May 20, 2024
"In some ways, I guess I'm more Japanese than some Japanese people."
This line struck a chord with me, and I will now spend an inordinate amount of time dissecting it an its implications.
Before starting, I should admit that, growing up, I was also fascinated with a foreign culture – the British one to be precise. There was something to the stoicism and scepticism, to the good natured dry wit and the pompous, elegant, almost prissy mannerisms they exuded. But, now that I've come to live here for going on half a decade now, I can obviously say I was wrong. And see, I think my experiences are far more commonplace within a country which does a lot more cultural exports than the UK.
Japan, to your average weeb – a term which I use both loosely and all-encompassingly at the same time – is not so much a country, as it is a sum of perceived customs. Its villages and cities are just pretty backdrops, its people actors, and its culture nothing more than a series of TV specials. It's a stage play many want to spectate and, deep down, feature in. And to that end, they end up performing the cultural motions they had learnt not by assimilation, but rather through some perverse osmosis which left them with a mutant definition of what it is to be Japanese. What they think, say and do is a facsimile of an ersatz and it's acted out so ostentatiously that it circles around from being cringeworth to being arrogant. That, I believe is being more Japanese than the Japanese themselves.
My main issue with this story is that I believe its message is brilliant, whilst its execution is not. There is an element of style which, I'll admit, I didn't gel with from the get-go. The ironic tinge wore thin very quickly, so when the more serious moments came through I found myself barely able to engage with them. Obviously, I'm not saying that you should've played it straight from the start – that would be presumptuous. Though I do wonder if a culture shock would be better off presented as... lost in translation. One idea I had whilst reading this was, 'what if we saw someone who was so entrenched in the tradition and pageantry of being Japanese that he alienated himself from what Japan was really supposed to be.' And, really, I don't think we got to see this. I don't think we could.
Very good concept, Stew. I really liked it.
Best of luck in the competition.
Bubbles~
