Does Negative Stereotyping Go away When Taken out of the Social Context?
As part of the author's Japanese to English translation freelance work, he is currently working on transcribing some Japanese interviews into English. Interestingly, the contents are not of business or mainstream entertainment, as market demand would usually expect, but stories of a niche community of Japanese interested in aspects of the Chicano culture. For people who do not know, Chicano refers to inner-city Mexican-American culture, a distinct immigrant culture that straddles the supposedly "pure" Mexican and "pure" American cultures of the two countries' cultural mainstream.
As expected of inner-city American cultures, Chicano culture is not usually a subject of affinity even for many Americans. While Chicanos are known for distinctive street art, music styles, clothing, and food, in many cases, especially when portrayed by mainstream media, they are associated with gangs, drug dealing, street violence, lowrider cars, and ridiculously high incarceration rates. The fact that such a negatively stereotyped culture found a following in Japan, a geographically faraway place with no sizable Hispanic community whatsoever, is what makes the interview series quite amusing.
From what the interviews can gather, the origins of the Chicano following in Japan dates back to the 1980s, when American pop culture in the form of movies and magazines, started to highlight specifically visual aspects of Chicano culture, such lowriders and tattoo art. Regular Japanese people with distinct interests in cars, art, and foreign cultures started picking up on the exotic cool nature of such artistic products, and deepened their understandings through visits to the Chicano communities in the US, and forming their own shows to exchange ideas nationwide. The community, while still small, matured over the next 30 years.
But interestingly, and perhaps quite idiosyncratic to Japan, the negative aspects of Chicano culture did not take root in Japan even as Chicano clothing, tattoos, artwork, music, and cars became more widely followed. Indeed, as several interviewees mentioned, they deliberately avoid negative aspects of the culture, including gangs, drugs, and violence in their propagation of the culture, instead exclusively focusing on the good, including, in their words, importance of family, respect, love, and honor. In many cases, the visual coolness of the artworks are simply taken out of the cultural context to become standalone products.
The result is a gradual commercialization of Chicano art in Japan without cultural embrace. The American interviewer was keen to know whether embracing Chicano culture has made their Japanese followers any less Japanese. The answers were probably not what he expected. He was flatly told by the japanese followers that it is only their hobby to imitate the looks and art of the Chicanos. They are neither seeking to become Chicanos or really take up a Chicano lifestyle. As a result, even though they dress, sing, or draw like Chicanos, they do not feel at all out of place in Japan, nor a "cultural mix" of Japanese and Chicano.
Perhaps the answer reflects the idiosyncrasy of japanese culture, where as a people, they are expected to follow a certain, and often quite strict, set of cultural norms in order to be identified as a Japanese at all. Yet, the fact that the interviewees are so willingly and straightforwardly reject the culture behind the artistic products they love so much speak to the nature of cultural diffusion without social context. To put more specifically, without the social environment that breed the culture, it is difficult for the cultural essence and its values to be truly accepted elsewhere.
In a way, that is a good thing. Inner-city poverty of urban America inspired beautiful art and music, but also forced people into lives of crime just to make ends meet and survive. Such painful realities ought to be solved at the source and certainly should not be exported anywhere. The fact that foreigners, like the Japanese, can choose to only focus on the beautiful, positive part of inner-city culture gives hope to people like Chicanos that their creativity will be appreciated worldwide, and one day, may become the money-making schemes that pull entire communities out of the desperate cycle of poverty.
However, in a day and age where "cultural appropriation" is such a sensitive topic, the blatant recognition of the Japanese themselves that they are merely imitating the art without embracing the sociocultural backgrounds of how the art came about can be deeply uncomfortable for the American, and the Chicano. One interviewees mentioned how the Chicanos saw the Japanese buyers of lowriders as people with money who collect cars, but do not even ride them. Surely, those who imitate but reject the cultural essence will continue to face backlash. How that reality reflects in international cultural exchange would continue to resonate in today's globalized world.
As expected of inner-city American cultures, Chicano culture is not usually a subject of affinity even for many Americans. While Chicanos are known for distinctive street art, music styles, clothing, and food, in many cases, especially when portrayed by mainstream media, they are associated with gangs, drug dealing, street violence, lowrider cars, and ridiculously high incarceration rates. The fact that such a negatively stereotyped culture found a following in Japan, a geographically faraway place with no sizable Hispanic community whatsoever, is what makes the interview series quite amusing.
From what the interviews can gather, the origins of the Chicano following in Japan dates back to the 1980s, when American pop culture in the form of movies and magazines, started to highlight specifically visual aspects of Chicano culture, such lowriders and tattoo art. Regular Japanese people with distinct interests in cars, art, and foreign cultures started picking up on the exotic cool nature of such artistic products, and deepened their understandings through visits to the Chicano communities in the US, and forming their own shows to exchange ideas nationwide. The community, while still small, matured over the next 30 years.
But interestingly, and perhaps quite idiosyncratic to Japan, the negative aspects of Chicano culture did not take root in Japan even as Chicano clothing, tattoos, artwork, music, and cars became more widely followed. Indeed, as several interviewees mentioned, they deliberately avoid negative aspects of the culture, including gangs, drugs, and violence in their propagation of the culture, instead exclusively focusing on the good, including, in their words, importance of family, respect, love, and honor. In many cases, the visual coolness of the artworks are simply taken out of the cultural context to become standalone products.
The result is a gradual commercialization of Chicano art in Japan without cultural embrace. The American interviewer was keen to know whether embracing Chicano culture has made their Japanese followers any less Japanese. The answers were probably not what he expected. He was flatly told by the japanese followers that it is only their hobby to imitate the looks and art of the Chicanos. They are neither seeking to become Chicanos or really take up a Chicano lifestyle. As a result, even though they dress, sing, or draw like Chicanos, they do not feel at all out of place in Japan, nor a "cultural mix" of Japanese and Chicano.
Perhaps the answer reflects the idiosyncrasy of japanese culture, where as a people, they are expected to follow a certain, and often quite strict, set of cultural norms in order to be identified as a Japanese at all. Yet, the fact that the interviewees are so willingly and straightforwardly reject the culture behind the artistic products they love so much speak to the nature of cultural diffusion without social context. To put more specifically, without the social environment that breed the culture, it is difficult for the cultural essence and its values to be truly accepted elsewhere.
In a way, that is a good thing. Inner-city poverty of urban America inspired beautiful art and music, but also forced people into lives of crime just to make ends meet and survive. Such painful realities ought to be solved at the source and certainly should not be exported anywhere. The fact that foreigners, like the Japanese, can choose to only focus on the beautiful, positive part of inner-city culture gives hope to people like Chicanos that their creativity will be appreciated worldwide, and one day, may become the money-making schemes that pull entire communities out of the desperate cycle of poverty.
However, in a day and age where "cultural appropriation" is such a sensitive topic, the blatant recognition of the Japanese themselves that they are merely imitating the art without embracing the sociocultural backgrounds of how the art came about can be deeply uncomfortable for the American, and the Chicano. One interviewees mentioned how the Chicanos saw the Japanese buyers of lowriders as people with money who collect cars, but do not even ride them. Surely, those who imitate but reject the cultural essence will continue to face backlash. How that reality reflects in international cultural exchange would continue to resonate in today's globalized world.
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