Friday, July 16, 2004
The Other in Japanese Advertising
Millie R. Creighton
"To a large extent representations particularly of whites, but also of blacks and other Asians, have reinforced their otherness, thus serving to reaffirm the homogeneous unity and uniqueness upon which Japanese identity is largely based. The imaging of white foreigners in Japanese advertising reflects the dichotomised role of gaijin (Caucasions) in Japan. They tend to be either objects of glorified attention or conversely a standard of negative traits. In either case they are often stripped of individual idenitity and their own personalities; encountered and experienced as representative gaijin rather than real individuals... Much of Japanese advertising is a performance of visual imagery, and appropriately these foreigners are simple misemono, 'spectacles' or 'things to look at.'
"This attitude was frequently attributed to a sort of ignorance arising among a people who have had few possibilities of interaction with other cultural groups... Images of foreigners are fantasy depictions, attention-getters, flights of fancy... Although abundant, these representations tend not to bring any deeper understanding of the outside world. Their very abundance often gives the false impression that Japan is largely open to the outside world and to foreigners."
pg. 155 Occidentalism: Images of the West
¶ 15:46
Millie R. Creighton
"To a large extent representations particularly of whites, but also of blacks and other Asians, have reinforced their otherness, thus serving to reaffirm the homogeneous unity and uniqueness upon which Japanese identity is largely based. The imaging of white foreigners in Japanese advertising reflects the dichotomised role of gaijin (Caucasions) in Japan. They tend to be either objects of glorified attention or conversely a standard of negative traits. In either case they are often stripped of individual idenitity and their own personalities; encountered and experienced as representative gaijin rather than real individuals... Much of Japanese advertising is a performance of visual imagery, and appropriately these foreigners are simple misemono, 'spectacles' or 'things to look at.'
"This attitude was frequently attributed to a sort of ignorance arising among a people who have had few possibilities of interaction with other cultural groups... Images of foreigners are fantasy depictions, attention-getters, flights of fancy... Although abundant, these representations tend not to bring any deeper understanding of the outside world. Their very abundance often gives the false impression that Japan is largely open to the outside world and to foreigners."
pg. 155 Occidentalism: Images of the West
¶ 15:46
