Beyonce and Palin Take on Asia

By Tom Plate

KUALA LUMPUR ― Who said foreign-policy issues and problems don't have entertainment value? Who said rich and prominent Americans, without exception, are insensitive to the rising importance of Asia?

In that spirit, whoever said that Beyonce Knowles, the sexy rock superstar, would never be able to appear on stage in a Muslim country without risking a clash of civilizations? And whoever said Sarah Palin, the defeated Republican nominee for President of the United States, was dumber than a dead elephant and wouldn't know Asia from Africa even with a map?

Probably no one has ever said all these terrible things, altogether, in the same breath ― and so breathlessly! But such an enticing rhetorical approach seems a good way to bracket a star-studded week in Asia-U.S. relations in which custom-made American pitches toward Asia took center stage.

Let's start with Beyonce.

Unholy hipster promoters here in this Islamic Republic have been angling to get her rhythm and blues road-show onto a venue stage in this capital city for some time. But a Beyonce booking two years ago had to be abruptly cancelled when a conservative youth group raised holy Allah over it. Her provocative stage show and skimpy costuming, it was alleged, would shake and rattle the religious foundations of the country to its Islamic core. (Her people took her show on the road anyhow ― to Jakarta, another Muslim culture. And that worked out just fine.)

Now the Malaysian organizers of ``Beyonce I Am … World Tour Live in Malaysia 2009" have triumphantly announced an agreement to smooth out the allegedly offensive cultural and religious wrinkles in Beyonce's act. That is to say: Apparently she has agreed to shake it a lot less and wear a lot more here in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 25. The evident compromise is designed to placate, most prominently, an important Malaysian Islamic group called PAS Youth. Parti Islam SeMalaysia is the conservative Muslim movement that is (how do we put it?) suspicious of cultural modernization and Westernization.

Beyonce purists won't be happy, of course. They'll feel they're not getting a fair shake. And Malaysians paying for the show perhaps may not realize how much less (in a manner of speaking) of the rock Diva they are getting, in the kind of performance in which less (as it were) is marketed as more. But the very fact that the Beyonce camp was willing to down-sex her act shows respect for this Islamic Asian culture in several ways ― not excluding, note carefully, the growing importance of the gigantic Asian entertainment market.

Another kind of American entertainer who customized her act for an Asian audience this past week was Sarah Palin. What she was selling was neither like Beyonce's near-bare fare nor too much like the ultra-conservatism of PAS. In fact, her speech, in Hong Kong, was billed as ``common-sense conservatism."

She traveled to Asia at the invitation of a major Asian-based fund-managers group to offer her foreign policy views. At first glance it seemed a set-up for disaster. Fund-managers, for their part, are a generally nervous crowd. They especially chafe about ignorant American political figures that might shoot off their mouths and stumble us all into an East-West confrontation. Their big worry, of course, is the U.S.-China relationship.

Enter on center stage the inimitable Palin: What could the former Alaska governor possibly know about China? From her perch in Alaska, after all, she could not claim much special knowledge because she couldn't actually espy its land mass, as she had said she could of Russia, this advantage awarding her a Ph.D. in Russian studies, in her own estimation.

Alas for the Palin critics, the would-be lady Presidential candidate offered a largely defensible and common-sensible outline of views. She reaffirmed the rising role of Asia, the importance of trying hard to understand China on its own terms, and the high stakes involved if the result were failure.

And to the astonishment (if not consternation) of the Singapore government, she even managed to quote that "Asian wise man," as she described the legendary Lee Kuan Yew, 86, in defense of America's staying the course in Afghanistan: ``And Minister Lee knows, and I agree, that our success in Afghanistan will have consequences all over the world, including Asia. Our allies and our adversaries are watching to see if we have the staying power to protect our interests in Afghanistan." That's a position not everyone can blithely disagree with.

In fact, the entire speech was easily her most mature exposition to date. I only have two pieces of advice for her, if she is interested in having them. One is to keep that speechwriter at all costs! The other is to never, ever depart from script if she can help it. Therein disaster lurks.

For example: Trying to be chirpy at the start of her appearance, she breezily opined that one big difference between Hong Kong and her home was the far greater prevalence of wildlife in Alaska. From that comment alone, one could tell Palin was highly inexperienced about city life. What about Hong Kong's many rats?

Any city-dweller would have pounced on the fact that every jungle habitat, urban or rural, has its own indigenous wildlife. Obviously the ambitious Palin still has much to learn. But hers wasn't such a bad show at all.

This article ran in The Korea Times.