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What is Cultural Diversity Essay
What is cultural Diversity
What is Cultural Diversity Essay
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“Memoirs of a Geisha”: Cultural Diversity
Culture can be defined as “the customary beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group that are transferred, communicated or passed along” (Webster). Culture is the glue that holds people together in times of peace and war, and can eventually lead to the emergence of cosmopolitan civilizations. In the book “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden, we experience the life of geisha-in-training in an okiya in Gion, Kyoto’s geisha district, during the 1930’s and 1940’s. The path of becoming a geisha is very hard, and takes a long time. In the end, the geisha grow up to know various forms of entertainment, which aid her in the entertainment of mainly male guests. Though
men are a part of the geisha culture, they are not a key component due to the fact that most leaders in a geisha’s life are all female. The training of a geisha starts when she is very young, sometimes as young as nine.
The storyline for many fairy-tales follow the same structure, there is a damsel in distress and a hero is there for the rescue. This simple concept is complexed within many classic novels. Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood shows how overcoming traumatic experiences may transform individuals from their state of despair into a peaceful mindset. On the other hand, Arthur Goldman’s Memoirs of a Geisha focuses on a girl who struggles to navigate through the constant obstacles of life. These two novels demonstrate how the lingering effects of a strained past may impact an individual significantly, yet coming across their own personal saviours allows their destiny to take a turn for the better. The protagonists exemplify a common theme throughout the novels: a feeling of betrayal and a saviour’s guidance. This generates inner strength from within the protagonists which allows them to overcome their respective pasts.
We’ve all heard it said that Asian Americans are good at math; anything involving science, technology, and medicine. They study all the time, work really hard, and live a version of the American dream many of us never thought to dream of. And of course, we know these stereotypes are dangerous and often untrue, but perhaps we still find ourselves buying into them. Ronald Takaki”, the ethnic studies expert, writes about the idea that Asian Americans are more successful than any other American minority group in his article “The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority. Takaki refutes this idea by strategically, and somewhat effectively, using reason, statistics, and word choice to show that Asian Americans still face some of the same hardships and barriers
American pop culture recently received flak for cultural appropriation. Artists such as Katy Perry and Selena Gomez were criticized for superficially incorporating Asian images into their music. However, cultural appropriation and cultural tourism – and its consequences – are commonly seen in relation to traditional culture; this lack of attention towards visual representation of modern Asian subcultures – in relation to Asian Americans – dismisses the potential impact of these images. A visual analysis of Avril Lavinge’s “Hello Kitty” and Gwen Stefani’s appearances with the Harajuku Girls reveals that the use of Japan’s Harajuku subculture in American pop culture perpetuates Asian American stereotypes. Specifically, these acts contain characteristics of the submissive “lotus blossom” stereotype and the invisibility that comes from this stereotype. These characteristics result in an insidious formation of race; Avril Lavinge and Gwen Stefani’s cultural tourism constructs the concept of an American that excludes the Asian body through contrasts between themselves and the background Asian body. This racial formation relies on the idea that the two artists have become part of the Harajuku culture, yet they are clearly distinguishable from the homogenized Asian body.
Culture, a significant aspect of an individual identity, tending to be defined from your birth, woven by the gods: however, I defy the hand of fate by picking my own cultural identity... For why should I be forced into the culture that was imposed upon me, just because of my heritage, religion, beliefs, and customs; instead of discovering my own and being myself. I am to tell you the culture I subjugate myself into; a sub-genre of gaming and anime culture, collectively called otaku, and help broaden your mind to the new phenomenon of a different type of pop culture.
Chonin culture, low culture that created by merchants and artisans who were the lowest social position and did business with samurai and peasants in Tokugawa period, acted as a key role of developing the Japanese culture. It included leisure activities such as linked verse, haikai composition and Puppet Theater to entertain leisured class which included daimyo, samurai and rich merchants (HUMA 1400 Course kit, 164). Despite the fact that Chonin culture during the Tokugawa period was characterized by indulgence in sensual pleasures of a leisured class, it contributed to developing Japanese literature and arts.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was once quoted saying, “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds”. Within this universe of endless possibilities, it is physically impossible for anything to stay completely constant. Human beings, as a part of the universe, are no exception. Individuals are, however, able to separate themselves from the rest by their thoughts, feelings, and actions. At any given moment, they are able to change their course of existence, possess the will and mental freedom to act and perceive in a goal directed manner. In Arthur Golden’s novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, Sayuri Nitta recalls her experiences throughout her journey of becoming a geisha. Sayuri Nitta, whose original name was Chiyo Sakamoto, is a strikingly beautiful girl who grew up in an impoverished fishing
I would like to consider my cultural heritage as diverse, but this is far from reality. Over the years as I matured through my teenage years, I was exposed to different cultures by life experiences and travel. I struggled to create both a personal and cultural identity while trying to adjust to my sight loss and with the support of my family I traveled overseas to experience other cultures for the first time. My family opened up their home to a foreign exchange program in turn allowing me the opportunity to travel over to Europe at the age of 16 years old. This opportunity started the slow progression of experiences that would open my mind to others who are unlike myself, especially traveling to a strange place and feeling different in a mainstream culture. It was not until the past 5 or 6 years until I fully accepted my disability that changed my view on being different, whether it’s race, class, gender or disability. Before this time period, my own fear of being different was so intense that I thought my weakness (disability) made me inferior of not only other cultures, but also my own family members.
