- What should we do when we are confroted with other cultures?
It is difficult to say that we are always able to view others in an objective view. In fact, it is possible to say that we always have fixed perspectives and biased views of other cultures based on our own knowledge. Today with Internet connection and a period of ‘worldwide community’, culture is easily viewed when people from other countries meet on the Internet. Recently, there was a news article about Japanese culture and comments from different people. The article discussed about ‘Japanese pornography’ and its massive economic market that is formed from the selling and buying of these Adult Videos (AV). It seems that in Japan, the people believe that creating and selling AV’s is just a form of living and marketing. It said that they didn’t see a big difference between celebrities and AV actors. In one case in Japan, an AV actress had become a singer and also acting in a ‘normal’ soap opera. In Korea, this would be impossible to happen because of the different views of cultural beliefs. Personally, I couldn’t agree with the Japanese perspective of ‘pornography’. This is a result of the different environment of Korea and Japan. Of the comments left by people on the Internet, many of the Koreans said that ‘it wasn’t morally right to expand massive markets with pornography. As from the example, it is virtually difficult to view other cultures without prejudice. Our minds and knowledge are the first to interfere with what and how we judge other circumstances. Many others, however, always state a clichéd saying of ‘confronting and viewing other cultures with a perfectly objective view’ while they themselves, have many prejudice against certain cultures and countries. Take for instance, Koreans. The majority of those who have received education within the territory of Korea, all have hostility towards the Japanese. Or maybe the thought that when we think of the continent, Africa, we see black, naked, uncivilized, bare-footed, people who live in huts when actually; there are many developed cities and countries within the continent. So as a conclusion, to avoid prejudice and biased opinions of completely different cultures, we should not try to judge with our knowledge but just to accept and not analyze within our own perspectives.
2 comments:
pornography?! when I think of Japan, I think of the Adult movie/anime industry. I admit it's a bit biased but it doesn't make it any less true that japan is one of the leading adult entertainment industries in the world....i just made that up by the way. Anyway, I understand this whole "point of view" with cultures is about. We face it all the time. I liked how you mentioned about people like us thinking about Africa in a very uncivilized way. I too agree that we need to view other cultures in a biased and predjudice-free mind. This way, we won't have negative preceptions of other cultures and in doing so creating a gap in the bridge of the relationship between "us and them."
God doesn't subscribe to the culture theory - man makes culture. So essentially when a culture concept is contrary to Godly expectations we should essentially reject that concept and not the people involved. Mrs.Mc.
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