fact, some of the society’s institutions are also influenced in one way or the other through these events. It can be agreed that popular culture is very influential and this means that the public is likely to follow what is happening.
This will therefore end up being the basis upon which certain broad spectrums in the society are looked upon. The elements of popular culture have a unique power that will always amaze the public in a broad way (Storey 25). This means that popular culture does a lot of things to people in their lives. In this case, people are likely to incorporate popular culture in their lives as time goes by. This means that events that have occurred will ultimately influence their lives in a broad way.
Discussion
As far as this paper is concerned, there are certain characters whose lives have been affected by events in one way or the other. In this case, most of these are texts or cultural forms that are always important in their lives. The characters lives can be changed as the story progresses and this will always be based on events that have happened. In this case, popular culture and daily life will be well explained by the film electric shadows.
This film has characters whose life is changed by the tragic turn of events in one way or the other. As a matter of fact, this is as a result of what they like doing in their lives (Storey 56). Because of these experiences, the film seems to be saying that popular culture influences our lives in a broad way based on the experiences of the characters in the film.
The story in the film revolves around a small town cinema. In this case, it is so heartwarming to tell the influence that the small town cinema had on the two characters. As far as the story is concerned, both characters are said to have grown up with the big screen. In linking up this, we can say that popular culture ultimately plays out here based on their origin from the small town. We can therefore say that the big screen played a big role in shaping up the characters because they had something in common.
This does not mean that popular culture is brought about by commonality but by the change of events (Storey 23). It is interesting to know that the two characters later on meet under unusual circumstances away from their town. Therefore, we can easily say that such circumstances that come by chance as far as the story is concerned end up being the basis upon which popular culture is built upon.
Both characters love movies and big screens and this are events that shape up popular culture. Dabing has a job of delivering milk but it is said that he has a craving for nights at the movies. As a matter of fact, he crashes into bricks while he is rushing to the movie theatre.
This event might have happened as an accident but from the story it has a different meaning. While he is trying to pick up himself, there is another woman who also happens to be a movie lover who then changes the whole story. In this case, he picks up a brick and hits him on the head which leads him to a hospital.
On the other hand, while this is pitiful for the young man, he ends up loosing his job with the boss expecting him to pay for the bicycle. This is a happening or an image that can be said to have an influence on the character thereby changing his life. Therefore, this is the basis upon which popular culture is built upon. This can be either from the characters life or other people around him who might have witnessed the events.
The young man thinks that he has finally got the person who caused him a lot of pain but the lady gives him keys with another job of feeding her fish. This therefore leads to a new turn of events because the lady seems to have a diary. All in all, we can agree that this is an important text that has had an impact on the characters life.
As a matter of fact, this is the strength of popular culture where an individual seems to have been changed by the turn of the events that are happening in his life. In a broad perspective, we can say that the character tries to use popular culture in his life by reading the diary that he found in the lady’s room.
This is because people can always use popular culture based on the events that they encounter in their lives. Xuehua is another character who has a passion for movies although she has another job. After finding herself pregnant, she goes through a lot of stress thereby contemplating on what to do.
This is certainly an event that has changed the characters life because she wants to commit suicide as a result of the pregnancy. Although this is not related to the first character, it serves the story well because they are good experiences that shape their lives. On the day that the lady contemplates committing suicide, she goes to an open movie theater.
As a matter of fact, she delivers during the show and names her daughter Ling Ling. At this stage, the young man might not be able to relate well with what he is reading but this seems to be the lady who gave him the keys. Xuehua ends up loosing her job because she did not disclose the father of the child.
From this experience, we can say that popular culture can be formed because the two characters have something in common (Storey 59). In this case, they lost their jobs at a time when everybody should have supported them. As far as popular culture is concerned, the totality of ideas is formed from the images that we encounter which is quite applicable in this scenario.
Other people who might witness such happenings will form an opinion that ends up being popular culture in the society. This is because individuals will end up with an informal consensus based on their attitudes and perspectives (Storey 64). Life later on returns to normalcy for the daughter and mother where Ling Ling continues with the mothers love for movies.
This is a very important turn of events because both characters seem to have a thriving and love for movies. Up to this point, we can say that popular culture has been influenced by movies because it must be influenced by something.
As time goes by, Ling Ling gets a new friend because of their individual misadventures. In the long run, Xiaobing gives his friend a binocular that he says can be used to see imaginary movies. On the other hand, Ling Ling’s mother marries Uncle Pan who is the owner of the theater that they frequented. All these events seem to be pointing to one thing where all the characters have seen their lives change as a result of movies.
Therefore, we can say that the theater and movies have an important role to play in the characters lives because this seems to be their turning point. As a matter of fact, this is where poplar culture is built upon in the characters lives. Bing Bing is born out of the marriage between Ling Ling’s mother and Uncle Pan.
There is a lot of jealousness and resentfulness from Ling Ling because of the parents liking for their new son. As much as the two children are offered a position is school, the parents can only afford to pay for one of them. In this case, they both chose on Bing Bing. This is a normal thing that can happen in any family but what follows is something that can be related well with popular culture. Television has been on the rise and this means that the Big Movie world is facing some closure.
Conclusion
There is the final day where the movies are supposed to close but Xuehua wants Ling Ling to stay at home despite her insistence that she wanted to go. As a matter of fact, she is locked at home but Bing Bing comes to let her out by sneaking in with keys. The two later on went and climbed on top of a water tower to watch the show where Bing Bing fell and died. As a result of this accident, Uncle Pan hits Ling Ling thereby leaving her with a permanent damage.
We can confidently say that these happenings can easily qualify to be referred to as popular culture because they are all based on one thing- movies. Every character in the film has had his life changed because of the films or events leading to the films. This is based on the fact that popular culture is based on the totality of ideas that we will witness as a result of various images.
From the film, we can conclude that this is an event that happened some time ago but they are leading us to one thing (Astronomy 13). The two characters have met in a unique way because this story leads them to their childhood days. As a matter of fact, this is the girl that he had befriended.
It occurs that she struck him at the alley because she is psychiatric and this was done after he killed her dog. Dabing is able to find the binocular that he gave her outside the balcony and through it; he is able to see familiar faces. The story seems to be saying that through popular culture, we can able to form an opinion about our lives (Storey 82).
This is because such experiences change our lives in a broad way. As far as my argument is concerned, popular culture is based on the experiences that we have in our lives. This is brought about by the turn of events that seem to bring about a totality of ideas based on attitudes and perspectives that come as a result of different happenings. In this case, something leads to another but they are all interlinked together.
Works Cited
Storey, John. Cultural theory and popular culture. New York: Pearson Education, 2006. Print.
Astronomy. Next NASA Mars mission rescheduled for 2011. 2011. Web. Web.