Learning Culture From Pop Culture: Japan
These past few days, I've had a marathon of Hana Yori Dango and I've got Otsuka Ai's "Planetarium" completely on repeat in my head.
Which has made me think about pop culture, and Japan, and Matsumoto Jun's great hair. Also about character development and archetypes and all sorts of interesting things, but let's just go with the Japan aspect.
There's a lot I could probably say about Japanese pop culture, in fact at Notre Dame there was even a film class (which I neglected to take, because it conflicted with my beloved New Korean Cinema class).
Obviously, learning about a culture through pop culture comes with an extreme caveat: just by looking at American television, you can just imagine how skewed American culture might seem to a foreigner. Even so, that doesn't mean that studying a culture's pop culture has no inherent merits in understanding a foreign culture. Because you can start noticing underlying patterns - values, ethics, customs, etc. - especially as you increase the breadth of the texts that you're examining. If you looked at only say, 24, you wouldn't be able to get as much information about the US's underlying values than if you included Iron Man, Firefly, Aladdin.
Music, also, contributes to a culture's unconscious identity. You are from the place that (whatever) comes from; it is a part of your understanding of what you're associated with and a part of. With the help of globalization, we start mixing up what belongs where - Coldplay is a part of my cultural identity, even though it's not from the US. (y hallo thar Western identity!) To a great degree, globalization means cultural imperialism - but it does allow for more cultural exchange as well.
I digress.
Some Things I've Learned About Japan Through Pop Culture
1. Physical intimacy is a big deal. It's never treated casually, and always has significance. Holding hands is usually the extent of a public PDA, and even THAT is often a huge deal between couples... in pop culture you MIGHT see a hug or a kiss, but those are only for spectacular emotional moments. In one series, a couple eventually gets to the holding hands stage and then right after that they get engaged.
2. Feelings have tremendous power. This will always, always show up in anime where there's just the slightest inclination of supernatural forces at work. There's also a cultural _____ that feelings can even leave the body and take form - I noticed this in the Tale of Genji. In Japan, it seems that the greatest number of their ghosts and demons are actually created and corporealized from those very strong feelings (whereas in Western culture the demons and ghosts are just out to get us). Cleansing evil or bad feelings is a very important part of Buddhism, so you tend to see a lot of slaying or turning of ghosts/demons in the pop culture, and then it might turn back into a neutral spirit and move on.
3. Promises, memories, and grudges last a long time. Maybe it's because it's a culture that has a very non-straightforward way of dealing with things that inner feelings are kept sacred. At least in the pop culture, one memory might shape a person's entire life. Oftentimes, I've seen a character going after someone else's dream - usually because that person can't do it themselves (death, illness, etc.) - and try to achieve it for them.
4. Individual objects tend to be attached to extreme emotional significance. This one is almost always connected to #3. Objects have a tendency to become very symbolic. This might be a Saturn necklace a girl's boyfriend gave her before he flew off to New York for a year. It might be a handkerchief that a nice gentleman gave a girl after cheering her up and buying her some sweet ice (okay that one's not actually from Japan but it's a good example here). Maybe it's a necklace that turns a duck into a real girl, or a tea set that a girl sent you as a thank-you gift.
5. One chance, one life. Tokyo is one of the densest cities in the world, with around 3,500 people living per square mile. So there's this idea of only running into someone once, only having one opportunity to say what you really feel, and having courage in that moment. If you've seen the movie Serendipity (as chick flicky awful as it was), basically that in a nutshell. Also the saying is a good excuse for a one-night stand.
6. There isn't really a good/evil dichotomy. Usually, it's people with different points of view whose righteousness will be proved in some kind of contest. There are bad spirits, sure, and sometimes pop culture will bring in Western religious values, but ultimately "right" has to be proven by the characters themselves, rather than an external deus ex machina. Sure, sometimes there will be a supernatural turn-around that saves everyone at the last minute (or not... Shinji, I'm looking at you here), but that is connected to a character's own emotions (see #2) to trigger it.
7. You always have to read between the lines. One of the things that I both hate and love about Japanese pop culture is that they don't always spell everything out. Often, you'll be shown fragments of a memory but not a full disclosure, or there will be something that isn't totally explained even if the significant emotional memory is shown (Cowboy Bebop makes good use of this). You usually just kind of have to get the jist of things. Sometimes you'll get more information later on, but there will always be some information gaps. Which can be quite aggravating to a Western viewer.
8. Adding on to #7, Japan is usually pretty indirect. They have many many encircling levels of privacy, and even among families you will probably see degrees of distance that seem odd to us. The upside is that usually words regarding feelings are taken seriously, because they require a lot of courage to be that straightforward. In the US we tend to place an emphasis on being straightforward, honest, eye-contacty, but for Japan these values can be strange because Japan is polite, and very very compartmentalized. Barriers between people exist for many different reasons, either for social roles or treating someone with respect or whatever. That doesn't mean that they can't be broken down, nor does it mean that they should.
