The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Middle East Online has an interesting article by Michael Chou and Youssef Morshedy, where they discuss cultural misunderstandings (and cultural ignorance) between the West and Islamic nations and how better communications could help different people to understand one another better and perhaps be more tolerant rather than adversarial. Comics and animation, they argue, are extremely well suited to acting as cultural bridges: “From this perspective, comics and animation appear to be innocuous vehicles through which societal values can be communicated to children. Indeed, children seem particularly receptive to the creative mix of visuals and sounds in animation, which arguably enhances the quality of communication as well. By targeting children — the future leaders of the planet, the seeds for inter-cultural understanding are sown.

For adults, too, it seems that the cultural and counter-cultural elements in comics and animation have resulted in the mobilisation of global communities through their appeal to transnational audiences. In 2006, the world witnessed the mobilisation of Muslim communities following the publication of cartoon panels depicting the Prophet Muhammad by a Danish newspaper. During the same year, the Asia-Europe Foundation brought together Asian and European comic artists in Singapore to develop a common publication. These collective reactions are examples of the extraordinary power of comics and animation.”