Once I spent time in Japan, I realized that they are just as guilty of claiming Western culture as we are of claiming Japanese culture- probably more so.
There's a key difference between other cultures taking on Western traits, and Westerners taking other cultures'. It's that during the reign of the British Empire and other European colonialism, pretty much the entire rest of the world was forced to do things in Western ways. What you're seeing in Japan is not the result of two equally powerful cultures trading ideas; it's the result of a small country which had to desperately change its entire structure and image in less than a century to avoid being overwhelmed by foreign firepower. The fact that Japan managed to do that is, in my opinion, damn impressive. However, it's not something they did out of free choice-- it's something they did to keep from being destroyed as an independent people. That's very different from Westerners, now that we've learned we can't actually rule the entire planet without repercussion and been forced to gain some respect for other cultures, looking at elements of them and saying, "Hey, cool! I want that!"
I wrote about this pretty extensively in my journal a few years ago-- see what you think!
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29/12/08 18:16 (UTC)There's a key difference between other cultures taking on Western traits, and Westerners taking other cultures'. It's that during the reign of the British Empire and other European colonialism, pretty much the entire rest of the world was forced to do things in Western ways. What you're seeing in Japan is not the result of two equally powerful cultures trading ideas; it's the result of a small country which had to desperately change its entire structure and image in less than a century to avoid being overwhelmed by foreign firepower. The fact that Japan managed to do that is, in my opinion, damn impressive. However, it's not something they did out of free choice-- it's something they did to keep from being destroyed as an independent people. That's very different from Westerners, now that we've learned we can't actually rule the entire planet without repercussion and been forced to gain some respect for other cultures, looking at elements of them and saying, "Hey, cool! I want that!"
I wrote about this pretty extensively in my journal a few years ago-- see what you think!