( Source: A Muchness of Me )
Introduction: On Assumptions about Korean Culture
While I claim to examine Korean sociology through “gender, advertising and popular culture” on this blog, the last seems noticeable only for its absence in recent months, and so this week I planned to rectify that by beginning a series of weekly Korean film reviews, focusing on those from the 1990s and early 2000s that are now probably somewhat dated but which were ground-breaking in their depictions of gender roles and particularly women’s sexuality at the time. But I’ll also look at recent ones that those paved for way for too, such as “My Wife got Married” (아내가 결혼헀다) that is playing in cinemas at the moment, and which, in depicting a wife who seeks two husbands much like a married man might also seek additional sex and companionship in a mistress, would probably have prompted a storm of public protest just ten years ago.
My first film review was already written on Monday, but by coincidence I happened to be reading Recentering Globalization: Popular culture and Japanese transnationalism (2002) by Koichi Iwabuchi at about the same time, and it is so full of interesting and relevant (if indirect) points about Korean popular culture that I can’t resist considerably expanding the post to take account of what I’ve read about Japanese and East Asian dramas, idols, films, and so on. In the meantime, I’d like to also discuss Iwabuchi’s explanations for why Japanese manga characters generally look, if not quite Caucasian, certainly look somewhat less than Japanese, also interesting but which be somewhat out of place in a film review.
But first, and please forgive the brief personal tangent, I title this introduction “assumptions” because as a non-Korean who’s been here much of his adult life, then I know that I still hold many beliefs and opinions about Korean society that were really formed in my first few years here, when I was not only resolutely monolingual but was prone to generalize in order to make sense of what was then a wholly foreign place. Which is human nature, and so nothing to worry about in itself, but without some outlet and feedback for expressing those beliefs, especially friends as apt to overanalyse and purchase books on the subject as oneself, then they can easily become ossified, regardless of the naive, nebulous, ill-informed and usually drunken circumstances in which many were probably first formed. Hence the blog, and, man…it’s a lot of work having to frame arguments and provide justifications for them for an audience other than my smug, self-congratulatory, pretentious self. But sorely needed, both in terms of having a continued positive existence in the country and for my belated return to academia, so comments are always much appreciated.
I mention this because, of those early beliefs and opinions, some don’t really bear up to critical analysis, like what frequent commentator “Gomushin Girl“, for instance, is slowly but surely proving to me about the wholly androgynous role pink clothing plays in Korean culture, and I’m also learning about how wearing it can even be a small act of rebellion for young people. But another which does, despite being the most contentious issue I’ve ever blogged about, are the very definite associations Koreans have between Caucasians and notions of modernity, glamor and/or more liberal sexuality, as I’ve discussed at length on the blog here, here, here, here, here, here and most recently here (for starters!). But where did my and – I dare say – most Westerners’ similar views on that subject originally come from?
( Advertisement for cosmetic surgery clinic in Busan. Source: comatosed )
Probably the most important are the racial considerations taken into account when hiring English teachers, the large numbers of Caucasians in advertisements, and finally the overwhelming Korean preferences for cosmetic surgery operations that just so happen to give them facial and bodily features more often found amongst Caucasians than Mongoloids, the latter two of which, far from being figments of our imaginations, I’ve demonstrated quantitatively are the case (not that the first would be hard to prove if I chose to write about that also). Probably noticed much later, but not that they exactly detract from any of those, are the rather non-Asian cartoon figures that advertisements and stationary across the peninsula are festooned with also. And as Iwabuchi demonstrates, that feature of Korean life is indeed just as real as our first impressions led us to believe, and a very deliberate one at that.
“Culturally Odorless” Japanese Products
( Source: I Believe in Advertising )
For impatient readers, then you’re sooo reading the wrong blog the gist of my argument here is that for much of its history, Korean animation (easier than saying “cartoons and comics”), has been heavily influenced – if not completely dominated – by its Japanese counterpart, and as such it shares the Japanese animation industry’s deliberate use of figures and characters of rather vague and/or even Caucasian-looking ethnicities, either for the sake of deflecting criticisms of cultural imperialism in (naturally) sensitive former East Asian colonies and/or victims of invasion in World War Two, and/or by Western media companies in the process of making Japanese animation more marketable internationally. Against the first part of that argument, I do acknowledge that one source, at least, argues that Korean manhwa (만화) characters do, in fact, tend to look more distinctly East Asian, and there is also the small matter of all Japanese cultural products being banned in Korea until 1998 too, but I think that a great deal of illicit imports of them (not to mention their influence) did occur in practice before 1998, and would wager that most of the comic books available in Korea today are simply translated manga. Besides which, I’m more than happy to entertain (but honestly don’t expect) any plausible alternative explanations for Caucasian-looking Korean animation that doesn’t involve this Japanese angle.
Moving now to Iwabuchi’s book more specifically, although its publication date makes it only 6 years old, most of his actual research was conducted in the mid to late-1990s, well before the internet began to have an effect on the dissemination of popular culture, so in many respects it is quite dated. But as I pointed out when I first bought it, it still informs any analysis and discussion of the spread of popular culture in East Asia – be it Korean, Japanese or otherwise – especially as, however unsexy this is in 2008, most of it is still done in practice by traditional media companies selling, buying and shipping content overseas, albeit the illegal CDs sold on the street having their content originally downloaded from the internet rather than burned on the former’s arrival.
( Source )
To begin properly then, crucial to Iwabuchi’s arguments is the notion of a product’s “cultural odor”, which isn’t as abstract as perhaps it first sounds:
The cultural impact of a particular commodity is not necessarily experienced in terms of the cultural image of the exporting nation. For example, in the realm of audiovisual commodities, there is no doubt that Japan has been a dominant exporter of consumer technologies as well as animation and computer games…[they]…have certainly had a tremendous impact on our everyday life, an impact which is, in a sense, more profound than that of Hollywood films. (pp. 24-25).
