Chanpon
type: channel
description: Multicultural Japan Online
language: en_US
date: 2007-08-27T05:04:58+00:00
generator agent: http://www.movabletype.org/
items: Cyberpunk and Techno-Orientalism
items: Where to go in Tokyo
items: Situating the Global Cyberpunk Aesthetic
items: Part Asian - 100% Hapa
items: Tokyo a la Mode
items: Surrealism X 3
items: Moresukine Japan Comics
items: Asian Wild Rose
items: Westernization and MTV Japan's Top Five
items: Do You Have Any Rock CDs?
items: Fortune Finds Otaku
items: Hello Kitty Has No Mouth
items: Bento Meet Silicon Valley
items: Anime and Learning Japanese Culture
items: Lost in Auto-Translation

Cyberpunk and Techno-Orientalism
type: item
description: This is the second in a three part series on Cyberpunk by Mike Dillon. Part One is here. Cyberpunk literature is written by and written for a generation that occupies “a truly science-fictional world” (Sterling 1986, xi), producing work that is immersed in technology and pop cultural values “associated with the drug culture, punk rock, video games, Heavy Metal comic books, and […] gore-and-splatter SF/horror films” (Carroll 1990 ). No country has experienced as internationally recognized a technological quantum leap as Japan, and with the recent surge in desire for Japanese popular culture, it appears that associating the genre, whose myths and narratives, in the modern era, have primarily been of American hegemony (Morris 1997), explicitly with Japan is not only viable, but increasingly necessary. But a closer look at the attitudes toward Japanese animation reveals some fascinating ironies. A significant degree of the Japanese cyberpunk ideology aligns itself with “techno-orientalism” (Morley and Robins 1995) which maps such fears directly onto a Japanese context. The term, which describes “an Othering of Japan by the West that sees it only as technological dystopia (Napier 2001, 24) is, to an extent, a dead-on description of Japan – as represented by the cyberpunk genre. This is odd, given that the fascination toward and the appeal of cyberpunk is precisely the internationality of its themes. In other words, within the context of this specific genre, techno-orientalism indicates that “what [cyberpunk seems] to consume is not merely Japan, but their own science fiction projected in the future called Japan” (Tastumi 1991, 372)Even in Gibson’s Neuromancer, there is even “a geopolitical or perhaps geoeconomical and psychological logic, in his choosing such ‘nipponizing’ vocabulary” (Darko 1991, 353) Some of the fears that arise within the genre are famous and obvious; it is a genre that traditionally depicts “a fallen humanity controlled by a technology run amok” (Hol…
subject: Features
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2007-08-27T05:04:58+00:00

Where to go in Tokyo
type: item
description: Probably because many of my US-based friends are academics and technologists, many of them visit Tokyo as part of their professional circuit. I often get requests for recommendations for places to stay and visit while in Tokyo. Usually these requests are coming from busy people who are travelling primarily for business meetings or to give a talk, and might have one or two days free to explore the city. Over the years, I've composed many emails to my friends with somewhat lame attempts to recommend the best places to go. In honor of a few of my friends visiting Tokyo later this month, I've decided to go back over these emails and publicly post my recommendations. It's not nearly as extensive as what Justin did, but it is one idiosyncratic viewpoint (from a bicultural, pop culture and technology obsessed academic). I hope others will add to this. I still consider Tokyo "home" though I haven't really lived there for almost five years now. It is still the city I know best in the world, and I breathe an emotional sigh of relief when I step onto the streets of Shibuya or Shinjuku after many months away. I love to see what shops and restaurants are still there from my childhood, as well as new arrivals on familiar street corners. The city is layered with memories and personal history for me. So I always struggle to imagine what it must be like to visit Tokyo cold, and only for a day or two, and what I could possibly recommend to people as a way of experiencing the best of "my" city. Unlike Kyoto or other cities that are accessible to the casual tourist, newcomers to Tokyo will often experience it as a overwhelming and alienating megalopolis. The city is so huge and so variegated, and there are very few obvious "sights" and city centers to go to that could give a short-term vistor a sense that they have "experienced the city." But here is just a bit of what I love about Tokyo. Most recommended resource on Tokyo: Bilingual Tokyo Atlas Tokyo does not have an addressing system…
subject: Japan
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2007-02-16T23:15:17+00:00

