(no subject)

[oyceter]

Now I kind of feel bad about being so snarky about the Judith Tarr book. It wasn't bad by any means, it was just the bad parts were so distracting from the good parts that it was very frustrating.

yhlee's got some interesting thoughts on nationality/ethnicity (I can't think of the right descriptive) and writing.

As a reader, I like having sci-fi/fantasy that has different cultural influences. But I also get rather irked when it goes wrong, when it feels like the author has only sort of paid lip service to research or something and ends up perpetuating stereotypics instead of offering an interesting look at the culture. It's a fine line to walk; plus, I'm probably a more touchy reader than most. And I have to remember that something that doesn't feel "Asian" or "Chinese" to me might just be me, because it's not as though I've grown up being entirely Asian or Chinese or whatnot.

Then there's the fun flip side -- I remember reading a Time Magazine article in twelfth grade, in which the author suggested that maybe the multi-colored hair and big eyes of anime characters indicates some sublimated Japanese desire to be Caucasian. I don't really buy into that, but it's interesting, and it made me think. I guess for anime it's hard to tell sometimes -- the guy who basically invented anime and manga in their modern form was highly influenced by Disney. Plus, there are all the pseudo-European fantasy landscapes in so much anime and manga, particularly shoujo.

I think this is why I get a bit huffy sometimes at America-the-conceptual-entity (which I think is different from America-the-political-state or America-which-contains-lots-of-different-people). Obviously, no one in America is forcing other countries to adopt bits of American culture, and of course, globalization, etc. and America itself definitely has lots of other cultures influencing it as well. It's just that sometimes it seems so prevalent that one comment on the superiority of America (which would annoy me anyway) just sets me off. I used to argue with my friends a lot about this in college -- I think I've cooled down about it, but it's still a niggly little annoying thing.

Hrm, now wondering if I have said too much -- I am a total wuss about confrontation and argumentation.

Comments

[oyceter]

Yeah! There are lots of books that seemingly are about Asia and instead everyone bows a lot and is unfailingly polite, etc. And I think back on the aunties I know, and I think, I bet there were some horribly blunt people there who were kind of shocking but popular. Or something. Just... no diversity in characterization or something. Too often it's a portrait of this stiff, polite, restrained society that quashes individuality and the lone hero/heroine who is an Individual.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

Kindred soul! God, I'm so sick of that storyline, and I'm someone who usually has to resist getting quashed when I'm in Korea. Because it's always so one-sided. There was a particular novel (3rd in a trilogy, so I'm going to be vague for fear of spoilering) that drove me nuts because it was so Western individualism = good vs. Oriental communalism = bad in its setup. So black-and-white and one-sided.

And yeah, I don't think people realize sometimes that people who are sufficiently insulated from the social system, like old aunties or grandmothers, can be horrifyingly blunt. :-p

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

My Chinese and Hong Kong friends are always remarking upon the tendency of the older generation to be, indeed, horrifyingly blunt, with "You're fat!" being among the milder things they've quoted to me.

[oyceter]

Very. That's my mom right there ;). I swear, that's the first thing everyone remarks on when I go back home!

[oyceter]

Yeah! And I'm generally all for individualism, except where the biases of the story get to the point in which I want to push Communism just because I'm sick of having the message shoved down my throat.