Which has made me think about pop culture, and Japan, and Matsumoto Jun's great hair. Also about character development and archetypes and all sorts of interesting things, but let's just go with the Japan aspect.
There's a lot I could probably say about Japanese pop culture, in fact at Notre Dame there was even a film class (which I neglected to take, because it conflicted with my beloved New Korean Cinema class).
Obviously, learning about a culture through pop culture comes with an extreme caveat: just by looking at American television, you can just imagine how skewed American culture might seem to a foreigner. Even so, that doesn't mean that studying a culture's pop culture has no inherent merits in understanding a foreign culture. Because you can start noticing underlying patterns - values, ethics, customs, etc. - especially as you increase the breadth of the texts that you're examining. If you looked at only say, 24, you wouldn't be able to get as much information about the US's underlying values than if you included Iron Man, Firefly, Aladdin.
Music, also, contributes to a culture's unconscious identity. You are from the place that (whatever) comes from; it is a part of your understanding of what you're associated with and a part of. With the help of globalization, we start mixing up what belongs where - Coldplay is a part of my cultural identity, even though it's not from the US. (y hallo thar Western identity!) To a great degree, globalization means cultural imperialism - but it does allow for more cultural exchange as well.
I digress.
Some Things I've Learned About Japan Through Pop Culture
1. Physical intimacy is a big deal. It's never treated casually, and always has significance. Holding hands is usually the extent of a public PDA, and even THAT is often a huge deal between couples... in pop culture you MIGHT see a hug or a kiss, but those are only for spectacular emotional moments. In one series, a couple eventually gets to the holding hands stage and then right after that they get engaged.
2. Feelings have tremendous power. This will always, always show up in anime where there's just the slightest inclination of supernatural forces at work. There's also a cultural _____ that feelings can even leave the body and take form - I noticed this in the Tale of Genji. In Japan, it seems that the greatest number of their ghosts and demons are actually created and corporealized from those very strong feelings (whereas in Western culture the demons and ghosts are just out to get us). Cleansing evil or bad feelings is a very important part of Buddhism, so you tend to see a lot of slaying or turning of ghosts/demons in the pop culture, and then it might turn back into a neutral spirit and move on.
3. Promises, memories, and grudges last a long time. Maybe it's because it's a culture that has a very non-straightforward way of dealing with things that inner feelings are kept sacred. At least in the pop culture, one memory might shape a person's entire life. Oftentimes, I've seen a character going after someone else's dream - usually because that person can't do it themselves (death, illness, etc.) - and try to achieve it for them.
4. Individual objects tend to be attached to extreme emotional significance. This one is almost always connected to #3. Objects have a tendency to become very symbolic. This might be a Saturn necklace a girl's boyfriend gave her before he flew off to New York for a year. It might be a handkerchief that a nice gentleman gave a girl after cheering her up and buying her some sweet ice (okay that one's not actually from Japan but it's a good example here). Maybe it's a necklace that turns a duck into a real girl, or a tea set that a girl sent you as a thank-you gift.
5. One chance, one life. Tokyo is one of the densest cities in the world, with around 3,500 people living per square mile. So there's this idea of only running into someone once, only having one opportunity to say what you really feel, and having courage in that moment. If you've seen the movie Serendipity (as chick flicky awful as it was), basically that in a nutshell. Also the saying is a good excuse for a one-night stand.
6. There isn't really a good/evil dichotomy. Usually, it's people with different points of view whose righteousness will be proved in some kind of contest. There are bad spirits, sure, and sometimes pop culture will bring in Western religious values, but ultimately "right" has to be proven by the characters themselves, rather than an external deus ex machina. Sure, sometimes there will be a supernatural turn-around that saves everyone at the last minute (or not... Shinji, I'm looking at you here), but that is connected to a character's own emotions (see #2) to trigger it.
7. You always have to read between the lines. One of the things that I both hate and love about Japanese pop culture is that they don't always spell everything out. Often, you'll be shown fragments of a memory but not a full disclosure, or there will be something that isn't totally explained even if the significant emotional memory is shown (Cowboy Bebop makes good use of this). You usually just kind of have to get the jist of things. Sometimes you'll get more information later on, but there will always be some information gaps. Which can be quite aggravating to a Western viewer.
8. Adding on to #7, Japan is usually pretty indirect. They have many many encircling levels of privacy, and even among families you will probably see degrees of distance that seem odd to us. The upside is that usually words regarding feelings are taken seriously, because they require a lot of courage to be that straightforward. In the US we tend to place an emphasis on being straightforward, honest, eye-contacty, but for Japan these values can be strange because Japan is polite, and very very compartmentalized. Barriers between people exist for many different reasons, either for social roles or treating someone with respect or whatever. That doesn't mean that they can't be broken down, nor does it mean that they should.