I would suggest that the major audiovisual products Japan exports could [best] be characterized as the “culturally odorless” three C’s: consumer technologies (such as VCRs, karaoke, and the Walkman); comics and cartoons (animation); and computer/video games. I use the term cultural odor to focus on the way in which cultural features of a country of origin and images or ideas of its national, in most cases stereotyped, way or life are associated positively with a particular product in the consumption process. Any product may have various kinds of cultural association with the country of its invention. Such images are often related to exoticism, such as the image of the Japanese samurai or the geisha girl. Here, however, I am interested in the moment when the image of the contemporary lifestyle of the country of origin is strongly and affirmatively called to mind as the very appeal of the product, when the “cultural odor” of a cultural commodity is evolved. The way in which the cultural odor of a particular product becomes a “fragrance” – a socially and culturally acceptable smell – is not determined simply by the consumer’s perception that something is “made in Japan.” Neither is it necessarily related to the material influence or quality of the product. It has more to do with the widely disseminated symbolic images of the country of origin…[such as with McDonald's association with an attractive image of the "American way of life"]. (pp. 27-28)
For those interested, the point about “culturally odorless” karaoke was echoed by Bill Kelly in his chapter entitled “Japan’s Empty Orchestra: Echoes of Japanese culture in the performance of karaoke” in this 1998 book that I discuss in two posts (here and here) on the reasons karaoke is so popular in Korea and Japan:
A global phenomenon which has been successfully marketed throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, North America and many parts of Europe, karaoke is a rare (and perhaps the only) example of a modern leisure activity “made in Japan” and transplanted overseas. [But] as a Japanese cultural commodity, it is the object – the karaoke machine – and not so much the culture, as defined by its use in a particular social context, which has been exported (p. 76).
Returning to Iwabuchi:
Sony’s Walkman is an important cultural commodity that has influenced everyday life in various ways….[One source] argues that it may signify “Japaneseness” because of its miniaturization, technical sophistication, and high quality. Yet, I suggest, although such signs of “Japaneseness” are analytically important, they are not especially relevant to the appeal of the Walkman at a consumption level. The use of the Walkman does not evoke images or ideas of a Japanese lifestyle, even if consumers know it is made in Japan and appreciate “Japaneseness” in terms of its sophisticated technology. Unlike American commodities, “Japanese consumer goods do not seek to sell on the back of a Japanese way of life”, and they lack any influential “idea of Japan”.
The cultural odor of a product is also closely associated with racial and bodily images of a country of origin. The three C’s I mentioned earlier are cultural artifacts in which a country’s bodily, racial, and ethnic characteristics are erased or softened. The characters of Japanese animation and computer games for the most part do not look “Japanese.” Such non-Japaneseness is called mukokuseki, literally meaning “something or someone lacking any nationality,” but also implying the erasure of racial or ethnic characteristics or a context, which does not imprint a particular culture or country with those features.
As a linguistic aside, knowing that “무” or “mu” meant “none” or “absent” in Korean, and that the “koku” in the Japanese term above probably meant the same as “국” or “gook” which means “country”, then I wondered what the final “seki” above meant in Korean also. By looking at the Chinese characters (無國籍) for the term from here, I figured out that the Korean equivalent is “적” or “jok” (say the “o” as in “hot”), which means “a record” or “a register”. So the final Korean equivalent is “무국적” or “mu-gook-jok”, which literally means “no-country-register”.
Any students of Korean that don’t already incorporate Chinese characters in their learning methods then I recommend these early posts of mine, with rather unconventional study subjects but still quite serious and I think useful suggestions for learning Korean vocabulary. But back on topic though, while searching for the above I happened to find this discussion of the term on a manga-related website, which gives examples of non-mukokuseki exceptions that prove the rule. But while certainly hardly the last word on the subject, I’m afraid that I’m definitely not going to look any further amongst the no-doubt tens of millions of mostly NSFW English-language webpages on Japanese manga to find more discussion of it. Continuing then:
Internationally acclaimed Japanese animation director Oshii Mamoru suggests that Japanese animators and cartoonists unconsciously choose not to draw “realistic” Japanese characters if they wish to draw attractive characters. In Oshii’s case, the characters tend to be modeled on Caucasian types. Consumers of and audiences for Japanese animation and games, it can be argued, may be aware of the Japanese origins of these commodities, but those texts barely feature “Japanese bodily odor” identified as such. (p. 28)
Having identified and outlined the phenomenon of culturally odorless Japanese products then, the final part of this post is on the why. Or…ahem…at least it was, for the questions buzzing in my head as I’ve been typing this post have completely derailed the careful plans I originally had for it, and I need to resolve them before continuing. In particular, I don’t know how to square all the above with the popular and distinctly Japanese-smelling dramas of the 1990s and the in fact celebration of the Japaneseness of the Japanese Wave as a whole; I still think it’s possible, but I’ve got some more thinking to do before continuing…but then it’s already been six days since my last post. Very unusually for me then, for the sake of giving you something to read and get some feedback then I’ll post this first half now, apologize for the premature ending and the…*cough*…measly 2300 words, and do my best to complete the second half in the next few days. Deal?
(Eiko Hanamura Image Source: PingMag)
Part Two (November 24)
Apologies for the long delay to completing this post, which was partially due to a bad cold, partially due to the increasing demands of my two daughters, and primarily because, after my rereading of his book, I no longer find Iwabuchi’s arguments surrounding mukokuseki as clear-cut or as compelling as I did when I wrote the first half; in fact, it turns out that he doesn’t actually mention the reasons for its origins at all, and ultimately I had to infer them. I think that that’s quite an oversight on his part, considering how much the concept of mukokuseki informs his discussion of the spread of Japanese popular culture in East Asia and all, but that’s not to say that I don’t find that still fascinating, nor that it’s not full of great, albeit indirect relevance to this specific topic. It’s just that with all that ultimately only relevant-sounding information in there, it took me a while to notice that omission.
First, a quick recap: a week ago I said that the two main factors behind the phenomenon of mukokuseki were Western media companies “internationalizing” Japanese cultural products for global consumption, and Japanese artists, animators, and game designers subconsciously at least wanting to make their products more palatable to East Asian consumers by removing their “Japaneseness”, thereby dispelling any notions that they constituted a renewed Japanese cultural imperialism among still sensitive East Asian populations. The first is still true as I’ll explain, but then the successes of distinctly Japanese dramas and music in East Asia since the 1980s confused me, for surely they completely contradicted the latter?
Well yes, of course, but timing proved to be crucial for my solving of that conundrum, for not only did mukokuseki become the “default option” for Japanese animation well before the 1980s, but this was overwhelmingly for domestic reasons. In contrast, the successes of Japanese dramas and music and so on three decades later occurred in a wholly different environment, (primarily) economic developments in the region producing both an insatiable new international demand for them from East Asian consumers but ironically also ensuring that Japanese media companies on their own lacked the logistical capabilities to satisfy it. Which, rather annoyingly for the structure I originally planned for this post, brings us right back to Western media companies filling the gap, so I may as well start this, hopefully more refined explanation of mukokuseki with the circumstances behind that.
