The Other Side Of The World
Aug. 20th, 2010 01:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frustratedpilotOn the English-language news from Japan that we get from PBS World channel overday, there was a story about a Singapore department store that was a major influence on Asian fashion culture for years, celebrating a grand opening of a showcase store in its hometown. Since the narrator's English was not particularly easy to listen to, I muted the sound on the TV. Mum took that as a hint to start the conversation, telling about how "Western" the styles are now...
And my reply was that "no, their styles aren't Western...their styles are GLOBAL". Fashion isn't decided in Milan or Paris or Brussels or New York--it's decided EVERYWHERE now. The world's culture is now a melting pot and fashion is one way that it's emerging into its next phase. I mentioned that American culture--in particular, pop culture--is persisting in what has been termed "magical Orientalism"--in which the East (and the Middle-East) is presented as more exotic and mystical than not only it is but more than it possibly could be. Meanwhile, the real Orient has the same smartphones, the same Buick cars, the same social networks and the same television programs that WE do. And life is just as mundane, complicated, and tediously desperate as we have it here. Magic Orientalism could be excused in previous centuries, but not now. (Being the otaku that I am, I've never really put creedence in magical Orientalism--tho' what do you call the NewType phenomenon in comparison?)
As irony would have it, at the same time we watched that TV program, we were sitting down to dinner: our version of Chow Mein, which isn't exactly real Chow Mein but as close as we can manage here in the Tennessee country.
Meanwhile, the area I live in is probably looked at by outsiders through the lenses of Uncle Remus, KFC, Mayberry, The Dukes of Hazzard and old country music records. Do those other cultures see this one as possibly possessing something that may not be here? I guess if they didn't, Sevier County's economy would have never gotten going, eh?
And my reply was that "no, their styles aren't Western...their styles are GLOBAL". Fashion isn't decided in Milan or Paris or Brussels or New York--it's decided EVERYWHERE now. The world's culture is now a melting pot and fashion is one way that it's emerging into its next phase. I mentioned that American culture--in particular, pop culture--is persisting in what has been termed "magical Orientalism"--in which the East (and the Middle-East) is presented as more exotic and mystical than not only it is but more than it possibly could be. Meanwhile, the real Orient has the same smartphones, the same Buick cars, the same social networks and the same television programs that WE do. And life is just as mundane, complicated, and tediously desperate as we have it here. Magic Orientalism could be excused in previous centuries, but not now. (Being the otaku that I am, I've never really put creedence in magical Orientalism--tho' what do you call the NewType phenomenon in comparison?)
As irony would have it, at the same time we watched that TV program, we were sitting down to dinner: our version of Chow Mein, which isn't exactly real Chow Mein but as close as we can manage here in the Tennessee country.
Meanwhile, the area I live in is probably looked at by outsiders through the lenses of Uncle Remus, KFC, Mayberry, The Dukes of Hazzard and old country music records. Do those other cultures see this one as possibly possessing something that may not be here? I guess if they didn't, Sevier County's economy would have never gotten going, eh?
