Public Diplomacy
Why Promoting Traditional Culture is Still Necessary
Because, showcasing the unique culture can create such an easy-to-remember memory that becomes the doorway to strengthen countries’ connection in the diplomatic world
Closing Ceremony: Zagreb International Folklore Festival
July, 21 2024 18.30 CET
I sat down on a chair in the first row.
My right side was the Indonesian Ambassador to Croatia. We were exactly at the center of the first row, “vis-à-vis” with the performance stage.
We watched a lot of performances that night. Traditional music instruments. Folk dance. Theatrical.
After about an hour, the wait was over.
“Bu, now is their turn to perform”, I whispered to the Ambassador pointing my right-hand index finger to the Indonesian folklore team on the right and left sides of the stage.
Four people from the left side entered the performance stage. They sat down together. Cross-legged position. Adjusting the instruments.
One of the males started singing in the local language, accompanied by a flute melody by the other male. Two other female sat down in front of their instruments.
While the audience, including myself, was still trying to listen to the unusual lyrics, four people from the right side came up. Each one brought a tray of plates covered by black sheets on top. They walked a few steps, then put the tray in the front position of the stage.
They uncovered the sheets. Gripped the plates. Shaken them while simultaneously shifting their positions from sitting to standing.
The atmosphere was getting intense with the sound of the flute melody.
The dancers danced from left to right, pacing back and forth with unique choreography. Even with a lot of movement, they could maintain the stability of the plates. And the other 6 dancer joined the choreography from the right-side of the stage.
While all the dancers were dancing together, three of them came forward. Close to the tray with the leftover plate that they hadn’t gripped in their hands in the beginning.
They jumped.
To the tray with their bare foots.
PRANG….PRANG…..PRANG……
We could hear the sound of broken plates.
But, the dancers who turned to be the “jumpers” continued dancing.
They enjoyed the movement, as if nothing had happened with their bare feet. Still, they had the plates in both their hands.
They were doing another unexpected thing, again.
Doing such a cymbal-banging style with the plates.
PRANG…………
Six plates were shattered, followed by huge applause and jaw-dropping expressions by some of the audiences.
The abovementioned story was one of many Indonesian traditional cultural performances presented in Croatia.
Maybe you wonder, why promoting traditional culture is still necessary.
We’re living in the 21st century.
The way we watch movies has been shifting from renting DVDs to streaming Netflix.
The way we revise our article has been shifting from asking our polyglot friends to Grammarly.
Why should we focus on promoting traditional culture and not following the current trend — for instance, promoting contemporary dance?
If I were asked this question, my answer would be: because it’s unique. Plain and simple.
And the uniqueness will have a positive ripple effect on the country’s connection.
The more unique experiences we can bring to another country, the easier it will be for foreign people to remember our culture.
The easier foreign people to remember our culture, the more our culture becomes such a conversation topic on the grassroots level.
The more our culture becomes such a conversation topic on the grassroots level, the more connected the two countries will be.
The Uniqueness of Traditional Culture
Every country has its own traditional culture.
For instance, folk dancers’ costumes, movements, choreography and philosophy can differ from one country to another. You can google folk dance and find out how diverse it is in Croatia, Indonesia, Georgia, India, etc.
The diversity of traditional cultures all over the world is what makes them so unique to one another.
Uniqueness Creates an Easy-to-Remember Memory
We all know we tend to remember every unique experience easily compared to routine activities.
Can you remember easily what you’ve eaten last week during the dinner?
I bet you have to check your calendar and notes, or you may need time to think about the moment before answering that question.
But if you’ve had a unique moment that happened once in a while, or once in your life, you can think it easily.
Whenever I encounter a conversation discussing Belgium, my mind automatically thinks about the moment when I lost almost all of my belongings in Brussels. Although the moment happened more than four years ago, I can’t deny that it’s still an easy-to-remember moment. Until now.
The same goes for traditional culture. Regardless of how good, xo-xo or bad the performance is.
Because it’s unique, it will be easier to remember by the audience.
When someone brings up a topic related to traditional cultural performance in conversation, the audience who have previously seen the show will most likely remember that performance easily.
The Doorway of Curiosity and Matching Opportunity
In the best-case scenario, the audience loves the traditional cultural performance. The audiences are curious to know more about the culture. Do some research. Google them. Trying to find the philosophy, history, or everything related to the culture.
This is good.
Because the more people are curious about particular culture, the better their understanding on that culture will be. This will reduce the misunderstandings that, more often than not, become the source of conflict.
In the worst-case scenario, the audience didn’t like the traditional cultural performance.
There’s still a positive side, though.
Because, at the very least, it can provide the opportunity to “match” the conversation with someone whose background is related to that culture.
I still remember the day I met the Georgian diplomat on the sidelines of a seminar event organized by the Croatian Foreign Ministry.
I didn’t know much about Georgia other than its capital: Tbilisi.
However, small talk became easier when I shared my experiences about seeing a Georgian folk dance performance in Croatia once.
I shared how I still remembered the dancers’ dress, though I didn’t understand the dance philosophy. It’s still unique to me.
That easy-to-remember memory helped me to “match” with that diplomat, my conversation partner at that time.
Then, we talked a lot. Learning one another.
I learned more about Georgia. And explained about Indonesia.
A glimpse of my memory when I saw the traditional cultural performance opened the door to making a connection with a Georgian diplomat.
Showcasing traditional cultural performances is one of many ways to conduct public diplomacy.
Unlike conventional diplomacy, the aim of public diplomacy is the people. Bringing the people from two or more countries closer.
But the essence is always the same.
Whether conventional or public diplomacy, the primary purpose of diplomacy is always to bring countries’ relations closer and minimize conflict within international relations — so war can be avoided.
Because the aim is people, we must focus on how the human connection works while conducting public diplomacy.
In my view, the main indicator of determining human connection depends on how many memories they can share and how long they can talk during conversation.
If two or more people cannot keep the conversation going because they can’t share memories. Or they can’t match the topic of one another. I don’t think they are connected.
That is why I believe promoting traditional culture while doing public diplomacy is still necessary.
Because its uniqueness creates such an easy-memory-to-remember.
So people from two countries can keep the conversation going.
So they can learn more from each other, removing all cultural misunderstandings.
So the societies of the two countries can not only connect, but they also contribute to their countries.
They’re contributing to their own countries to strengthen their relations in the other sector, because on the grassroots level, in the people-to-people contacts, there’s no more cultural misunderstanding that hinder the countries’ relations.
In the end, the stronger the countries’ relations, the more benefits the governments and people inside the countries can reap.
That’s why we must appreciate all the traditional cultural performers.
Those who are willing to practice for months before the D-day.
Those who are willing to wear traditional clothes, even if they are uncomfortable.
Those who are willing to use their bare feet, jumping on top of plates.
We should not judge them by their performance.
Because even if they had bad performance, they still create memories for the audience that become the doorway to the future human connection.
And the people from different countries can be more connected.
And the cultural misunderstanding can be minimized.
And the world can be a better place.
Derian Antonio Daniswara is an Indonesian junior diplomat currently posted in Zagreb, Croatia. He loves sports, especially football, and playing them is his second nature.
Every view and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s views and do not reflect the positions of any entities he represents.