Situating the Global Cyberpunk Aesthetic
type: item
description: This is the first in a three part series on Cyberpunk by Mike Dillon The last decade has seen a startling growth in the demand for Japanese consumer culture. A weariness of recycled material, paired with wartime anti-Americanism in general has Western audiences craving for something different, something alternative. Many have found Japanese anime. As Susan J. Napier notes , the majority of American viewers are excited by the sophistication that Japan boasts in the medium that is different from the comparable market of Disney cartoons. The anime genre that has made the biggest splash worldwide has consistently belonged to the cyberpunk genre, as shown by the immense popularity of such films as Akira (Otomo Katsuhiro, 1988) and Ghost in the Shell (Oshii Mamoru, 1995). As many will attest, the cyberpunk narratives exported from Japan are typically animated. The conventions of Japanese animation, in trying to find a broader audience, have found its niche in cyberpunk. Why do the two work so well together? Here are some intersections between the two that continue to make Japanese entries in the genre marketable in the West. Putting the youth in charge Cyberpunk is a genre in which both the central protagonist and the core audience have a lot in common as would-be hackers, computer nuts, and sci-fi aficionados. Kids and quintessential geeks can become heroes, playing on an even field with their elders, using their technological prowess to combat evil in ways their parents never could. (In Serial Experiments Lain [Nakamura Ryutaro, 1998]), due to a new world order created by the population’s unanimous connection to the net, high technology has even become an integral part of a grade school education, and little kids are the toughest of information hustlers). The virtual realities in these stories are themselves a perpetuation of adolescent male fantasies, populated, for instance, by women with fantastic breasts and equally fantastic guns. Cyberpunk, just like anime in gene…
subject: Features
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2006-12-19T23:45:43+00:00

Part Asian - 100% Hapa
type: item
description: From June 8-October 29, the Asian American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles will be featuring an exhibition of the photography of kip fulbeck. The exhibit features photographs of hapa combined with their own handwritten commentary about who they are. Sounds like a must-see for LA chanponites. "kip fulbeck: part asian, 100% hapa" is an exhibition of portraits by artist Kip Fulbeck, who traveled the country photographing more than 1,000 Hapa of all ages and walks of life. Originally a derogatory label derived from the Hawaiian word for half, the word Hapa has been embraced as a term of pride by many whose mixed-race heritage includes Asian or Pacific Rim ancestry. "kip fulbeck: part asian, 100% hapa" is an artist's attempt to explore Hapa - who now number in the millions - and it offers a complex perspective on an increasing reality of contemporary America. Thanks Sharon!
subject: News
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2006-10-20T18:56:29+00:00

Tokyo a la Mode
type: item
description: Bobby Okinaka has launched a new website, Tokyo a la Mode, a magazine for Japanese fashion and urban culture. It already has some fun reviews of interesting fashion, film, and food and promises to grow into a great resource for those of you with an itch for an insider's view of Japanese street culture.
subject: Fashion
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2006-07-18T22:53:25+00:00

Surrealism X 3
type: item
description: Here is another installment from my student essays from my Japanese popular culture class last year. This one is from Brendan Callum. From time to time there are motifs and symbols that come to represent or signify a certain genre. In contemporary Japanese independent film, a series of common motifs and symbols are beginning to define a new kind of surrealist film genre. The films of this genre are not epic tales of heroism and might, nor are they incomprehensible jumbles of random images. The ‘trials and tribulations of everyday life’ is the starting point upon which they embellish, with the use of a kind of magical realism and anime or manga-style movement and framing. There are often moments of complete stillness where the viewer can pore over the detailed scenes before ‘turning the page’ to see what happens (as in one of the many scenes where the family drinks tea together as well as actual animated sequences. The movies in this genre frequently allude to and parody other movie genres and subcultures. They also seem to delight in subverting stereotypical images with their downright odd families, empowered and often physically violent women, and their exploration of homosocial and homophobic tensions. Simply put though, they attempt to give the viewer a sense of the magic in everyday life through a thoroughly enjoyable, dream-like film experience. The movie Survive Style 5+ is probably the most wild and hectic of all three movies I’ll describe. Although the five interwoven storylines that give the movie its name are enough on their own to ensure that the movie is interesting and fast paced, all the scenes and characters are colorful and eccentric as well: a man who is repeatedly killing his reincarnating wife, a hit man with a translator who philosophically grills his targets before deciding to kill them, and a normal family whose father thinks he is a bird, to name a few. SS5+ also employs the greatest deal of magical realism (the murdered wife keeps coming back…
subject: Features
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2006-07-11T03:21:28+00:00

