Love local: Fast and slow culture are merging in Asia

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Culture hits hard everywhere, but the impact and pace of change across Asia is particularly compelling. Ideas, concepts and innovations are spreading with greater alacrity than elsewhere. Once there was concern about ‘Americanisation’ in the region – that notion now sounds quaint.

The east profoundly influences the west in what is becoming an established trajectory. Brands are facing up to the reality that everything from fitness goals to drinking occasions, and from the meaning of wealth to how purpose is defined, plays out differently. Western brands have long struggled to understand the influence of tradition across Asian cultures. Throw in the intensification of emergent ‘fast culture’ factors and the challenge is significant.

While there is much to be excited about for younger generations across Asia, it does generate some cultural tension. We explored a cognitive dissonance: the desire to be citizens of the world, globally plugged in, versus the innate sense of place, connection and pride in localism.
Expressions of ‘fast culture’ ...