( Source: IconicIonic )
Japanese media companies are a favorite of Western commentators on Japan, for while at the time Sony’s purchase of Colombia in 1989 and Matsushita’s purchase of MCA (Universal) in 1990 became a symbol of Japanese economic ascendancy and US decline, and as such provoked a considerable backlash (expressed in the movies Black Rain (1989) and Rising Sun (1993) later, and I highly recommend the well-researched book the latter was based on), with the collapse of the Japanese economy in the 1990s, Sony struggling for years to make a profit, and Matsushita even ultimately withdrawing from its purchase, then they became even better known as symbols of Japanese hubris before the fall. Nevertheless, they were still a sign of the start of Japan’s hitherto invisible and odorless cultural presence in the world starting to become more and more conspicuous, and Iwabuchi reports that the surprising success of computer games in general and animations like Akira (1988) and Ghost in the Shell (1995) in Western markets was indeed appropriated by nihonjinron nationalists in Japan to promote their own views and certainly did encourage “an increasingly narcissistic interest in articulating the distinctive “Japaneseness” of cultural products in 1990s Japan,” and presumably both did come to have some impact on the production and reception of Japanese dramas and so on. But while those are not my focus, it should be noted that concerns about a renewed Japanese cultural imperialism and arrogance by Japanese and East Asian commentators were very much raised only after Japanese cultural products had become popular. Which does tend to be the case with backlashes of course, but my point is that, unlike what I originally thought, wariness about the possibility of a one never really entered the minds of the producers of Japanese cultural products originally. Nor, with the case of animation, after the event either, for however much the newfound success of Japanese animation was used and/or interpreted to other ends, those actually in the industry were acutely aware of the crucial Western role in their economic success.
Why? If I could I’d love to step back and provide the context of Japan lacking the “soft power” embedded in US products, and which thus renders most correlations of “Japanization” with globalization/Americanization misguided, but that would be too tangential even for me. It will suffice to merely bear that in the back of your mind as you read the additional context and then specifics in the following lengthy quotes from Iwabuchi I’ll provide to answer that, as it will of the fact that the relative decline but still supremacy of American cultural power rendered Japan only one of several regional and media cultural centers worldwide as the industry consolidated over the 1990s (other notable ones being Brazil, Egypt and Hong Kong).
It is important “to place the significance of Japanese inroads into Hollywood, as well as the international popularity of Japanese animation and computer games, within a wider picture of transnational media and market interconnections….The rise of Japanese media industries articulates a new phase of global cultural flow dominated by a small number of transnational corporations. These moves testify to the increasing trend of global media mergers which aim to offer a “total cultural package” of various media products under a single conglomerate. After all, the reason Sony and Matsushita bought into Hollywood was not to dominate American minds, but rather to centralize product distribution. The purpose was to construct a total entertainment conglomerate through the acquisition of control over both audiovisual hardware and software. It was based upon the sober economic judgment that “it is cultural distribution, not cultural production, that is the key locus of power and profit”. The incursion can thus be seen as a confirmation of the supremacy of American software creativity and therefore of Japan’s second-rate ability as a software producer (p.37)
On top of that:
…finding a local partner is particularly important in facilitating the entry of non-Western media industries and cultural products into Western markets. [One source points out] three strategic patterns of activities for global media corporations: producing cultural products; distributing products; and owning hardware that delivers products. Penetration of transnational media industries into multiple markets needs the combination of at least two of the above three, particularly production and distribution, both of which are dominated by American industries. If Sony’s encroachment on Hollywood articulates Japanese exploitation of American software products in order to become a global media player, media globalization also promotes the incorporation of Japanese, and other, non-Western media products into the Western-dominated global distribution network. Japanese media industries and cultural products cannot successfully become transnational players without partners. The most serious shortcoming of the Japanese animation industry, despite mature production capabilities and techniques, is its lack of international distribution channels. Western (American) global distribution power is thus indispensable to make Japanese animation a part of global popular culture. The process can be called an “Americanization of Japanization.” (pp. 37-38)
( Is it just me, or does the figure at the top-right look like a rather coy Hugh Jackman? Source )
And now for the specifics:
For example, it was the investment and the distribution channels of a British and American company Manga Entertainment (established in 1991 and part of the Polygram conglomerate) that made Ghost in the Shell a hit in Western countries. Similarly, in 1995, Disney decided to globally distribute Miyazaki Hayao’s animated films. Miyazaki gained prestige from Disney’s decision, which helped turn his animated Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫, Mononoke Hime) into a phenomenal hit in Japan in 1997. As the producer of the film acknowledged, the fact that Hayao’s animations are highly appreciated by the global animation giant, Disney, worked well as the publicity for giving the film an international prominence.
The global success of Pokémon also has much to do with America’s intervening partnership. Most manifestly, Warner Bros., one of the major Hollywood studios, handled the global distribution of Pokémon: The First Movie, as well as televising Pokémon on its own US-wide channel. No less significant is how Pokémon has been localized, or Americanized, “to hide its ‘Japaneseness’ “as part of a global promotion strategy. Significantly, it is the remade-in-the-US version of Pokémon that has been exported to other parts of the world. Thus the successful marketing of Pokémon as a global character owes much to American intervention (handled by Nintendo of America), which testifies to another “Americanization of Japanization.” Japanese animation’s inroads into the global market articulate the ever-growing global integration of markets and media. The examples discussed above clearly show that the Japanese animation industry is becoming a global player only by relying on the power of Western media.”(p. 38)
( Scene from 1977 Korean Animation “태권동자 마루치” (Taekwondo Child Maruchi), with many more available here. To be fair, I imagine that the blond girl is probably supposed to be an actual Caucasian )
Having discussed those economic realities, here I originally planned to discuss those economic developments in the region that led to a sudden new demand for Japanese cultural products, namely the fact that many East Asia countries had largely caught up economically with Japan and thus felt an increasing cultural and lifestyle-affinity with Japanese people that they hadn’t previously. Again fascinating, as it ties in well with economic “flying geese” economic theories that helped buttress many (self-congratulatory) Japanese commentators’ views that Japanese cultural products were “articulating modernity for them,” much like American cultural products had done for them previously, which in turn led to a later popularity of Hong Kong cultural products in Japan, Hong Kong easily being an “other” that could be seen as a younger, more naive but also more passionate and vital version of Japan itself in Japan’s economic depression of the 1990s. And that in turn obviously heavily informs the rise and fall of the Korean Wave a little later, for numerous commentators have pointed out that Winter Sonata (겨울연가) for example, was primarily popular because it was so similar to Japanese dramas a decade earlier. Was the failure of the Korean Wave then (to the extent that we can describe it as a single event that is), partially due to its products having to simultaneously embody dated themes, production methods, storylines and so on to Japanese consumers but also modern and cutting-edge ones to other East Asian consumers?