Moresukine Japan Comics
type: item
description: Some recent email correspondence netted me an interesting new find in the multicultural Japan online space. Dirk Schwieger, a German comic artist living in Japan, has been combining exploration of Japan with his art. He takes assignments from readers of things to do and explore and write about. So far these have included depictions of everyday life in Japan, pedestrian tourist travels such as Ghibli and Hara art museums, more adventurous forays to a love hotel and dancing the para para, as well harrowing accounts of natto and embarrassing enounters with a bidet in a workplace washroom. I highly recommend a browse through Dirk's site for an often humorous and always artfully rendered glimpse into Tokyo life. [link]
subject: Humor
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2006-05-14T07:07:13+00:00

Asian Wild Rose
type: item
description: My friend Tracy and her family in Canada recently started a blog called Asian Wild Rose about multi-cultralism. She is a young Vietnamese woman I met on IRC and have been chatting with about various things including racial stereotypes and living in North America as an Asian. Although she's not Japanese, the issues are very similar.
subject: Japan Abroad
creator: Joichi Ito
date: 2006-04-07T15:21:18+00:00

Westernization and MTV Japan's Top Five
type: item
description: Here is another installment from my student essays from my Japanese popular culture class last year. This one is from Ainsley Breault. According to an article about MTV, Music Television, the station is "Undeniably an institution… viewed in over 342 million households in 140 countries, on 31 channels and in 17 languages. Consistent in its stronghold over those aged 13 to 24, MTV is known worldwide as the leading youth broadcaster" (Manning-Schaffel). As a result of the enormous influence of MTV, it is not surprising then that MTV Japan would provide a unique lens into Japanese pop culture. The top four most downloaded songs on MTVJapan.com reflect the work of artists whose image, music style, and popularity all provide important revelations on elements of Japanese youth culture. These artists, Orange Range, Amuro Namie, 50 Cent and Eminem, are each unique in their importance to Japanese pop culture. Collectively, the list captures the growing influence of the West, not only through the appearance of American artists Eminem and 50 Cent, but also through the Western influence on the top two Japanese artists. MTV Japan's ranking captures more than just the popular music of the moment; it captures popular culture. In order to understand the importance of MTV Japan's rankings, one must first comprehend MTV Japan's crucial position in the context of Japanese youth culture. According to hqap.com, a website on the most influential American corporations in Japan, the channel "has been viewed by over 5 million households in Japan. By leveraging MTV Networks’ brand name and its upbeat culture, MTV Japan has firmly established its presence in Japanese media market" (H&Q). The channel is not just popular as a result of the American brand name, however. The network only achieved its current level of popularity after altering the programming to appeal to a Japanese audience. Many changes have been made to the American model for the network; according to an article on the network's…
subject: Music
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2006-03-15T06:10:38+00:00

Do You Have Any Rock CDs?
type: item
description: A series of four ads from Nintendo touches on the difficult time Japanese people might have in English language dominant environments. As a foreigner who lived in Japan and often nodded and said "thank you" because I didn't want to trouble people too much, I can relate to these short videos. They've done a good brief job staging the yearning awkwardness of trans-cultural communication. Towards what end? To promote some brain-training games that can help you with foreign language skills. Portable gaming devices are becoming powerful enough to provide translation services - a great reason to justify the purchasing and carrying of these "toys". The Sony PSP has a product with a talking bird that will say things like "Where is a cheap hotel?" through the PSP speakers. The Nintendo DS, judging from this ad, uses the touch-screen input to allow people to practice their English handwriting.
subject: Japan Abroad
creator: Justin Hall
date: 2006-01-22T22:40:41+00:00

