A study conducted at the beginning of the year by the Finnish Institute in Stockholm and other entities specializing in cooperation between Finland and Sweden shows that Swedes’ interest in Finnish history has increased by eight percentage points since the beginning of the pandemic.
I’m not interested in Finnish culture. Why?
Finnish history is still a theme that Swedes would like to learn more about. The Swedes’ interest in Finnish culture, on the other hand, is at rock bottom.
Sveriges Radio’s political reporter Johar Bendjelloul has an answer to why this is so.
– Sweden has always been deeply indifferent to culture that is not in English. This attitude does not only apply to Finnish culture, but also to, for example, French or Danish culture, Bendjelloul reminds.
Cultural exchange is unbalanced. Why?
Pekka Heino, a freelance journalist who is particularly focused on literature and films, on the other hand, feels that the language barrier is the reason for the cultural export imbalance between Finland and Sweden.
– Even though Finns don’t want to speak Swedish, they understand it to the extent that Swedish artists can go to Finland to perform. But it is more difficult for a Finnish artist who sings in Finnish to come and perform in Sweden.
Finnish history is interesting. Why?
However, Pekka Heino can be seen in the export of Finnish cultural products to Sweden in one market niche: literature about Finnish history.
– For example, Petra Rautiainen cursed the book A Land Drawn in Ashes, Ett land av snö och aska, which tells about Lapland in Finland at the end of World War II. It interests Swedes, and Petra Rautiainen is also a young woman who writes on the subject.
