Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Distinguishing between Chinese and Japanese culture

It's 2012, and people still can't distinguish between Chinese culture and Japanese culture.  Or, they can distinguish, but they don't care.

Case in point - Coldplay's video for Princess of China - Rihanna wears Geisha-inspired makeup and clothing in some of the scenes.  Because the Chinese Princess lives in .. Japan?  Or China = the East = Japan?

And Pupa Cosmetic's China Doll collection features Geisha artwork.  Because Japanese Geishas are just another type of China doll?

Anywhoo.  This inability to distinguish between the cultures is nothing new, but I was hoping that people would have more of a clue.  However, the U.S. does still have national politicians who do not know basic biology so I guess I shouldn't be so shocked about cultural confusion.

2 comments:

Holly said...

You're not alone when it comes to distinguishing cultures ^-^ I'm an Asian American and I still find lots of people who can't tell what from what. It's quite annoying but what can we do? (〜 ̄▽ ̄)〜They assume that all Asians are Chinese even though we are not

kuri said...

Yeah, I guess as people learn more about the world the issue/annoyance will go away.