Fortune Finds Otaku
type: item
description: This week's Fortune features an article, Anime Explosion on the growth of the anime and otaku market in the US. The gist of the message is that US companies catering to the otaku market have a unique formula for success that involves listening to fans and fandom esoterica, and embracing the latest distribution technologies. This includes a truce with online fansubbers and filesharing, where online distribution is tolerated until the show is licensed in the US, after which fansubbers will voluntary take their files down. A few numbers jumped out at me. Conventions: Otakon in Baltimore was sold out this year with 22,000 fans. Anime Explo in Anaheim had 33,000. Anime and manga are now a $625 million industry in N. American retail. The ouput of the top US DVD distributor in the US, ADV, is more than the combined DVD distribution of Warner Brothers and Parmount, the top to US TV show distributors. No wonder Fortune is paying attention. I loved this quote from Richard Taylor of Weta, working on a live action Evangelion film: Once the Weta-ADV partnership hit the news, the company's in-box started overflowing. "We get a lot of e-mails, a lot of letters from people around the world about Lord of the Rings. But we get 25 e-mails about Evangelion to every one we get about Lord of the Rings," says Taylor. "And Evangelion has not even been made yet: It's just a whisper in the corridors of ADV, and it's a suggestion in the hallways of Weta." Thanks Ryan!
subject: News
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2005-12-01T22:12:44+00:00

Hello Kitty Has No Mouth
type: item
description: Here is another installment from my student essays from my Japanese popular culture class. This one is from Jennilee Tuazon. Her blank eyes gaze at you from her white face, her button nose a sunshine yellow. A dainty bow rests askew on her left ear, the color matching the day’s adorable—not to mention perfectly coordinated—outfit. Cute, one almost overlooks an important feature: the mouth. Hello Kitty, the embodiment of cute, has no mouth. After more than 30 years, she remains a popular and recognizable character, with generation after generation of young girls falling in love—or at least consumer lust—with Hello Kitty, their zeal for collecting the fancy goods at times extending in adulthood. Why the interest (both love and loathing for the character) in Hello Kitty and all things kawaii? What factors have contributed to her rise and continued success on a global scale? Finally, what are the implications of a mouthless Hello Kitty in terms of gender stereotypes and agency? Created in 1974 by Japan’s Sanrio Company, Hello Kitty remains one of the world’s most recognizable and lucrative brands despite limited advertising. A recent search on Google showed over five million results for the search terms “Hello Kitty.” Clearly, the graphically simple character created over 30 years ago continues to resonate with self-proclaimed fans and detractors alike. My fascination with Sanrio products began early. Though not a fan of Hello Kitty herself while I was growing up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was nonetheless a huge Sanrio fan, my favorite characters being Pochacco (the sporty dog) and Keroppi (the clumsy frog). Sanrio products were my first introduction to Japanese popular culture though at the time I was unaware of its cultural origin. Moreover, my first Sanrio purchase marked my official entrée into consumer culture. Each fall right before the beginning of the new school year, I remember making the trip to the Sanrio Surprises store at the local mall to stock u…
subject: Fashion
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2005-12-01T05:28:39+00:00

