From: webihara@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Wataru Ebihara)
Subject: Re: The Rising Sun by Michael Crichton
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 16:43:30 GMT


dtwei@acsu.buffalo.edu (Danielle T Wei) replying to
pkwu@is0.is.morgan.com (Peter W u):

> Well, I've never read it.. But a friend of mine (black man in his 40's)..
> He used to say all these wonderful things about Japan/etc, but after he
> read this book he came up to me and said "you know what, those japanese
> are XXXXXXXs, they may smile at you during the day but plot against you
> during the night.. they're all XXXXXXs"
> 
> Now, I must say my friend over-reacted, but I think from his attitude
> I can tell what the guy wrote in his book..
> I was never a big Nipponphile, but I don't think I would agree with the
> author

"Yes, those sneaky tricky Orientals, you never know what's going
on in their heads."  Just kidding...   :-)  :-)

I haven't read "Rising Sun", but it's kind of interesting how
attitudes toward an entire country of people can be changed by
reading one book, and this is just "fiction" (?).  Just mere
words, but I guess, words have great power.

In some ways, it's almost like how stereotypic images of Asian
and Asian Americans can flip back and forth from postive to
negative -- from the "model minority" to something less than
model. The "model" characteristics can easily be turned around.

It depends a lot on the observer's prejudice and their
(cultural/racial/national) perspective.  For example, if we take
some of the "model" characteristics -- "hard working" can become
being "overly competitive and agressive", "intelligence" can
become being "sneaky and crafty", "patience and courtesy" can
become "silent contempt"; a sense of "reserve" becomes "aloofness
and supicion", etc., etc...  The stereotypes seem to be able to
fit the mood of the stereotyper.

I feel this ability to hold stereotypes comes out of mostly
ignorance and one's personal experience, and also the need to
make quick judgements about peoople by just the few examples we
know (and I think we tend to remember negative things much
quickly).  My primary concern is that the focus on the negativity
of Asian societies without proper balance, eventually turns into
Asian "American" hating.

I have an older friend (white male) who says that he developed a
lot of hate and prejudice against the Japanese (and then
generalized to other Asians) by the exposure of the WWII
propaganda and his lack of exposure/friendship with "real"
Asian people. I used to have some stereotypic ethnic images of
Japanese too, but after meeting quite a few people of (whatever)
nationality, you finally figure out that people are just
individual human beings -- people aren't all good or all bad, but
"reality" is somewhere in between.  No one person or society is
perfect -- you get the good and the bad together in one
package.

Wataru

P.S.

I'm not really sure, though, why we're discussing "Japan" in this
Asian "American" newsgroup.  As a side note, there seems to be
some parallels between how people view the rise of Asian
countries, like Japan, from a defeated country in WWII to an
economic superpower, similar to the (perceived) success of Asian
Americans from an oppressed minority to model minority.  Anyway,
people seem to take a greater interest when that happens, and we
begin to think Asian people are somehow greatly "different" from
the rest of "us".  Hmm.......   :-)

Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american