Inappropriation

[steepholm]

You occasionally see rows about cultural appropriation that turn on the wearing of Asian clothing, like this prom-dress story on the BBC site yesterday. Well, I can't speak about that case, because I know virtually nothing about Chinese culture or the place of that garment within it. But it occurs to me that when I post pictures of me rocking a yukata some people might be having similarly offended thoughts.

It's actually something I've thought about quite a bit. (I was already mulling over cultural appropriation before it was cool, e.g. in Four British Fantasists, a book published a full year before the founding of Tumblr.) One conclusion I've come to is that each case needs to be looked at individually. Tedious as that may seem, it kind of goes with the territory when you're talking about respect.

Here are some of the considerations.

What is the traditional role of the garment/object/style? Is it sacred or profane? Is it traditionally reserved to certain classes of people?

In the case of the yukata, it's simply a light, summer kimono. Like the kimono it's simply old-fashioned clothing, not sacred garb, although it's still worn at summer festivals and the like. From that point of view, it's no more cultural appropriation than is Japanese people wearing Western-style suits. But that comparison leads to the second possible objection, namely...

Does a European taking up that custom perpetuate a historical relationship of exploitation through slavery or colonialism with the originating culture?

In the case of Japan, there really is no such history with my own culture. (For a Brit, this is a rare treat.)

How do people in the country concerned feel about it?

This is hard to answer, and obviously I can't speak for every Japanese person, but from my own experience, reading what I can on the subject, and watching many a Youtube voxpop (e.g. this one), I have yet to encounter a single Japanese person in Japan* who has anything negative to say about Westerners wearing yukata. In fact, from my admittedly limited observation I'd say that cultural appropriation as a concept is alien to Japanese culture. Arguably, to apply the discourse of cultural appropriation to Japan is in itself a kind of cultural imperialism, but that's a rabbit hole I don't intend to go down here.

This doesn't mean that there are no ways to be offensive in Japanese culture. For a selection of ways to do that, I give you the example of Logan Paul, whose career has just ended as a result of it.

* People of Japanese descent brought up in Western countries may be a different matter.

Comments

[lamentables]

This is something I fret about, given that I wear kurta salwar much of the time. I do that because I'm physically more comfortable in them than in Western clothes. I'm clear that they are my clothes and that I'm not playing dress-up. I've only worn a sari once, and that was dressing up (it was an event on a trip to India), so it's not anything I plan to do again.

Thus far (after about eight years) I have only received favourable reactions from Indian people, though I do get a lot of surprised looks both in the UK and abroad.

[steepholm]

With my Judith Butler hat on I don't think I'd like to draw a super-sharp distinction between dressing and dressing up, but otherwise that seems fair enough to me - I say, knowing a vanishingly small amount about Indian culture.

[lamentables]

Hmmm, you make sense in the JB hat, but on an emotional level it’s a profound distinction to me :)

[sovay]

One conclusion I've come to is that each case needs to be looked at individually. Tedious as that may seem, it kind of goes with the territory when you're talking about respect.

It makes sense to me. The appreciation/appropriation example I've used whenever I've had to explain the distinction is: if I invite non-Jewish friends to a Seder, of course I expect them to participate; they are guests and they are welcome and if they bring wine or some kind of properly kosher side dish, that's very thoughtful, and if their youngest child wants to ask the Four Questions, the kid should go for it. If they go off and next year—while still not being Jewish—decide to host a Seder of their own because they think it's just so lovely and meaningful, we are going to have words. [edit: this is a real-life example in that I have heard of it happening; it has never happened to me. I like to think this is because I do not invite people to my family Seders who are jerks.]

This doesn't mean that there are no ways to be offensive in Japanese culture. For a selection of ways to do that, I give you the example of Logan Paul, whose career has just ended as a result of it.

Yikes.

[steepholm]

Yep - that's a pretty good example, I think!

[thistleingrey]

The seder distinction makes clearer sense to me than the yukata one. I'm not sure what that means! but thank you both for declaring them.

[green_knight]

Appropriate(d) icon here: I took this picture myself, but it's very obvious from not-my-culture...

The seder story has a yukata equivalent, I would say: if you're hiring a yukata from a service that specifically encourages you to try one on, that's one thing. If you buy one (not: 'get given') and wear it on the streets of London, that's another. (and would depend on the individual and their motivations). If you buy one to wear it as a prom dress, that's definitely appropriation: you take it out of its context, 'because it's pretty' and give it a new meaning.

There is an additional level to these discussions (Seen an article this morning, didn't take note of where): 'I asked members of the culture who were living in that culture, and they were not offended' is only part of the argument, because their position is much less precarious: if people in the diaspora get mocked and told to 'go home' for cultural practices (speaking a language, wearing a particular item), then adopting it as a white person and getting lauded for it is extra mockery. White people can display cultures (or write about them) that members of that culture can't. So 'appropriation' always has an element of 'are you exercising your privilege' element:

If Japanese writers write about England, that's not going to lead to English writers not being published. If, on the other hand, an American comics editor adopts a Japanese Name and writes Manga, that directly and indirectly leads to Japanese Americans not being published - directly, because that's one less publishing slot available, and indirectly, because 'authentic' is being redefined by a white person, and people from that culture move further away from 'authentic'[as white people know it].

[steepholm]

Those are some interesting, thinky examples.

I really can't comment on the prom dress example. Not only do I have very little knowledge of Chinese culture, as mentioned above, but I also have very little knowledge of the prom tradition, so my antennae are doubly wonky. Maybe wearing a yukata to a prom would indeed be different from wearing one on the streets of London, but I can't say whether or why.

Not that I've done either: I've only worn my yukata in Japan. I doubt I'd wear it anywhere except at a specifically Japanese festival or cultural event, those being the kinds of occasions it's usual to wear one, and of course those are thin on the ground in Britain.

It's a good point about the diaspora, though. Do Japanese people in Britain, or British people of Japanese descent, get mocked for wearing yukata? I doubt it's a big problem, because of the limited and very Japanese-heavy occasions when it's likely to be worn (as mentioned above), but of course I can't say that never happens. The Japanese people I know don't seem inhibited by any such consideration, but that's a narrow base. Racism certainly exists.

There is also definitely an element of white privilege around language. I get praised for knowing Japanese by both Europeans and Japanese people in a way that I'm pretty sure Japanese people don't get praised for knowing English. (See too the way bilingualism in schools is lauded when the second language is a European one, but often ignored when it's Indian or African.) In Japan the dynamic would be different, but the imbalance would remain. Japanese people often feel they "ought" to know English - not least because of learning it at school - whereas an English person knowing Japanese gets only kudos.

That's an interesting point about writers adopting foreign names in which to write in English. But would it be less problematic if they were in Japan, writing manga in Japanese, and adopting a Japanese pen name - much as Lafcadio Hearn became Koizumi Yakumo (not that he wrote in Japanese, as far as I know)? Or indeed as foreign sumo wrestlers adopt Japanese names professionally?