From: ayelet.zohar-AT-ipc.co.il (Ayelet Zohar)
Subject: Re: Joy Kogawa and Others 
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 22:08:33 GMT


 Also, you 
-> characterize Japanese as being educated to be more polite than 
-> Westerners.

 I DID NOT characterize japanese as more polite but (see my previous
mail) as people educated to be more attentive to the other's feelings,
an HOW things are being said.
 
 Do you think so? Can you understand Japanese and have you 
-> lived in Japan? They say things that no Western would dare say to 
-> another face. Where do you draw this vision of the sensitive, polite 
-> Japanese? The spectrum of the polite there resembles anyplace, 
-> whether Dallas or Paris or Moscow or Beijing. Do you mean to champion 
-> education which emphasizes being less argumentative and 
-> controversial? I'd love to hear more of this argument. 

my feeling is that a society that emphasizes "relations" over "personal"
or "individual" values - has advantages and disadvantages like every
other society with its form and preferring. western people, brought up
to be "individualistic", "unique" and "creative" have probably advantage
in these fields, and Japanese who are brought up to be more "attentive"
"sensitive to mutual and social harmony" have more comfortable life in
the community. The whole comment you have written above is part of the
larger 'cultural misunderstanding' i have mentioned before, an attempt
to present western culture as superior to Japanese, and a position that
does not understands one's personal ideas and circumstances as a result
of broader issues. Japan is an event as much as the US is an event and
neither is better or worse in any terms. they are just very different
from each other.




Do you think 
-> it's more stimulating and edifying for students to study in Japan 
-> than in America, where we learn to disagree politely and cultivate 
-> controversy.

i don't like and don't agree with this comparative/competitive tone. i
have studied in japan as well as in china, never studied in the US, and
i have learnt a lot about human nature and means of communication in
that period.

-> If I say, "I think you're seeking a Shangri-La in Japan, Ashelet," am I
-> emphasizing "meaning" (like your insensitive Westerner) or "how it is 
-> being said" (like your ideal Japanese=Asian?)? 

just re-look at the old conversation between you and Yamamoto. i have
never thought of japan as Shangri-la, but neither thought the US was any
closer.


Don't I employ a 
-> metaphor that is sensitive to you and other readers and intends to 
-> evoke feelings of sarcasm toward starry-eyed representations of an 
-> ideal East, West or a Twain?

-> (By the way, I have only discussed Japan and the US, not Asia, which 
-> Ashelet introduced as apparently identical with Japan in his last 
-> posting. Though obvious, it should be pointed out that the Japanese 
-> ideological situation is quite different from the mainland Chinese, 
-> Indonesian, Thai, Taiwanese, South Korean, North Korean, Vietnamese, 
-> Indian, and other Asian ideological milieus.)


Sorry for writing Asia - it should have been - East-asia of course, and
yes, these countries and cultures have much in common as do the US,
Canada, and other Western nations - they are not identical but have much
in common, in terms of common cultural roots and background.


wish you all best


ayelet




     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---