Branding the Others

Abstract: In view of the fact that Western films are one of the most consumed forms of popular culture in the world market, this study argues that they are, therefore, integral to the nation branding process of non Western countries. Anchored in postcolonial theory, this research purposely turned to Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis model as a matching analytical framework. With an intention of revealing how the relation between language and power has made these prevalent Western films become a colonial discourse on non-Western nation brands, this study uses Vietnam as a supporting empirical case. During the analysis, this study seeks to excavate the ideologies of colonialism, Eurocentrism and Orientalism couched in textual and verbal language of Western films’ discourse on the Vietnamese people and Gender. The findings show that Western popular films’ representation of non-Western nations and people rests on the strong and entrenched association with the inferior Others, while also replicating colonial stereotypes about non-Western women as being an object of the male gaze, sexually enticing and quiet. The results also demonstrate the ambivalence towards the Western popular culture’s colonialism-based perception of the Others, as well as of non-Western nation brands. The findings serve as a critique of the discursive practice of Western film production and consumption, which have excessively reproduced and institutionalised colonialism as knowledge of non-Western nation brand. The discussion of implications concludes that Western popular culture, through contributing to global knowledge concerning the nation brand of the Others, operates as a powerful instrument of (neo-)colonialism, exerts and extends control over the nation branding of erstwhile colonies in the modern world.