Simplistic I know, and so many questions to pursue, but then this post is *cough* about the origins of mukokuseki, and which it took me a considerable amount of time to find even an indirect reference to in Iwabuchi’s book. But here’s the section of his book which made things click for me, which is from a discussion of a 1994 article in a Taiwanese music magazine about the spread of Japanese popular culture among Asian youth:
According to the author of the article, there are two related points in testifying to the potential of Japanese popular culture to facilitate Asian dialogue. First is the fact that Japan has had “no hand” in the dissemination of Japanese popular music and TV programs in the Asian regions. The spread of Japanese popular culture “has occurred with virtually no effort on the Japanese side: the East Asian middle class took note of Japanese popular culture and chose to embrace it of its own accord.”….Honda considers [this] “spontaneous” reception by Asian audiences [is] important, if Japanese cultural exports are to overcome the historical legacy of Japanese imperialism. And this is related to Honda’s other point that the universal appeal of Japanese popular culture lies in its non-self-assertive mukokuseki nature.
Honda refers to mukokuseki…[as a] “country-neutral quality” due to the massive influence of the American original. Such mukokuseki Japanese popular culture, Honda argues, unlike traditional Japanese images of Japanese culture and society, have a cosmopolitan appeal that articulates “a sharp break from the traditional, prewar image,” and they will lead to “[erasing] the old, oppressive image of the country – especially among the younger generation.”(pp. 77-78, referring to Honda Shirõ, 1994, “East Asia’s middle class tunes into today’s Japan” in Japan Echo 21 (4): 75-79. My emphasis)
And so that, however unsatisfying I acknowledge it may well be, is what I think are the origins of mukokuseki: a deliberate effort to completely break from (and perhaps partially atone) for the definitively cultural imperialist policies of prewar Japan in its colonies. Why only in animation, if indeed it was? I don’t know enough about Japanese culture (yet) to speculate, but I do know that underemphasizing the Japaneseness of cultural products is about as far removed from what preceded it. And the fact that many of the resulting characters happened to look Caucasian? Again, although admittedly it sounds a little clichéd, what could be more different to prewar images than positive ones of former enemies, then occupiers, rebuilders, Cold War protectors, and, for a while, personifications of modernity?
( Source )
Update: they’re not really related to the post title, but if you’ve read this far then you may also be interested in these two articles on mahwa’s success abroad and the generally slapstick style of humor used in it.
Update 2: Interestingly, the default color for Russian cartoon characters is Black!
What great timing! I was just thinking about the general idea of “Westernization” two days ago, and it struck me that what a lot of people label Westernization isn’t.(What does “Westernized” mean, exactly?)
Some of the examples I used were the internationalization of things like McDonalds and Hip Hop, but I argue that they are just a part of many aspects of a new culture not necessarily originating from the West. The other things I bring up are Sony Walkmans and Anime having become a part of the very same culture, but originating from Japan (and therefore “Easternization”?).
All true, and Iwabuchi does go on to mention how many (very) young people in Japan aren’t even aware that McDonalds is American. I’ll try to remember to bring it up when I complete the post.
Not that you’re saying that they would, but just to be clear though, I don’t think anyone would apply the label “Westernized” to Korean or Japanese animation because of all the Caucasian-looking characters in both.
No, I don’t think that, and even more interesting is that if you ask a Korean or Japanese person why the characters have so many Caucasian features, I’ve noticed that they tend to be initially surprised at the claim – They perceive them as being very Asian. Although there are also typical characteristics of “Asian beauty” in the artwork, like tiny mouths and extremely slender figures, as opposed to the voluptuous ideal of beauty (both male and female figures) more standard in Western countries. I think it’s all culturally influenced individual perception.
One very foreign concept of beauty for me was the idea of “small face” so prevalent in Asian countries. The first time someone told me I had a “small face”, I thought I was being insulted. (Like, “Damn you’re tall, but look at that tiny pin-head of yours!”)
Didn’t think that you did :) I haven’t asked any Koreans about the Caucasian figures in Korean animation myself – this post just being an interesting sideline for me and all – but I’m not surprised to hear that they perceive them as very Asian. It sounds very cynical of me to say this, and of course I’m generalizing, but my experience of writing about Koreans’ Caucasian body ideals in all the posts that I link to is that despite all the evidence I’ve presented, most Koreans will go to great and often quite convoluted lengths to deny the role of those in say, choosing to get double-eyelid surgery or for finding Caucasians’ bodies “sexier” when nude/semi-nude and “more appropriate” for advertisements than those of Koreans. While the motives for Caucasian-looking types in animation specifically are a little bit different as explained, any discussion of this racial element with Koreans still seems to be literally the big white elephant in the room.
I haven’t heard the “small face” thing much myself come to think of it, although of course I do know of it. I think it’s been largely superseded by the “V-line” now, although that was probably based on it originally.
I don’t claim to be a sociology student or anything of the sort, but in the large “anime” composite at the beginning of your post, a reasonable explanation for using “Caucasian” characters occurred to me. Since East Asians typically have very similar hair and eye colors, is it possible that we are perceiving cartoons as “Western” because they have the full range of coloring? In the first picture, all the characters have blond, black, or brown hair, thus aiding the shows’ fans in identifying them.
I’ll admit that I have incredible difficulty telling people apart if they have similar hair color (no matter what their race), so it’s possible that the artists are just putting more varied colors to their “race neutral” characters. If they have the “Asian” beauty features of a small mouth and slender figure, what, besides their coloring, identifies them as “Western”?
P.S. Sorry to comment out of nowhere; I have found your blog on repeated Google searches as I research teaching in South Korea.
Thanks for your comment Valarie, and no need at all to ever apologize for commenting “out of nowhere”, on my blog or anyone else’s for that matter! After all, everyone’s a first-time commenter at some point.
I wasn’t sure which “anime composite” you were referring to though, do you actually mean the one third from the bottom if you scroll up from the “Part 2″ title? Regardless, I think that your explanation is not unreasonable at first glance, but would argue that any difficulty in identifying between characters wouldn’t be as great a problem for most people as you admit that it is for you. I found that Korean people, for instance, did stop all “looking the same” to me in just a few short weeks after arriving, and actually I’m constantly amazed at the large variation in looks despite Koreans generally having almost exactly the same hair and skin colors. And presumably Koreans themselves have never thought of themselves as looking monotonous.
We can probably agree to disagree about how Caucasian or not the characters in the very limited range of images I use in this post, but I think that that is besides the point: why make the characters’ ethnicities so vague in the first place? What would be wrong with unambiguously Japanese-looking ones? There are other, easier ways to help readers/viewers distinguish between characters – like clothing – and I’m unaware of any Western counterparts that leave viewers wondering whether the character is from Seattle, Sopporo or Shanghai. So like I say in the post, clearly something deeper is going on with Japanese animation that isn’t explained by any mere aesthetic or character-driven considerations.
