What is Cute? "Cute" is an aesthetic or action that is considered endearing, pleasing, or charming. Usually we find soft, round, small, delicate things adorable whether it’s something like a puppy or an inanimate object. The reason is simple; its natures way of making sure we take care of our helpless offspring that depend on us for years, in other words humans finding things adorable is essential to our species survival. Any time we see something resembling or having baby like features dopamine
translation just means cute. This phenomenon first emerged in Japan. The cute culture is so surprising due to the fact that it is so different from the roles and the typical Japanese look which is that of the Japanese Salaryman. It is also extremely different from the lifestyle of the Salaryman. Other than the Kawaii look there have also been various subcultures that have recently emerged that aim to subvert the mainstream culture this include the Gothic Lolita which is the cute look mixed into a goth
traced to American origins, the comics that the Americans brought over have been intensely modified to create essentially a new form of media. Manga and anime have become a significant component of Japanese culture, and often times they integrate Japanese culture and society. Yet, regardless of its Japanese origin, anime is still viewed on the other side of the planet. The question then becomes what is it that makes it so appealing to a foreign audience? This paper will rely heavily on Susan Napier’s
The Cultural Politics of Pokemon Capitalism It is fall 1999 and a jet from Japan has just pulled up to its berth at LAX airport in Los Angeles. Immediately a crowd of kids excitedly gathers by the window to view what appears to be a huge flying Pikachu: the yellowy cute, electrically charged mouse-type pocket monster of what was then the biggest kid’s craze of the decade, Pokemon. Even parents recognize this iconic figure, familiar as they are with the basics of the phenomenon. Starting out as
Globalisation and global flows of culture have redefined the processes in which we share and connect to ourselves, others, and the world. From its onset, globalisation had both proponents’ and critics; some believed that it leads to a rich, hybrid global culture. Others saw it as the west versus the rest, an imprint of Western values and ideologies upon the world’s rich and diverse cultures. In exploring global flows of culture, we can observe these major assumptions about globalisation as well as
Ian Condry’s engaging and intimate ethnography of Japanese hip-hop performance is both a vivid portrait of a local scene and a subtle analysis of how media forms circulate among such locales in the process of cultural globalization. With a focus on place and performativity, Condry’s take on hip-hop’s globalization in performative genba (Japanese for “actual places”) is an attempt at a new methodological approach to this process. Throughout the book, the author’s conceptual development is enlivened
which the legitimate flows of capital and culture across borders are shadowed by a flow of faked goods. In effect, the counterfeit fashion goods market represents a fetishization of the logo associated with the brand, rather than the quality or other elements of the good itself (Chang, 2004). Chang’s discussion focused on the effect of ‘superlogos’, or high-fashion brands such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton, tracing the growth in fake products to the Japanese period of ‘logomania’ in the 1980s. During
Thoughts of Japanese culture typically includes reference of the traditional words such as Kabuki, sumo, samurai, or ninja according to Amelia Newcomb, author of “Japan cracking U.S. pop culture hegemony”. This is not true anymore, in fact, without realizing it, Japanese culture has seeped in under the door an invaded the American culture. Roland Kelts, author of the book Japanamerica, wrote about such ideals: The terms anime, manga, and otaku have become common parlance in the American media
Recently, there has been a spate of interest in how the variability in cultural values shapes one’s attitude, explicitly concerning about the extent to which one would comply to superior members in the community or society. How do Chinese and Japanese differ from Americans in ways and tendency to conform? There is now much evidence notably, the iconic Milgram Study (1974), supports his hypothesis of conformity to authority figures in Western Countries. However, some properties of conformity are
western world, disadvantages roughly one half of the population, that of sexism and gender equality. Seeing as ideas, beliefs and stereotypes are all spread through language, the Japanese language itself is argued to be the greatest contributor to sexist notions. In the essay to follow I shall examine the roots of the modern Japanese woman and modern women’s language; In Gulliver’s (2012) case studies of modern women living in Japan in the period between the two world wars she notes the traditional restraint
today’s pop culture; the characters themselves are pop culture icons, such as “Pikachu”, who has its own balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (Finnegan). Even other television shows such as The Simpsons have made references about it (Finnegan). Almost everyone around the world has heard of Pokémon at some point in their lives, as this franchise has its own animated television show, trading cards, comic books, video games, apps, toys, and more. Pokémon was created by a Japanese man by the
Denise Uyehara the playwright and actress performed a solo piece “Hello Sex Kitty” that delved into the issues of “sexuality, dating, domestic violence, and the AIDS epidemic by portraying several vastly different caricatures of Asian women and men” (Lee 173). She relates these issues to the female identity through a comedic, sexual, and realism performance. Denise Uyehara broke down the fourth wall and included audience participation in her performance in order to further involve the audience in