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osewalrus It's the dress that broke the Interent, kinda.
https://www.todayonline.com/world/teenagers-prom-dress-stirs-furore-us-not-china
Well, not the famous The Dress (which actually provided the first new thing for neuroscientists specializing in color perception to debate in years). This involves Ms. Keziah Daum of Utah's decision to wear a cheongsam (also called a qipao) to her prom. For those who have never heard of it, it's dress popular in China from the 1920s into the mid-1960s. Like everything else, it has had a bit of a revival recently, including in China. Critically for the conversation, it is not a dress of any particular cultural, religious or ethnic significance. It's roughly the equivalent of someone in Beijing deciding to wear a Jackie Kennedy-style knock-off complete with 1960s style hat or, God help us, one of those awful corduroy suits that were popular in the U.S. in the early 1980s (please do not ask to see my Bar Mitzvah picture).
As the article notes, a number of Asian Americans got upset on Twitter when Ms. Daum's instagram picture began to circulate. They Tweeted quite angrily about "cultural appropriation" and the inappropriateness of a white teen wearing a Chinese-style dress. OTOH, when news of this reached China (and the rest of Asia), many there viewed this with pride. Their opinion was "look, we are a big deal. Even some white girl in Utah wants to wear our stuff." A number of others also noted that Asians have picked up a number of European cultural things (like celebrating Christmas as a secular holiday -- something I saw in Dubai as well).
All of which raises several questions that really are deserving of discussion. The problem, of course, is that no one ever actually wants to "discuss" anything these days. People generally prefer to start with either a very passionate opinion, or a thorough disinterest/aversion to any topic that will bring out all the people with strong opinions.
But in any event, the questions are fun for people who actually care to discuss and debate such things. For me, his raises the following:
1. What the heck do we actually mean by "cultural appropriation?"
2. Who gets to define culture?
3. How do people of immigrant ancestry -- particularly non-white immigrant ancestry -- define their connection to their culture while also remaining firmly American?
Since Dreamwidth has the annoying tendency to lose my drafts and make me start from scratch, I'll have to dig into the answers in a follow up post.
https://www.todayonline.com/world/teenagers-prom-dress-stirs-furore-us-not-china
Well, not the famous The Dress (which actually provided the first new thing for neuroscientists specializing in color perception to debate in years). This involves Ms. Keziah Daum of Utah's decision to wear a cheongsam (also called a qipao) to her prom. For those who have never heard of it, it's dress popular in China from the 1920s into the mid-1960s. Like everything else, it has had a bit of a revival recently, including in China. Critically for the conversation, it is not a dress of any particular cultural, religious or ethnic significance. It's roughly the equivalent of someone in Beijing deciding to wear a Jackie Kennedy-style knock-off complete with 1960s style hat or, God help us, one of those awful corduroy suits that were popular in the U.S. in the early 1980s (please do not ask to see my Bar Mitzvah picture).
As the article notes, a number of Asian Americans got upset on Twitter when Ms. Daum's instagram picture began to circulate. They Tweeted quite angrily about "cultural appropriation" and the inappropriateness of a white teen wearing a Chinese-style dress. OTOH, when news of this reached China (and the rest of Asia), many there viewed this with pride. Their opinion was "look, we are a big deal. Even some white girl in Utah wants to wear our stuff." A number of others also noted that Asians have picked up a number of European cultural things (like celebrating Christmas as a secular holiday -- something I saw in Dubai as well).
All of which raises several questions that really are deserving of discussion. The problem, of course, is that no one ever actually wants to "discuss" anything these days. People generally prefer to start with either a very passionate opinion, or a thorough disinterest/aversion to any topic that will bring out all the people with strong opinions.
But in any event, the questions are fun for people who actually care to discuss and debate such things. For me, his raises the following:
1. What the heck do we actually mean by "cultural appropriation?"
2. Who gets to define culture?
3. How do people of immigrant ancestry -- particularly non-white immigrant ancestry -- define their connection to their culture while also remaining firmly American?
Since Dreamwidth has the annoying tendency to lose my drafts and make me start from scratch, I'll have to dig into the answers in a follow up post.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-07 09:49 pm (UTC)Another aspect is the difference between what a culture considers symbolic of itself, and the things that other cultures consider symbolic of it. For instance, if I asked a bunch of Americans to list American cultural touchstones, they’d probably list hot dogs, apple pie, blue jeans, cowboy hats, jazz music, rock & roll. It probably wouldn’t occur to many actual Americans to list red Solo cups. And yet, in Europe, red Solo cups are a symbol of America.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-08 12:53 am (UTC)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_traditional_specialities_in_the_European_Union