Can I suggest a different approach. I’m not certain of the efficacy, and don’t take this as trashing your approach. But, might not comparative sociology expose some universal mechanisms? This discussion reminds me of some themes in German and Russian resentment to French influence in 18th/19th Century arts and culture.
Oh yes, certainly, I’m sure there will be many parallels. Unfortunately I don’t know of any myself, so please feel free to elaborate on any that you know personally (and for which I’d be very grateful!). And I’ll do my best to finish the update/second half (which gives more specifics) by tomorrow night!
Edit: Better make that Friday (the 21st). Sorry!
This is an interesting topic, though my recent perusal of anime has been limited to say the least. I’ll try not to say anything too stuupid. Please let me know if I do.
Is there any popular Korean animation you can reccomend? Or any Korean animation fanboy site with English attached?
There is a sense in which characters may act according to cultural expectations or stereotypes within a culture.
I’m so out of date I can’t provide any decent examples- I can only think of Pokemon and the Berserk English tv adaptation.
Berserk is fascinating because it opens up genre analysis and expectation- fantasy- that as Terry Pratchett once (roughly) said existed because America didn’t have any medieval history of it’s own and had to invent it badly.
So Berserk’s castles, battles and princesses are a reflection of medieval Europe through America?
Or do they have their own echoes of stories of ronin and other masterless men of the Tokugawa era?
And the demons of a-moral ambition?
Why anime characters are often visuallly caucasian is a fascinating question, but I don’t think it makes them culturally odourless for Japan, simply by their appearence. What are the character types and stock characters, and what kinds of behaviour is expected of them?
Though again, scant research and evidence, sorry.
Matt, I don’t think at all that you say anything stupid, but I’d recommend apologizing – if you feel that you must – at the end rather than the beginning of comments on blogs. Otherwise people might be tempted to skip over and/or think less of your comment. Notice that I don’t apologize myself in this post for writing somewhat prematurely until the very end of it, rather than draw people’s attention to it at the beginning!^^
I’m afraid that I can’t actually recommend any Korean animation, as I’ve read very little of it – the vibe of “Caucasianess” I’m describing is one I’ve gained from advertisements encountered on the street, and I discuss what Iwabuchi ‘s has to say about it because he confirms that that matches Japanese (and Korean) animation in general. I don’t know if you live in Korea or not, but if you do then you may have noticed that it’s also not nearly as popular as in Japan (where it’s ubiquitous), and in fact I’ve yet to see anyone over the age of 20 reading them, which may explain why I’ve never been able to find a “grown-up” one about adults, although I’m sure there’s hundreds in Japan (and am very open to recommendations).
For that reason, I haven’t read many, all have in fact been translated manga rather than manhwa per se, and those that I did read were mostly for the visuals rather than the stories, especially the dreamy, soporific (and still hand-painted) landscapes in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. Judging by this post though, Gomushin Girl might know of some good Korean ones and I should ask her.
I don’t know anything about most things you mention so I can’t really comment on those sorry, but I’d have to disagree about appearance not being enough to render animation characters culturally odorless. Just like how bizarre it felt once when I met a guy of Chinese ethnicity once, who spoke more like a typical Australian “bloke” than I ever could because his family had lived in the country since the first gold rushes of the 19th Century, then if Americans or even South-East Asians saw Japanese-looking characters on the TV speaking like themselves then it would render the animation too bizarre for most viewers. Naturally multiculturalism and immigration are undermining these instinctive reactions, but there’s still a way to go yet!
My hagwon passed on hiring a girl for our open position a couple weeks ago but we met for dinner a few days later. She’s 28 and loves reading manhwa, while her 19 year old cousin – who was also in attendance – thought she was crazy for doing so. The next time we meet I’ll try to ask for titles that she enjoys.
I’ve also come across a couple of girls on the Seoul subway system (Line 1 in northern Gyeonggi-do) reading manhwa; they almost always look to be university-aged and get off at Hoegi Station — where Kyung Hee University is located. These are not common sightings, though. Not sure if it counts for what you’re discussing, but have you seen the 3D animated short “Birthday Boy” by Sejong Park? I should have a copy of it burned to disc that I can upload if you’re interested in seeing it but haven’t yet.
Thanks, if you could ask her that would be great. Out of desperation actually I did come across and purchase a few “adult” ones, but that ultimately proved a little pointless as I don’t really have the bravado to read them on the subway or bus…or the inclination, as they’re rather lame.
Thanks for offering to upload “Birthday Boy”, but I confess that I’m mostly interested in comic books for the sake of Korean study really. With my two half-hours on the bus being the only real opportunities I get for that these days, then it would be great to have something light and portable to quickly get lost in. Miyazaki’s works do often fit that bill, but sometimes you need something a little more peppy then dreamy landscapes.
Strangely, when I used to read Miyazaki’s comics on the bus or subway I would get an inordinate amount of attention and inquiries from other commuters, whereas I’ll usually get none at all if I read, say, the Korean magazines that I’ve I gotten some of the articles I’ve translated for the blog from. Somehow the former makes me more approachable.
> Strangely, when I used to read Miyazaki’s comics on the bus or subway I would get an inordinate amount of attention and inquiries from other commuters, whereas I’ll usually get none at all if I read, say, the Korean magazines that I’ve I gotten some of the articles I’ve translated for the blog from. Somehow the former makes me more approachable.
That doesn’t strike me as strange at all.
Reading comics is associated with kids, because almost universally comics are easier to read than magazines*; this strongly suggests that your own Korean is not so good; if your own Korean is not so good, that guarantees that your Korean is poorer than your interlocutors’; if your Korean is poorer than theirs, they instantly have some status/competency to fall back on; boosted status means it is less risky/pricy to approach you; when prices/risk go down, demand goes up, as economics teaches us.
Hence, reading comics increases demand for social intercourse. Simple, really. :)
* the only anime/manga/manwha/comic I can think of that approaches the reading level of, say, _Newsweek_ is Gaiman’s _The Sandman_
Thanks: all that may well play a role, albeit a subconscious one!
Facinating that “Japanese cultural products” were banned until 1998 – further affirms my perception of Koreans as being incredibly insulated from global culture. Japan has had a huge impact on global culture, their products are everywhere (almost everywhere).
