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Sat, 2009-08-22 14:40 — Traveler

Human beehive?

Friendly Visitor wrote:

My experience of living in Japan is that there is such an enormous population living in such a small space, that culturally it is like a human beehive - so highly refined in every aspect of existence. Refinement is its' wellspring of exceptional, exquisite brilliance.

Which, with all respect to your impressions of your stay, is not at all the experience I've had. There's a big population crowding itself into a small space in Japan, true, but that's not at all uncommon on this planet. And I agree that there's plenty of wonderful refinement to be found here and there, which makes the crowded conditions more tolerable – but plenty of unrefined, inefficient lunkheadedness to be found in Japan as well. Not at all like a human beehive to me; rather, plain ol' humanity, with all the wondrous and unlovely things that that implies.

Anyway, thanks for leaving a note! (I took the liberty of deleting one doubled post.)

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Home Japan Glossary

New words, and new uses of old words, appearing on this site:

Culturology

For lack of a better word, "culturology" is what I label a particular brand of fascination with, and practice of, "cross-cultural comparison". (Suggestions for a better name are welcome!)

Not cultural comparison as it can be in theory: an objective, even interesting, examination of different cultures. Rather, I use "culturology" to mean cultural comparison as it too often appears in practice: subjective and unscientific nonsense, with a good story taking precedence over facts.

Or, for a pithier definition: Culturology is the dogged effort to dig up and exhibit "cultural differences" whether they exist or not.

Culturologists

The uncritical practitioners of culturology, whether academics, writers, or just general fans of "cultural difference" tales not hampered by critical examination.

Japanology

This has a general meaning of "the study of things Japanese"; here I use it to mean culturology as applied to Japan. It's closely tied to Nihonjinron, with all negative connotations intact.

Japanologist

The uncritical believers – Japanese or otherwise – of elements of Japanology.

Japander

With a friendly nod to Japander.com, which has long applied the word to the commercial appearances of Hollywood stars in Japan, I use the verb in a way closer to the original "pander": to Japander is to tell the Japanologists the silliness they love to hear. "I think Japanese developed as the world's most complex language, thanks to Japan's unique four seasons" – that's Japandering.

Traveler's Law #1

"Any exposition pointing out 'cultural contrasts' must contain at least one bit of unsupported silliness."

Traveler's Law #2

"Any statement beginning with 'the Japanese' (or 'the French', 'Ghanaians', 'Asians', 'Westerners', whatever) is 99% certain to be a dumb statement."

words in quotes

Words like "Westerner" and "the East" may appear in quotes to emphasize their inherent silliness. A claim that "the Japanese" are baffled by some "Western mindset" regarding a "cultural difference" that doesn't even exist, is deserving of all those mocking quotes.

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