[KineJapan] End of "Cool" Japan Workshop; Ann Arbor

Mon Apr 7 14:12:34 EDT 2014

I had similar feelings to Michael about the AAS version of the panel. It
was certainly one of the most interesting in the conference, particularly
in exploring how the teaching of a foreign popular culture must contend
with the norms of the local culture (including the campus culture and the
legal context) in determining what can or should be taught.

I also left the panel feeling disturbed, however, in ways related to the
points raised by the same Q&A questioner already mentioned. Too often the
discussion seemed to fall back on a logic of "[potentially offensive text]
is popular with my students and/or in Japan, and therefore it deserves to
be taught." Is this rationale really that different than "[potentially
offensive text] is unpopular with my students and/or the wider community,
and therefore I'm keeping it off the syllabus?" There are surely far
stronger reasons for teaching potentially offensive texts (pushing students
to relativize and question cultural norms when it comes to age and sexual
representation, for example), so it was disappointing to see popularity in
itself repeatedly invoked as a defense of teaching something potentially
'triggering,' rather than arguing more specifically for the intellectual
value of engaging with these particular works.

This teaching-of-things-because-they-are-popular might be considered one of
the central problems of "cool Japan" as it surfaces in an academic context,
making me wonder what exactly the panel title is claiming has 'ended.'

Very curious to hear what was discussed in Ann Arbor!

Paul

-
Paul Roquet
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities
East Asian Languages and Cultures
Stanford University