I would strongly disagree that Japanese cultural exports, modern art, or whatever you want to call it is culturally odorless – although these things are not traditionally Japanese, they are unmistakably Japanese. I grew up (in America, in the 1980′s) on Anime – there is no way that stylization and aesthetic sense could be anything other than Japanese – even if the characters don’t appear Japanese to some people.
man, I’ve got to get a more reliable internet connection so I can get on and comment more often . . .
there’s not a whole lot to recommend in terms of Korean animation – partially because the domestic industry spends a lot of time producing work that is broadcast elsewhere (simpsons, king of the hill, justice league, robotech . . .) and partially because it is so heavily indebted to Japanese animation that it often feels like a retread (for an example of this check out the pretty but dull Wonderful Days). There’s a few that are just kind of blah both in terms of story and actual animation (Yobi, Empress Chung are both really lackluster), a few that are ok (Oseam), and one or two that are absolutely brilliant. Probably the best two are Aaichi and Ssipak (wildly creative, as long as poop jokes are your thing) and My Beautiful Girl, Mari. Mari especially is distinctive both in storyline and in style of animation. It reminded me strongly neither of Disney nor of mainstream anime (maybe a very gentle nod in Miyazaki’s general direction . . .) But animation here doesn’t have the same clout or significance that it does in Japan.
I’ll have to double check and find some sources for you, but I seem to recall that one reason for the unique Caucasoid character designs in manga dates back to some early successes in the genre where the authors were trying to deal with issues that were still considered taboo or off-limits for discussion in Japan. One way to get around that was to set stories elsewhere – particularly Europe. The “24 group” was a big part of this, too . . . if you look to people like Osamu the traits aren’t nearly as pronounced. I’d point fingers at “Rose of Versailles” and the like for a really easy example of this.
Thanks for those, but it’s my bedtime now so I’ll have to wait until
the morningtomorrow to respond properly. But although I’m sure it’s no big deal really, for the sake of other readers I should probably point out that the above two comments above were made before I posted Part 2.Thinking back on my own ideas before, I feel like this confirms my stance on “Westernization” – Take anime presented here, for example – Although it has partially become a part of American culture, I think a very small portion of the people who watch it actually associate it directly with Japan. It’s just another piece of modernity; a new global culture that’s difficult to associate with any single region.
The success of media is less successful if it’s forced than if it’s sought after. I think more than the media companies disseminating media, it’s a subculture of enthusiasts (to use the softest term possible) who sound the siren of demand, and media companies act on this. Before any of the current Japanese media hit U.S. shores, there were considerably sized internet communities providing “unlicensed” media in the States. Then you’ve got companies like Tokyopop who swoop in, buy up licenses, and the rest is history.
Back in 2005, though, there was a brief wave of “a return to Japanese beauty” that gained considerable ground, but it seems to have waned (although the Shampoo “Asience” is still popular). I wonder, though, if that will return, and if it will impact media productions, or if we’ll begin to see even more mukokuseki-flavored productions of media.
Thanks for the comments everyone.
Sonam, It took me a while to think about your comment! My first thoughts were that, although I acknowledge that my own personal interest in Korean and Japanese animation is very recent, and that you clearly have much more knowledge of it than I do, I don’t think that the arguments that Iwabuchi provides – or the numerous sources that he quotes – are coming out of a vacuum exactly. In particular, while it’s certainly true that perceptions of mukokuseki, or Caucasianess of anime characters (not exactly the same), may be heavily dependent on what particular genres, sub-genres and artists one reads, and so his arguments may have more or less resonance depending on one’s tastes, still, when you say that Japanese cultural products are “unmistakably Japanese” and that “there is no way that stylization and aesthetic sense could be anything other than Japanese – even if the characters don’t appear Japanese to some people”, I think that you greatly underestimate the genuine ambiguity of the ethnicity of Japanese animation’s characters to many people. Hell, even the very limited range of examples I’ve given in this post are proof of that.
But then I realized that I think you’ve missed a wider point really. Again, you say that “there is no way that stylization and aesthetic sense could be anything other than Japanese”. That may well be true, but does that stylization and aesthetic sense really evoke a sense of “Japan” to non-Japanese readers?
Obviously specific stories based on Japanese history and so on clearly do to a greater or lesser extent, and having Japanese characters and/or seeing Japanese script in store windows in story panels is technically identifying a cultural product as Japanese, but change those minor details and I’d wager that many if not most Japanese animation stories could be set in Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai or Taipei rather than Japan and it would effectively make no difference to readers’ enjoyment or popularity of the product.
Like I quoted:
That quote is just about technology sure, but I’d wager that, to the extent that it does at all, much of Japanese anime provokes an idea of Northeast Asia at best perhaps, but certainly not one exclusively of Japan. That’s what mukokuseki is all about.
Gomushin Girl, what’s with the internet connection? And you live in Seoul, in 2008?!! Seriously though, thanks for the suggestions for reading, and your point that authors were trying to deal with issues that were still considered taboo or off-limits for discussion in Japan by setting their stories elsewhere is well taken – undoubtedly that would have had a big effect.
Alex, oops, wish I hadn’t been all logical and had actually read your comment before responding to Sonam’s instead, as I say much the same thing there. I don’t have too much to add to yours though sorry, although I’d echo what you say about the importance of organic rather than top-down growth. But could you please elaborate about the brief wave of “a return to Japanese beauty” that you mention? You’re talking about Japan, right…sorry, of course you are (sleepy). I’m curious as to what impacts that had here, as I’m increasingly interested in to what extent and with what time lag Koreans follow Japanese fashions and other trends.
I think there was at least some sign of it in Korea, too, most pronouncedly in hair styles – Beginning in the latter half of the 90s we saw dyed hair increasingly bold, and turning into a standard rather than just a trend. “Natural black” was “unstylish”, and you had colors ranging from dark chestnut to auburn, and all the way up to flat-out bleach blonde. I felt that, perhaps, the anime characters were a reflection of that; that they may be echoing social trends even among your typical “housewives”, although I couldn’t account for blue eyes as color contacts were, and still aren’t, as widespread.
Then around 2004/2005-ish (I was an exchange student at Sophia University in Tokyo at the time), there was this “return to Asian beauty” trend that started to pick up, and the commercial in particular that so vividly remains in my memory is a bunch of blond-haired Japanese women gathering, and then “freeing themselves of their shackles”, so to speak, by simultaneously shedding their wigs and revealing flowing, black hair underneath.
Even today, one of the top brands is Asience (Asian+essence, if that wasn’t immediately clear). [Asience Website] Their commercials often feature flowing black-haired TV personalities and actresses.