Bento Meet Silicon Valley
type: item
description: A few weeks ago I received an email in my inbox asking if my kids would be interested in trying out some laptop lunch boxes. Laptop lunch boxes? Intrigued, I emailed the nice folks at obentec in the affirmative. Is this my first product placement for my bento blog ? Much too fun an opportunity to turn down, particularly as an offer coming from a small health-oriented and environmentally sound mom and mom operation. And a chanpon product inspired by Japanese bento boxes to boot! Last week two laptop lunch boxes arrived! My kids were even more excited than I was with the new bento tech. Even though my bento blog has been on hiatus because I am in the midst of a web redesign, I did blog my first laptop lunch. Laptop lunch boxes are a clever integration of the aesthetics of bento with the social progressivism, health orientation and design aesthetic of the San Francisco Bay Area. The compartments fit together in bento fashion, but are packed in a carrying case that looks like a cross between a laptop case and a soft American kids lunchbox. The deluxe set (which I was lucky enough to get) also comes with a plastic water bottle and a knife and fork. Maybe if I had started off with laptop lunches rather than standard Japanese bento my daughter may not have felt as strange during kindergarten lunch hour. Reading the obentec web site and their commitment to reducing waste and promoting health made me realize how different my lunch packing habits are from the American mainstream. I have always used Japan-origin reusable containers and utensils and only pack things in disposable plastic for field trips when the school insists on it. But judging from the mission of laptop lunch boxes, this is far from the norm in the U.S. I have also never considered my lunch packing habits to be specifically "health-oriented," but more a commitment to packing stuff that tastes good that my kids will like. And I do want them to grow up knowing and loving Japanese food. I've always wondered abou…
subject: Food
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2005-11-14T06:54:20+00:00

Anime and Learning Japanese Culture
type: item
description: In her master's thesis submitted to the East Asian Studies Center at USC, Annie Manion argues that among college students in the US, anime has become one of the most important drivers of interest in Japan and Japanese language study. Drawing from surveys and interviews of students taking Japanese language classes and anime club members, Manion suggests that "there is a good deal of overlap" between young people studying Japanese and those involved with the anime fan community. Over half of Japanese language students cited "understanding Japanese anime, music, etc." as one reason they are taking a Japanese class. ... over the last few years the type of student interest in Japan has been changing. Where in the past Japanese language programs attracted people interested in learning about Japanese economic growth and business practices, recently Japanese language students seem more interested in Japanese culture. A recent article for the Wall Street Journal addressed the trend, saying that in the past nine years, the majority of Japanese language students at the University of Georgia are no longer international business majors, but rather Japanese culture fanatics. In line with other research by scholars such as Susan Napier or Anne Allison, Annie has found that national origin is not necessarily what atracts young people to anime. But she has also found that once someone becomes an anime fan, they often develop an interest in learning more about Japan. "The fact is that people who like anime, depending on their exposure to Japanese culture, tend to like many aspects of Japanese culture, from popular to traditional, as well, and develop at some point either the desire to learn Japanese or visit Japan." I had been hearing a lot of anecdotal information from faculty and students at USC about how the tide has shifted in the kinds of interests that bring young Americans to an interest in Japan. While anime is not the only type of Japanese popular culture that has gotten int…
subject: Features
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2005-10-11T21:28:19+00:00

Lost in Auto-Translation
type: item
description: Brendan Callum writes about his experiences with auto-translation on the online role playing game Final Fantasy XI for chanpon.org. This summer I had the privilege of playing the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, Final Fantasy XI. One of the things I enjoyed the most about the experience, other than being eaten by dragons and spending hours trying to feed stubborn chocobos, was the game’s linguistic environment. This summer I had the privilege of playing the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, Final Fantasy XI. One of the things I enjoyed the most about the experience, other than being eaten by dragons and spending hours trying to feed stubborn chocobos, was the game’s linguistic environment. FFXI is one of the more recent versions in a long series of Japanese made games with the name “Final Fantasy.” You might be wondering what kind of novelty the 11th incarnation of a game could bring to the table, but FFXI was indeed the first FF game to be fully online and multiplayer. When releasing the game into its two biggest markets, Japan and America, the designers chose to make all the servers joinable by players from both countries, meaning that Japanese and American players would have to coexist. With the language difference in mind, the designers also built an “Auto-Translate” system into the game. The system is basically a database of set phrases that when accessed and typed during game-play show up in the users native language, no matter the language of the user who typed them. The database contains phrases like, (Understood.), (I can speak a little.), and (I don’t know how to answer that question.). To access the database you simply start typing the phrase you want to say, then press the space bar and the system will find the closest matches. When you enter the phrase you want into the dialogue box, it shows up with a green parenthesis mark on the left and a red one on the right. To Japanese speaking users it shows up in Japanese and to Eng…
subject: Games
creator: Mizuko Ito
date: 2005-10-02T03:00:35+00:00