On Sun, Apr 6, 2014 at 8:25 AM, Rob Buscher <robbuscher at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I agree that is a common criticism of Gaijin studying Japan in any
> discipline, but I'm not sure that was the sole (read most relevant) intent
> of the academic's question at AAS. I think it had more to do with our role
> as academics in shaping perceptions of Japan.
>
> I agree with Michael that these materials do have a place in the
> classroom, but only when properly contextualized. Otherwise we run the risk
> of playing into "weird" Japan coverage that Western media so adores. For
> the majority of people on this list who have devoted their professional
> careers to the study of Japan this is a given, but many of our students are
> coming into the classroom with this mentality.
>
> To the extent that Cool Japan can be associated with the ever shifting
> perceptions of Japanese popular culture, this panel had the unintended
> consequence of linking Japan with manga that are widely considered sexually
> deviant abroad. To a room full of academics who may not have extensive
> backgrounds in Japanese society or the space that these objects occupy,
> this too has a negative connotation that was not properly contextualized.
>
> Best,
> Rob
>
> Rob Buscher
> Programming Director
> Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival
> www.film.org
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Apr 5, 2014, at 4:09 PM, "Dolores Martinez" <dm6 at soas.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> I wasn't at AAS, but this discussion reminds me of what every anthrologist
> of Japan encounters at various points in their career: Japanese hostility
> at being an object of study for foreigners. So for more than 30 years (I've
> been doing this a long time), I've been challenged with
> comments ranging from 'why Japan, we are not a primitive society' to 'why
> ama, they are not proper Japanese women' to 'why popular culture, that's
> not a worthy subject' to 'isn't that book title orientalist?'  It is about
> trying to control outsiders' imaginings about Japan, which seems as
> difficult as trying to control foreigners'  imaginings about merry olde
> England, or sophisticated Paris (in fact someone has written a paper about
> the trauma suffered by young Japanese women who encounter the 'real' Paris
> -- there is a similar trauma suffered by many of my Japanese students
> encountering rundown multicultural London). Anyway, I'm not sure that
> trying to control the way others imagine Japan is possible, even though
> there is more to it than pinku eiga, cosplay and anime as I tried to
> convince the students who did my anthropology courses! But we should be
> sensitive to the fact that such partial, sometimes obsessive and
> occasionally orientalist attitudes do bother many Japanese.
> Lola
>
>
> On Saturday, 5 April 2014, Michael Raine <mraine3 at uwo.ca> wrote:
>
>>  Thank you for your thoughts on this Rob. I'm not familiar with the
>> Japanese work being done in this area either, but I would be surprised if
>> it doesn't exist. Just to be clear: I do think this material belongs in the
>> classroom. Some of the participants pointed out that students are already
>> reading the material (in disregard of local laws) but even if it were rare
>> it could still be worth teaching. Perhaps the topic of the panel was not so
>> much "cool Japan" as "queer Japan" -- meaning not a label for particular
>> object choices but for representations and reading practices that are
>> excluded from mainstream society, seen as transgressive and shameful if not
>> illegal. Their existence, and they way they question both art-historical
>> and social categories, are certainly something worth thinking about. But I
>> do think resistance to the objects themselves, and their inclusion in the
>> classroom, will come from people who identify as progressive, on the Left,
>> as well as people who identify as conservative or on the Right. I hope all
>> these topics get discussed anyway; I'd certainly be interested in knowing
>> how it went. Maybe someone at the workshop could write up a report for the
>> Kinema Club website...
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 4:11 PM, Rob Buscher <robbuscher at hotmail.com>wrote:
>>
>> I'm glad you brought this up Michael - I was also quite interested by the
>> force with which the Japanese academic responded to the panel at AAS. I was
>> rather surprised by the panel myself, since the title "End of 'Cool' Japan"
>> had very little to do with the overall theme of the panel, in my opinion at
>> least.
>>
>> For those of you who were not at AAS, this panel dealt primarily with the
>> legal issues surrounding the use of sexually risque materials in class such
>> as the study of BL or lolicon manga. Straying from cinema, although we
>> do have similar issues of navigating appropriateness in the study of Pinku
>> Eiga.
>>
>> The difference in my mind is that while there are several Japanese
>> academics who are involved in the scholarly study of Pinku Eiga, I am
>> unfamiliar with any such work being conducted in Japanese on the manga that
>> this panel addressed. I wouldn't say that I agree with the criticism of the
>> academic at AAS, but it certainly raises some questions about what
>> influences non-Japanese to take interest in such topics. I would be curious
>> to hear input from other folks on the list.
>>
>> Best,
>> Rob
>>
>> Rob Buscher
>> Programming Director
>> Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival
>> www.paaff.org
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2014 15:52:51 -0500
>> From: raine.michael.j at gmail.com
>> To: kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
>> Subject: Re: [KineJapan] End of "Cool" Japan Workshop; Ann Arbor
>>
>>
>> I thought this panel was one of the most interesting at AAS last weekend.
>> I enjoyed the presentations but I was also struck by the forceful objection
>> by an audience member. If I understand it correctly, she was not happy that
>> a panel of non-Japanese was choosing deliberately "outre" material to show
>> in a university classroom setting. I'm not sure if the objection was more
>> cultural (there is better work to study) or nationalist (foreigners
>> shouldn't be exposing the underside of Japan).
>>
>> Also, I think the panel tended to characterize the restrictions on
>> content as stemming from a "conservative backlash," right-wing and drawing
>> on the power of the State. I certainly agree that there is such a thing
>> and, teaching in Canada, I've experienced it first-hand. However, I'm not
>> sure that objections to the kind of material under discussion come only
>> from the Right: in Canada the law against non-photographic pornography
>> depends on a "harms discourse" that is often used by progressives. In
>> general, there are many voices on "the Left" calling for censorship of
>> pornography and limits to the kind of material that students can be made to
>> study. For example, the recent rise in calls for "trigger warnings" and the
>> provision of a "safe space" for education.
>>
>> In any case, I would be very interested he hear how the discussion goes
>> and whether these questions are addressed in the panel. Wish I could be
>> there!
>>
>> Michael
>>
>> Michael Raine, Film Studies
>> Western University, Canada
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 2:58 PM, Markus Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu> wrote:
>>
>> I wish you all could come. At least you'll know what's up. This will
>> eventually be a book, it seems.
>>
>> Markus
>>
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