hail the conqueror

[so_jang]

Imagine you live in a place where everyone around you has exactly the same hair color. You all have the same eye color, basically the same body shape. There are variations, but they are subtle. Squinty eyes versus round ones. Flatter chins, rounder chins, but they're all slight.

Each city here is barely over thirty years old. Their written language is one that has been repressed by the Chinese, several times, and now they seek out the west.

It's a point of honor to speak like a native speaker of English. American clothes, American food, American television...they're all here. Chinese movies aren't here. Indian cinema is just as big and it's not here.

Being white is special. Seen as better. Women here have their noses changed. Their chin's filed into points. Old men buy me strawberries and press them into my hands with toothless grins because they remember the Korean war. I barely know anything of it.

Korean mothers push their children towards me with little gifts and ask me to help them. If they speak English well, propaganda says they will have good jobs and be respected.

No culture is better, is it?

Comments

[racethewind10.livejournal.com]

No culture is better, is it?

Well....according to the foreign policy rhetoric of this country and McDonalds, Nike, etc. this country and culture is better.

Is it wrong? I don't know. In a lot of ways, when America talks about how we 'aren't an empire' its a load of crap, because we conquer. We just do it with capitalism and not guns. Its a fascinating dilemma, and its not new. Look at former colonial territories of Britian and France, where looking white, and speaking English or French gave one status. The difference was, of course, that Britian and France were territorial aggressors, but in a lot of ways, America is using its "soft" power (soft being the preferred term for not blowing shit up) almost more effectivly than its "hard" power.

In answer to your question, NO. One culture is not inherently better than another. But....does that mean that all cutlures are treated equally? Obviously not. And really, it has never been that way. From the time of the Romans (hell, earlier than that) the idea that cultures have value has existed and shaped the world. Often to the detriment of whole peoples.

(This btw? something I've studied in grad school, and while its not my particular area of research, its fraking fascinating) Messy...but fascinating.

I'm slightly jealous of you experiencing that. As confusing and probaly creepy as it is, its a stark reminder of the differences between cultures and the power we have in the world and the responsibility we have because of that.

More people need to live that.

no real point to this post of mine...just thinking aloud

[rodlox.livejournal.com]

I think part of is this:
* gratitude for the war, which is part of that nation's foundation. ask a Turk about the War of Independence or Ataturk, for another somewhat-recent example.
* Korea is surrounded. there's Japan (US ally), North Korea (hostile to all), China (on-again off-again friendliness to US)

>Being white is special. Seen as better.
I heard something similar in a program about Cambodia - the upper classes were more white (they were of Chinese ancestry, I think), hence that perception there.

>If they speak English well, propaganda says they will have good jobs and be respected.
- well, if they speak Korean, then they'll be understood by the Korean diaspora and businessmen who learned the language.
- if they speak English (or Chinese), then they'll be potentially understood by a much larger % of the global population. (which goes back to your comment about China)

Re: no real point to this post of mine...just thinking aloud

[valeria-sg-1.livejournal.com]

And let's not forget that Asians have much different social conventions than westners. What you see as servility might be just an local expression of politeness.

[peterlme.livejournal.com]

A very interesting observation.

Hoping this is coherent

[cobaltmist.livejournal.com]

There's something almost horrifying their, what? 'love'? of everything white/American/English. It seems that one day the entire world will have nearly the same culture. I'll miss the blatant differences.