I’m curious to see if this continues to pick up steam, or if it’s just a trend in passing, and whether it’ll be noticeable in media like manga. I’ve been out of the manga-world for quite some time now (last thing I read was called Salaryman Kintaro, which if I was a social-psychologist I might have a heyday with), but if I could find some justification in buying up a bunch of modern mangas (like, say, getting accepted to grad school in Seoul) then I’d love to expand on what you’ve already got here.
It’s been a while since I’ve thought about it, but your observations about the extremes of hair colors and styles in the late-1990s do match my own from when I first arrived in Jinju (진주) back in 2000. At the time, I thought they were because of being in a small country town of 350,000 or so, but considering that the city did/does have 8 to 12 universities or so then I don’t think that the students there would have gone overboard with and/or been all that far behind Seoul and Busan trends really.
I’d also say that there has been a “return to Asian beauty” trend in Korea in recent years, although if it was at all related to the one in Japan (which I think iis debatable), then I’d say that there was very little, if any, time-lag. Seeing as how my own interests in fashions and women’s body images and so on are comparatively recent then I’d be very interested in what Gomushin Girl and others with keener eyes for fashion have to say about this (hint hint), but still, in this particular case I think I’d be just as knowledgeable as anyone else, for I have to confess that I do tend to like Korean women’s almost universally naturally long and straight black hair, and so noticed pretty damn quickly when a few years ago more and more of them – to my great relief – shunned dying and perming them and starting looking like their natural selves again.
It’ll be an interesting little project for me to find any comparable Korean advertisements from then to the Japanese one you mention, although none spring to mind. If I don’t find any, then maybe it was indeed a Japanese-inspired shift, albeit one that transferred here via more organic sources.
It will be indeed be interesting to see the shift is picked up in manga and manhwa, but still not knowing much about it and only having just written a great deal about the theory, then I’ll spend more time on the practice – ie. reading it – until speculating again!
This is an excellent post! Maybe I’m not well-read but I haven’t seen anyone tackle this subject in such a well-thought out (not to mention well-written) way.
Here’s a small tidbit from my own personal experience…
I’ve been reading Japanese manga since I was about 12, way back in the early 90′s. (I’m also very partial to Korea’s comics and illustration as well.) I gave very little thought back then about hair color, etc. As often as not it, was a fantasy setting and everyone had blue hair.
It wasn’t until the adults around me started asking about the comics (since it was such an unheard-of interest back then) that I would hear “Why do they have such large eyes?” or even more boldly, “Why do they all look white?” (with an implication that annoyed me: they want to look white, it must be American media influencing them!) that it occurred to me they didn’t look Japanese. They certainly looked Japanese to me. So, it continued to bother me for years. I felt in my gut there was some cultural arrogance/ignorance going on behind these supposedly socially-aware questions.
Much later in college a friend of mine said, “They behave in a Japanese way, they speak Japanese. So, I think they look Japanese to Japanese people.”
I really agree there is truth to that.
Earl, I’ll have to be quick because I’m typing this on my shared work computer sorry, but just a quick note to say thanks, although I don’t think it was that thought out(!): after all, half-way in I realize that the subject is much broader and my grasp of it much weaker than I first thought, and ultimately it takes me over a week to get on top of it and finish the second half of the post.
I’ll discuss your tidbit when I get home in a few hours and don’t have colleagues bugging me…
(10:21) And here I am. I can understand and relate to your experience, and your explanation certainly sounds plausible, but if I’m reading it right then one possible negative is that it does kind of assume an indifference and/or a lack of critical thinking skills in the minds of Japanese readers of manga. Not to say that I disagree though, and while it’s true that someone from any country (not just Japan by any means) would naturally get defensive when a foreigner points out uncomfortable truths about his or her fellow citizen’s often quite contradictory notions of race, as revealed by manga or manhwa say, unfortunately Koreans at least seem to do very little self-reflection on it themselves. So again, I think you’re right.
Sorry if that makes little sense, I’m quite tired sorry.
There is a really interesting article called “The face of the other: Do manga characters look white?” written by an American who is a teacher at Seika University.
He argues that they actually aren’t meant to look white (and if you ask Japanese people, most of them will tell you manga characters look Japanese to them) they simply aren’t marked to signify “Japanese physical traits” because there is no need to, since the intended audience is Japanese.
99% of Japanese animation and comics are produced white Japanese audiences only in mind despite widespread opinions in Western countries.*
Japanese audiences automatically think a character is Japanese unless that character is marked as foreign, visually or in speech.
Here is the article: http://matt-thorn.com/mangagaku/faceoftheother.html
*The success of Japanese animation and comic books abroad has surprised the Japanese too. They never thought foreigners would be interested in their works in the beginning. The global manga craze wasn’t planned by the Japanese, unlike the cultural expansion of America for example. The visual styles featured in Japanese comics and cartoons are purely targeted towards Japanese audiences.
D, thanks for passing on that article, and I’ll read it when I get the chance, but sorry, although I mean this in the nicest possible way, I’m afraid that I completely disagree with your explanation, or rather Matt Thorn’s via your summary.
While I do accept that on the basis of their names, language and plots and so on most Japanese consumers of manga never have any cause to think that the characters are anything other than Japanese, and will grant for the sake of argument that that certainly makes it possible to do away with identifiable “Japanese physical traits”, that still doesn’t explain why most cartoonists and animators would actually do so, and especially not why they would to the extent that the characters look like they belong to another race completely.
I suggest stepping back for a moment, in a forest for the trees sense, to realize the absurdity of such an argument. Imagine, say, that characters in British comics tended to look more East Asian than they did Caucasian (which while a mere role-reversal, somehow sounds more bizarre already, thus revealing our academic baggage on the subject) and that someone argued that this was somehow because the use of English and so on in them meant that Caucasian features weren’t required (not to say that all British people are Caucasian of course). Again, “not required” doesn’t mean (effectively) “not allowed”, and in particular, why would that make them look East Asian necessarily? Why not Latino, American-Indian or African (and so on) instead? Obviously, some other factor would be the only way to account for the choice, as indeed is the case for real-life manga too.
The only way in which I can see an explanation like the one you provide ever making publication in a reputable academic journal would be if somehow Matt Thorn argued that the whiteness of Caucasians’ skins renders them the “default ethnic type” for illustrations on the (usually) white paper used in manga…but which would be a very thin (literally) basis for discussion, and I’m not even going to start on the undoubtedly voluminous concept in general.
I think the real reason why Caucasian looks are so favored in Korean culture is that Koreans only get to see the West’s bright side. It’s like “everyone there must look like Britney Spears.”
http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc03546mf2.jpg
I’ve written in 1 of my blog posts (dokebiclub.blogspot.com) that Caucasians can be ugly too, but Koreans don’t get that.
