The Asian Culture Revolution

[Wag - Now And Forever]

This could perhaps be considered a debatable topic.

That is, perhaps, if it were not an iron-clad fact.

Culture defines us. It shapes us, molds our psyche and our morals. It gives us roots, and yet also gives us endless possibilities to expand and explore. Culture is everywhere around us, and no one can deny it. I don't know exactly when it struck me. Maybe it was just before Japanese class. Maybe it was all those times people asked me: "You haven't ever even taken Japanese before, why are you taking it?". Maybe it was just somthing that had been in my face for so long, I had forgotten it was there. It had no name. Now it does.

The Asian Culture Revolution is right now. It is our generation. It is the explosion and infatuation of American pop culture with all things Asian. Ranging from media and clothing to creating it's own culture-within-a-culture right here in the states, the Revolution is showing no signs of slowing down. But why now? Why in our era, our generation? Why has the revolution just recently begun to grow so far, so fast? A simple look at history and sociology reveals all...

Name someone you know who is prejudice against Muslims. Now, African Americans. Now name someone you know who is prejudiced against Asians. Having trouble with the last one? Consider this - over sixty years ago, WW II had just ended. Thousands of Japanese, Chinese, Koreans and other Asians were just being let out of internment camps, putting Asian prejudice at an all-time high. "The Japs bombed us, ergo we as Americans hate not only them, but virtually everyone who looks like them." A similar analogy is the association many people make today with "all muslims are terrorists." Prejudices as simple-minded and foolish as this did and still do exist.

However -

The WW II generation is dying out. Fewer and fewer people are still alive who remember those days of interment camps, Pearl Harbor, and the A-bomb. More and more children are being raised in the absence of Asian prejudice - thus comes the Asian Culture Revolution. With less oppression and less prejudice being taught from the older generations, the younger generations are left with an open opinion of Asian culture. No longer are the Japanese "the people who bombed us". What has replaced it is something that has literally swept the youth and culture of a nation...

Before you stop and tell me "Well Wag, this is an anime board, of course we're all over-exposed to Japanese culture". Are we really? Or are we just so used to it that we can't see where it's going? All anime aside, consider the last time you went a week without seeing a kanji or japanese character in the media, an advertisement, or product. Consider the recent string of super-smash Asian-based films such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Kill Bill", and "Hero". Consider the incredible popularity and frequency of anime related or anime-spawned saturday morning cartoons - all aimed at ages 5-13. As the popularity of things such as this increase, it has an overall snowball effect on the entire revolution.

Take Pokemon for example. One of the first anime to appear on a saturday morning cartoon lineup, aimed at kids. Immediately it was met with an incredible response, and kids and teens just couldn't get enough of Pokemon the show, Pokemon the card game, Pokemon DVD's...you name it. The industry cashed in, and others followed. Digimon, Beyblades, Yu-gi-oh...the list goes on of the literal flood of media that shoved it's way into the lineups after the success of Pokemon. Now it's hard to name one "regular" saturday morning cartoon show that isn't anime based.

The same snowball effect has occured within dozens of other facets of American culture. Instead of dragsters, we now have "Rice Rockets" covered in kanji stickers and Japanese name brands. People sport garments with phrases written in Asian characters they don't even understand - but hey, it's popular, so they'll wear it. Console games in particular have seen a flood of anime-based and Japanese pop culture based games pouring onto systems like the PS2 and Gamecube. Yet even as the revolution has effected virtually all American culture, it has also created it's own.

The Anime culture. Yes, it exists and has it's own name. You are more than likely a part of it. Those who consume anime and anime based products make up the bulk of it, yet there are extremes on both ends. While some simply "like anime on TV", others are one hundred percent completely absorbed in Asian culture. They watch anime. They know an Asian language. They will only date Asians. They listen to Asian music. The list goes on. There are people ranging the whole gamut of "involvement", but most who fall into the category at all are part of the American counter-culture.

Yes, the counter culture. The nerds. The geeks. Don't deny being a part of it. The anime culture itself is a culture-within-a-culture of the American counter-culture. The people who aren't perfect looking with a dresser full of Abercrombie clothes and a cute boyfriend or girlfriend - this is the American counter culture. The people who make your software, the people who are on the other end of the tech help hotline...they're all members. Instead of MTV, they're watching Adult Swim. Instead of that dresser full of the latest trends, they've got a bookcase full of Anime and Sci Fi DVDs. What is ironic about the entire revolution is that a culture within the counter-culture has effected the youth of the nation more than the national pop-culture itself.

Just look at it. The way America is consuming Asian pop-culture goods has NEVER been higher. Movies, books, TV shows, foods, cars, tatoos, clothes - you name it, Asia makes it[/b], and American youth is buying it up!! What has this created? Perhaps a greater American appreciation for Asian culture. It has definately been a both a product of and a catalyst in a major decline in Asian prejudice. As for the future of the revolution, only time will tell just how deep it will implant itself in this generation...

Comment.

[Triyun]

Pokemon is Japan's plan to counter attack the US. They don't want to fight us military, rather they will brainwash an entire generation of little people and when they finally come to power, have them surrender.

[NeoEllis]

Well said, Wag. I’ve long considered that same thesis myself.

We are the “Third generation”, I suppose, of anime/ Asian fans.

