Surprise book gift
I was surprised to receive a delivery in my mailbox from Amazon yesterday. I was pretty sure everything I had ordered for Xmas had arrived safely at their destinations.
I was even more surprised when I opened it up and found the book "The New Japan: Debunking Seven Cultural Stereotypes" by David Matsumoto.
I quickly realized that this was one of the books I had placed on my wish list. A glance at the packing invoice indicated it was from my father. He had already sent money and cards for Xmas so I thought that was a little strange. I'm guessing that it was a guilt gift :-) I had given his partner an electronic gift card for Itunes that didn't show up in her mailbox until Xmas day. She hadn't sent me anything this year and this gift was probably her way of making up for it. It was a nice thought and I am glad I got the book. However, I wish people didn't feel obligated to send gifts out of guilt. I actually like buying presents for people. It makes me happy to see them happy with a well-picked present.
In case you were wondering, I put the book on my wish list after a long talk at lunch with out new Japanese faculty member. During that talk she was debunking all the stereotypes I had heard all my life about the Japanese - that family was important, that they were a collectivist culture, etc.
I went home wondering if she or I was the crazy one and did a lot of research online to try to figure out the discrepancy between what I had read about the culture and her observations as a member (though certainly an atypical member) of that culture. Almost everything I found supported the stereotypes until I came across this book. The author of the book suggested that for the past 10 or 15 years there has been a shift in the culture away from the stereotypes. This is most evident in the youth of the culture.
This change in culture is causing difficulties in the Japanese national and individual identities because the stereotypes (whether or not they were accurate) were held up as ideal values for the culture (proscriptive rather than descriptive of the values the Japanese people should internalize and express).
Or at least this is what I have learned so far. It should be a pretty quick read though. The font is large and so are the margins and it is written by a social scientist so it is in a "language" I can parse easily.
In case you were wondering the seven stereotypes that will be debunked are:
1) Japanese collectivism
2) Japanese self-concepts
3) Japanese interpersonal consciousness
4) Japanese emotionality
5) The Japanese salaryman
6) Japanese lifetime employment
7) The Japanese marriage
I was even more surprised when I opened it up and found the book "The New Japan: Debunking Seven Cultural Stereotypes" by David Matsumoto.
I quickly realized that this was one of the books I had placed on my wish list. A glance at the packing invoice indicated it was from my father. He had already sent money and cards for Xmas so I thought that was a little strange. I'm guessing that it was a guilt gift :-) I had given his partner an electronic gift card for Itunes that didn't show up in her mailbox until Xmas day. She hadn't sent me anything this year and this gift was probably her way of making up for it. It was a nice thought and I am glad I got the book. However, I wish people didn't feel obligated to send gifts out of guilt. I actually like buying presents for people. It makes me happy to see them happy with a well-picked present.
In case you were wondering, I put the book on my wish list after a long talk at lunch with out new Japanese faculty member. During that talk she was debunking all the stereotypes I had heard all my life about the Japanese - that family was important, that they were a collectivist culture, etc.
I went home wondering if she or I was the crazy one and did a lot of research online to try to figure out the discrepancy between what I had read about the culture and her observations as a member (though certainly an atypical member) of that culture. Almost everything I found supported the stereotypes until I came across this book. The author of the book suggested that for the past 10 or 15 years there has been a shift in the culture away from the stereotypes. This is most evident in the youth of the culture.
This change in culture is causing difficulties in the Japanese national and individual identities because the stereotypes (whether or not they were accurate) were held up as ideal values for the culture (proscriptive rather than descriptive of the values the Japanese people should internalize and express).
Or at least this is what I have learned so far. It should be a pretty quick read though. The font is large and so are the margins and it is written by a social scientist so it is in a "language" I can parse easily.
In case you were wondering the seven stereotypes that will be debunked are:
1) Japanese collectivism
2) Japanese self-concepts
3) Japanese interpersonal consciousness
4) Japanese emotionality
5) The Japanese salaryman
6) Japanese lifetime employment
7) The Japanese marriage