Oh, also,
Asian faces just isn’t suited for cartoon drawings. You can take a handsome Korean & draw him cartoon-style & he will look terrible.
And, it’s misleading to characterize Korean cartoon characters as Caucasian because …. Caucasians still look different from the anime style drawings. It’s more accurate to compare anime characters with dolls than Caucasians.
Caucasian features came about in Asian cartoons for various legitimate reasons. To give the cartoon characters a distinct personality, Korean cartoonists made use of different colors for eyes & hair. Also, cartoons were made in context
Dokebi, it’s true that Koreans generally only see attractive Caucasians in the media, and are often surprised by the mundane reality when they visit foreign countries, but that still doesn’t explain why Koreans “would favor Caucasian looks” in the first place. Nor does your argument that Asian faces “aren’t suited for cartoon drawings”, a notion which would a) be a product and not a cause of Korean concepts of race, and very similar to the, say, oft-heard argument that the large numbers of Caucasian in lingerie and underwear advertisements is because “Caucasians look better [than Koreans] when semi-nude” and b) equally absurd.
Finally, as this post and most other commenters have made abundantly clear, many anime characters do indeed look Caucasian, so I’ll continue to use that as the framework for discussion rather than…dolls(?!!)…and seeing as how East Asians (or myself for that matter) have no problem distinguishing between themselves in real life, it seems strange to think that they would need such embellishment in manga.
One reason that black people are NOT Korean cartoon characters is because they have made an image of themselves through (t.v news) music, movies etc as:
Evil
Thugs
Criminals
Gangsters
Hedonistic
Crud language
Threaten others
See woman as toys
Obsessed with money
Obsessed with materialism
Use prison as a symbol of pride
They appear to be “street” or filthy
Use no discretion in speech or behavior
Are obnoxious citizens to their neighbors
Are happy with being a dependent upon society
This is NOT the culture Koreans admire. They may like rap, and street dancing etc, but in NO WAY do they accept black people and their behaviors.
THEREFORE
They have no affinity or respect for them. Meanwhile, Bill Gates, Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Issac Newton, Albert Einstein, J.K. Rowling, are much admired, emulated, and respected, as reflected in their pictures, cartoon, movies, commercials etc.
Not really a mystery buddy, and kind of a waste of time constructing a web site to figure out the obvious.
Brad, not once in the entire post do I discuss why Black people are not Korean cartoon characters. Sorry if this is too much to ask, but in future could you please restrict yourself to only railing against things I’ve actually said?
But thank you, I do appreciate the triangular-shaped list of stereotypes Koreans allegedly have of Black people (it’s very pretty), although I confess I’m a bit at a loss as to how writing that was a more constructive use of one’s time than my blog post exactly.
Japanese cartoons look like caucasus race???? lol you wish! they don’t look anything like caucasus race. look at western cartoon such as batman, that’s how you describe yourselves and western cartoon characters look nothing like japanese cartoon characters. Japanese cartoon characters is no real depiction of people, It’s just character. I found it amazing that Americans find character look like themselves and think SERIOUSLY that why do asians draw us? seriously that should be the way that imbecile people probably think. And, I found Americans so ignorant because white people look all same to me too, but at least I am aware naturally that White people can distinguish each other without serious thinking. ‘And presumably Koreans themselves have never thought of themselves as looking monotonous’<—-this is what you wrote???really?? are you serious?? how can you write that kind of sentence in serious tone? I assume you are american right? because I notice that level of american people's intelligent is very low like how you write presumably Koreans never find themselves as looking monotonous. are you really serious?? Do americans have low IQ or something? because I notice Europeans just think like us with normal intelligence, but I notice Americans wonder about something stupid things in serious way. believe me only low IQ people wonder about what is answer of 4 mutiply 3 in serious way for long time.
I hope the following will help promote understanding and dismiss misguided stigmas:
1. The U.S. Bureau of Census cites an evolving definition of a Caucasian. According to the site’s current definition, a Caucasian can look Mr. Obama. If you wonder what that is all about, consider the projected demographic in America for the year 2020. Also consider Adam.
2. If there is a basis to one desiring to be like another in this context of conversation, it is because of misinformation, diminished self-worth. That is, misinformation that the other is more meaningful or better, and not understanding the value and purpose of self.
3. Yet one thing is known to be fact; there is no such thing as a white person, without makeup or skin disorder. This is empirically sound, and if you don’t believe; standing next to a white sheet of paper will convince you.
4. It is time that intelligent people of moral courage erode the ignorance of this world.
For Brad if he checks in again:
1. Evil – Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was an American serial killer and sex offender. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys; (don’t forget about Satan)
2. Thugs – Bowery Boys, Old Crime Families
3. Criminals – What’s going on in every city of the world
4. Gangsters – Old Crime Families in all countries
5. Hedonistic – Greek (not the only ones) culture that subscribes to some stoic views or even Epicurus.
6. Crud language – have you ever cursed in your heart?
7. Threaten others – most of the above did the same
8. See woman as toys – maybe a few nights out on the night club scene, will educate one on this matter
9. Obsessed with money- Wall Street (Madoff), Milken, Stanford, AIG
10. Obsessed with materialism – in all cultures and nations
11. Use prison as a symbol of pride – probably something misunderstood
12. They appear to be “street” or filthy – have you been to a third world country?
13. Use no discretion in speech or behavior – I thought about this writing, but I have hope.
14. Are obnoxious citizens to their neighbors– Do you think this writing may offend some citizens?
15. Are happy with being a dependent upon society – there are many like Obama in the world
Normally, intellectual discourse doesn’t begin at this level, but I am willing to show you that all of the above characteristics can be found in any man depending on himself and his circumstance. This means in any culture, town, or place, or mind. By the way, were did you grow up? What’s your favorite piece of non-fiction literature? I can show you there is no black race of people as well, and for that matter no white.
Sage–You really didn’t need to – Brad (and popopoop for that matter) is the sort that comes by with one (to him) insightful and witty comment, then leaves and never visits the blog again – but thanks nevertheless, and I still learned a couple of things from those.
that wouldn’t apply in south africa
There was a really interesting youtube video about the topic which had some substantial evidence why the belief that asian cartoon characters seem (!) to look caucasian has much more to do with western perception than with the way the characters are actually drawn. (which would match with Scott McCloud’s explanation how comics work as a medium in his book ‘Understanding Comics’) Sadly the video got deleted and I can’t find it anymore, but this article http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/08/30/guest-post-why-do-the-japanese-draw-themselves-as-white/ refers to some of the points also mentioned in the video. (It doesn’t go too much into detail, though.)