The “First Generation” existed from the from the 1980s looking backward. Fans of Kurosawa films and the like, Godzilla films and even sparse anime (being rare and cut as it was). But there, from what I have gathered, was very little to no real fan base, the above seen as little more than gimmicky distractions -kids stuff. The “Asian Revolution” had by no means come into its own.

The “Second Generation” arose in the 1980s. Long before even fan subs these people were the small clans of geeks that grew on raw bootleg tapes. These people were our true forefathers, they were the Mega Zone 23, Project A-Ko, Black Magic generation. The people that would take the risk and bring use the first manga and the first anime commercially. To these people, we own everything.

Following the second generation, we have the “Intermediate Generation”. The prelude to the third and modern age of fandom, this was Robotech, this was Akira, this was Animego selling licensed VHS tapes, this was Pokemon.

And so finally we have the “Third Generation”, the Evangelion/ DVD/ Adult Swim/ Kanji characters/ ADV/ Kill Bill generation Wag described above. We are, in a sense, the “Prelude to the Asian Revolution.”. What comes with the “Fourth Generation”, time will only tell.

At the very least, we’ll be able to say we liked it before it was cool.

[Tobari Sabbatine]

the 4th gen is wend US's culture is become more and more like Japan, I mean now we have a show about a Japanese Pop band!

[Kensai]

Malakym said:

the 4th gen is wend US's culture is become more and more like Japan, I mean now we have a show about a Japanese Pop band!

We do? anyways..... I'd say it's the other way around. The japanese tried hard to become americanized after world war to.

[The Giant-Size Man Thing]

Triyun said:

Pokemon is Japan's plan to counter attack the US. They don't want to fight us military, rather they will brainwash an entire generation of little people and when they finally come to power, have them surrender.

Man, you haven't been keeping up. Pokemon was only Phase 1.

Phase 1: Send Pokemon and other crappy kids-oriented-little-monster cartoons.

Phase 2:

Phase 3: Take over America.

[Triyun]

Just to be clear, everyone does know we would never be considered actual Japanese, they are a homogenous culture. They'd like consider us wannabes. Like all those rich white kids you see who try to be ghetto and the blacks and latinos who are think they are ridiculous.

[Ai]

Triyun said:

who are think they are ridiculous.

HAHAH ENGRISH

I think that a lot of the people who are into the Asian culture are in it too much. The people who use Japanese phrases, wear the shirts and shit, and insist on calling Japanese cartoons anime. They're cartoons, get over it. Saying they're cartoons doesn't make it any worse. Hell, Batman's a cartoon, and he kicks ass. Me, I'd say I'm more of a casual asian culture fan. I play PS2, I take Aikido, and I watch some anime/japanese films. But hey, you know what? Kurosawa's a better fucking director than almost all of the american ones.

And on the subject of Gen. 1, there's a lot of Japanese/Kurosawa influence in the films of those times, especially westerns with Clint Eastwood in it.

[Mega Raptor]

Cultural blending is to be expected with how interconnected the world is. People will take bits and pieces of every culture they like and fuse them into a sort of whole.

In my opinion, however, part of the reason so many people are doing this now is because from what I've seen 'normal' American culture is becoming increasingly shallow and comercial. I'm not saying it's any better in other countries, I'm just saying that part of the reason people are looking to other countries for culture is because our own is so empty now..

[Juan]

Its not as much a revolution as an increased sharing. Just as we take in more Japanese Culture, in the form of Japanese movies and programming and other things, Japan too has been taking in an increase in American programming and films. It is not one way, a mutual sharing.

[DarkAries]

Aries looks at it this way: So?

Aries thinks that this cross-pollination of cultures is definately a good thing.

After all. Turn on the TV right now. That's enough to make any culturalist wanna retch.

Maybe a larger flux of Asian culture'll save us from ourselves.

But, in either case, Aries is still gonna love his Gundam and his anime and his manga and so on and so forth, whether Western culture is rescued by Eastern culture (Clavell would be so proud...), so, so what?

[Wag - Now And Forever]

My point is that if a young, hot , available Japanese schoolgirl also was able to kill things with a bow and arrows, I'd be all over that.

[Nowhere Man]

And everyone says that America is being impressionable on the rest of the world...

The fact is, we love Asia for two reasons. First, because all of our corporations have their factories over there. The second reason is that Japan, Korea, and China are "rolling out" some things that are just plain awesome.

It sure took them a long time (a few hundred years) to catch up to the rest of the world's definition of "cool", but now that they have, they're dictating it. Think about it. How cool are martial arts? How cool is that new Japanese-made car? How cool is that new video game? We simply can't get enough of it. And neither can they.

So, let's just face it. Asia almost holds a monopoly on the "coolness factor". I'm all for it. I'm sick of these damnably unreliable American products.

[Triyun]

I love Japan because I spent most of my earlier childhood there, so I was raised on Japanese food, shows, clothing, etc.

As for the Japanese School grils, yeah I totally agree. Its disturbing though, we got into them when we were teenagers. But hopefully we won't be into them when were like 25 and 30 still.

THATS IT GOJIRA I FIGURED OUT PHASE 2:

Take out the pre-pokemon generation by having the entire male population get arrested for pedophilia!

[Tobari Sabbatine]

Kensai said:

We do? anyways..... I'd say it's the other way around. The japanese tried hard to become americanized after world war to.

yeah it just came air on cartoon network.

That's the weird thing we become more and more like Japan and Japan becomes more and more like the US in therms of culture. They have baseball and we have Japanese game shows.