Based on the theme of this movie, the travesty of Japanese history in ’47 Ronin’ can be seen as a failure. Whereas the ignorance in cultural differences of clothing and hairstyle between Japan and China is one of the most obvious examples. In the Edo period, the Japanese traditional hairstyle worn by samurai is called Chonmage (topknot haircut). Only men of high rank and status such as nobles and samurai were allowed to have this haircut. Besides, it was considered a disgrace to have the topknot cut off. (Yasuka, 2015). Yet, a hair style for men in the movie all have long hair and did not tie it up which similar to the hairstyle during Hun period in Chinese history. This might imply that the chonmage hairstyle is not well-accepted by European
Culture is defined as the collective beliefs, customs, arts, and attitudes that a group of people share. Throughout the world, it has been shown beyond doubt that culture has a lasting impact on the way in which people live their lives. Culture shapes our beliefs, interests, hobbies, and outlooks on the world. Culture has a strong influence on relationships, media, society, and therefore, people’s personal identity and personhood. All through history women have been influenced by the culture and have been subject to its social laws and ideals. Rights and opportunities have immensely grown for woman within the United States, yet along with those right’s have come new standards and expectations for women that have shaped the way they perceive
Asian American Literature Asian Americans seem to be fighting an unwinnable battle when it comes to the content of their writing. Writers are criticized by whites for speaking out against discrimination, and by their fellow Asian Americans for contributing to the stereotypes through their silence. I believe that Asian Americans should include politics in their writing as they so choose, but should not feel obligated to do so, as Frank Chin suggests. For those Asian Americans who make known their discontent with the injustice and discrimination that they feel, in the white culture, this translates to attacking American superiority and initiating insecurities. For Mura, a writer who dared to question why an Asian American was not allowed to audition for an Asian American role, his punishment was “the ostracism and demonization that ensued”.
“Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper” (Golden pg.428). The novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden, is about a world where deception is prominent, where the main character Sayuri faces many hardships before she is able to achieve success as a Geisha. This is shown through multiple events in the novel such as, Mr. Tanaka selling Sayuri into slavery, which leads to something better as she finds love and eventually benefits from the betrayal. This is also shown through Hatsumomo, as her constant deception throughout the novel leads to Sayuri becoming the most popular geisha in Gion, eventually rendering Hatsumomo powerless, and through the betrayal
Confucian beliefs have played an important role in the East Asian societies for centuries, thus Japan is not an exception. One of the main features of Confucianism is the set of five hierarchical orders, one of them being the master and his disciple interaction. It can be adapted to a specific relationship between a ramen noodle master and his apprentice. This kind of interactions has been shown in the Japanese film Tampopo and its modern American remake The Ramen Girl. In both films the student and teacher interaction can be seen as one of the main, if not the most important, narrative strands, around which all the action is centred. This essay will be dealing with this hierarchical order in the context of The Ramen Girl, where the relationship is rather Americanized and goes against the Japanese traditions. The main character is not only disrespectful of her teacher, but is overall very ignorant towards the Japanese culture. This movie will be compared to the already mentioned “noodle western” Tampopo, where the hierarchy is much more evident, despite being slightly modernized. Therefore, while using the medium of food and hierarchical order of Confucianism, both films successfully tell the viewers a lot about the way people interact in the portrayed nations.
The Yoshiwara district of Edo Japan was the government sanctioned brothel district on the outskirts of the city. It was known as the historic pleasure quarter, or floating world of Japan. The term “floating world” or Ukyio comes from the origins of Buddhist theories meaning the suffering caused by desire. The concept is one of abandoning oneself to pleasure to let one float along, ignoring poverty and other’s needs, and turning oneself over to pleasure. Not only did the Yoshiwara district become known as the pleasure quarter of the floating world, but it became the fashion capital for its time.
The first step that reached out to the soil of the Middle East by American scholarship on the ground of understanding the enlightenment, realism, and erudition of the Oriental literature, is generally considered to be a reflection of America’s commercial relations with the Orient. It was the beginning of the Orientalism in American readership and ramified into four major theoretical approaches: Old Orientalism (O.P. Kejriwal).New Orientalism (Edward Said).Orientalism (David Canadine. Subaltern Studies (Gyatri Spivak) and Appropriate Model of Orientalism (Raymond Schwab). These models stroke up to scrape the stratum between the Orient and the Occident and this propensity helped them understand each other. This discernment on the part of American scholarship esteemed the art, occult and literary treasures of many Oriental writers very highly. Myriad of American artists and intellectual elite, set sails to the East in search of religious panoramas and mysticism for their canvases. One of the well known American painters was Frederick Church (1826-1900) whose writings revolve around the Oriental objects and ideas which are derivative of the East. His Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives (1870 ) figures landscape paintings, having prototypical of Biblical scenes, spiritual interpretation of nature, amalgamation of "Persian" and Occidental styles. We have another devotee of fine arts of the Orient and, a descriptive writer named Frederick Bridgman, (1847 –1928), an American artist, is known for his paintings of the Oriental themes. Whose prominence is of no question in the field of paintings, he had two studios. “One was decorated in the ancient Egyptian style, the other was filled with palm trees, textiles, some glimpses of traditio...
Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects and behavior. It includes the ideas, value, customs and artifacts of a group of people (Schaefer, 2002). Culture is a pattern of human activities and the symbols that give these activities significance. It is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold and activities they engage in. It is the totality of the way of life evolved by a people in their attempts to meet the challenges of living in their environment, which gives order and meaning to their social, political, economic, aesthetic and religious norms and modes of organization thus distinguishing people from their neighbors.