From DLSC LITFILI edu20 site:
"Harsh living conditions and racial discrimination might be the motivations behind Bulosan's (re)imagination or reconstruction of "Filipino" in his fiction. Cite similar but more contemporary events/trends of image building among Filipinos (filmmakers, artists, writers, celebrities, politicians and other key figures, or ordinary citizens via social media). What are the popular images being created to represent national identity?
Draw on relevant materials, such as news articles, blog entries, online videos, advertising, trends, threads and conversations, etc. to prove your point.
Your opinions and insights is important in the grading of this assignment, but don't forget to cite or link to your sources/references."
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My answer:
I think that popular images being created by Filipinos to represent their national identity can mostly be seen in Filipino media, especially in broadcast, film, and electronic media.
The forever-popular-to-the-masses television game and talent shows are the closest I can (and prefer to) get to being in touch with the real Filipino people. These shows do not hide the fact that majority of Filipinos are not educated well. Heck, the shows seemingly take advantage of this. It DOES help draw an audience I suppose.
Example: The answer is "Astronaut".
Several clues were given, such as:
-Starts with the letter "A"
-People who have this job work in space
-People who have this job wear space suits
The only answer out of 8(!) real Filipino adults
-A...(stuttering)...Atlantic!!
Okay, I was reeeeaaalllyy trying not to watch, but I just had to yell "#&$^!" at the television.
Talent shows typically have dancers and singers, groups or individuals, nothing special, for me anyway, typically typical. But there was this one contestant sometime ago on "Pilipinas Got Talent", an official policeman in full uniform was dancing some kind of robot dance. He was really working for it;sweating like crazy, and the crowd loved it; laughing and cheering. But I don't think it helped the image of Philippine law enforcement and discipline much. Since he was in uniform, he represented Philippine law enforcement, and the law is supposed to be feared and respected for proper order, not smiled and laughed at for dancing.
Popular televised Philippine dramas are usually dreamy, sugar-coated, full-of-heartthrobs-for-the-typical-young-Filipino, often campy, feature fictitious lives of social classes above the masses and when-some-characters-get-mad-or-serious-they-suddenly-speak-in-English(?).
Yeah, understood, it's a drama, this sells to most, what's new? But still, it has the tendency to strengthen the beliefs of the masses that English is the language of the rich, lowering national pride somewhat and widening the gap of rich and poor.
Even Filipino stars don't help much with national pride with certain hosts of game shows exclaiming "Sosyal!" when someone speaks in English or the topic has something to do with anything of higher standards than the masses. "Sosyal" means high class or "Ooh, rich." in modern Fil lingo.
Regarding electronic media, the popular Mikey Bustos videos are received rather well by Filipinos. He makes fun of Philippine behavior by reenacting it with some exaggerations, recording it, and uploading it on Youtube. Based on my observations, something is usually made fun of due to it being different from the norm (abnormal, defective).
In conclusion, (and, well, to summarize the little mess up there)
Popular images being created to represent modern Filipino national identity are, if broken down to basics, are those of happy, dancing Filipinos who laugh at their shortcomings.
Philippines, one of the happiest countries in the world: SITE
Sample of Mikey Bustos Video: LINK
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