Wandering around late at night, I found this node and it seems to hit exactly whats been going on in my head lately. I was born in
North America and lived there until I finished high school when I decided to come to Japan to do
university. I speak Japanese well enough but English is definitely my first language. And unfortunately, I look 100%
Japanese, which causes confusion from time to time.
I think a lot of what Dman says is right, especially here in Japan. But what bothers me is not the "machoness". What bothers me is the homogeneity of the culture. I think it's more to do with huge groups of people educated to be part of huge groups.
I can't say much for the rest of Asia, but in Japan, people are defined by the group they are in. The biggest group happens to be empty kids who digest asian ripoffs of western culture. If they find themselves unable to blend in to that group or they are cast out of it, then there are a few other groups they can join. The point is that you've always got to be part of a group. You talk the way they talk, about the things they like to talk about, otherwise no-one will talk to you. You will laugh at the jokes and submit jokes of your own that are variations on the pattern set by the group. You will jump when everyone jumps and go home when everyone else goes home. Sit in front of a Japanese school and watch the kids come out after the bell rings, the few that come out alone are the ones that look the saddest. So be an obedient member of the group. I was very sad to find out that I didn't know all the culture, history, and unwritten rules to be an active part of a Japanese group. I've given up on seeing Japan from the inside and I now politely correct anyone who assumes I'm Japanese.
There will probably be people who read this and think "Oh no, that's the old Japan. The new Japan is different." You are wrong. This is Japan right now. And maybe most of Asia, from what's written above.
Something of an update...
It's been just under a year since I created this write-up, and a few different things have occurred to me since then. One particular thing that I wrote --"empty kids who digest asian ripoffs of western culture"-- now seems like a huge misunderstanding of mine.
A little while ago, I had the chance to see my cousin in a Japanese dance performance. She had been studying for quite a while, and she was now moving up in the extremely traditional world of Japanese dance.
The fifteen minute performance was mesmerizing. Every twist of her head, every flick of her wrist, every single one of her movements was strictly dictated in degree, direction, and timing. The song that went along with the dance was in indeciphirable, archaic Japanese, so I was interested in hearing from my cousin what the story behind the dance was.
I expected a vast, intriguing and deep tale to match the complex and intricate movements of her dance. So I sat intently before her, making myself comfortable to hear what would undoubtedly be a long story. She began to speak: "It was about a lion and his son. To help him grow up into a strong lion, the father pushes the son down into a valley. When he tries to get back up, the father pushes him back down."
That's it?, I thought. There had to be more to all those strange actions, and subtle, almost imperceptible movements. And then I realized the importance was not in the story, but the movements themselves. All throughout Japanese culture I realized, was the placement of form over meaning. In shodou, Japanese calligraphy, the stylized form of the letters is primary to the actual words being written. In the Japanese tea ceremony, the protocol and procedure are strictly laid out and followed. I suspect something similar in Japanese martial arts. The point is that what appeared as empty mimicry to me, might actually have been a modern extension of a Japanese culture of finding meaning in the exterior form of something. This Macluhan-esque culture, where, in a way, the medium has become the message, can be seen in Japanese kids who spend ten of thousands of yen to become 60s Mods, or American Hip-hoppers, or Harajuku-Malice Mizers. This idea can probably partly explain the Japanese "cos-play" phenomenon.
While everything I've written here is written only with Japan in mind, I think it is foolish to pass off any culture as shallow, or hollow, because the driving ideas behind a culture may not always be obvious to someone looking in from the outside.