|
|
|
|
|
GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
JAPAN'S IMPACT ON THE ASIAN IMAGE
t has long been seen as the fountainhead of consumer electronics technology. Its cars are consistently among the world's most admired. Its corporations own two major Hollywood studios. Its kiddie culture has all but killed off Mickey Mouse and Barbie. Its $4 trillion GDP is number two behind the U.S. and its workers earn 25% more per head than Americans.
Bravo Castrati!
That's how many Asian Americans see Japan. A nation that should command the stature of a powerhouse -- and elevate the image of all Asians in the process -- possesses the geopolitical profile of, say, Switzerland, a nation a thirtieth its size. Japan's leaders are seen as mere hand puppets in a sad half-century charade of democracy. Its homes are cramped. Its men function as soulless drones whose women fly into the arms of western males. Even its vaunted economy has been on the ropes for ten years and looks ready to go down for the count. What little testosterone it possessed seems to have left with Ichiro.
A nation that should champion the Asian image has only reinforced every insulting stereotype. To many Asian Americans, Japan has done less than its smaller, poorer neightbors. Little Hong Kong exports asskicking action stars. South Corea exports people who take hooey from no one. Taiwan exports tech entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley. Impoverished China, Vietnam and even nutcase North Corea showed balls in standing up to the west. But mighty Japan? Spiritually it seems never to have recovered from its defeat in World War II.
Is Japan carrying its weight or slacking in the Asian image department?
This interactive article is closed to new input.
Discussions posted during the past year remain available for browsing.
CONTACT US
|
ADVERTISING INFO
© 1996-2013 Asian Media Group Inc
No part of the contents of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission.
|
|
|
|
WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:00:37 PM)
huu76,
China is already competing against countries like Japan. That what the WTO entry does for a country.
As for once everyone has achieving "good living" in China... The economy will be theoretically 7x that of the USA by then. The USA will revive its manufacting sector to export finished goods to China, because we will be considered cheap labor.
AC Dropout
Sunday, July 07, 2002 at 07:51:02 (PDT)
I am really interested in what is going to happen in Asia when China's economy does "wake up" I predict that a lot of South East asian countries like singapore, malaysia, philippines, indonesia, etc. economies will also improve since a lot of them have connections with China
AM
Friday, July 05, 2002 at 20:10:42 (PDT)
i think japan should buy some media
corporations or movies studios. this
way they could trumpet asians to the
west, they could at least trumpet japanese to the west. whoever controls
the media controls what people think.
asia lover
Friday, July 05, 2002 at 15:27:24 (PDT)
AC,
When everyone in China has a decent income and quality of life, then they can truly compete against 1st world countries like Japan.
When that does happen, China's economy will probably be 2 to 3x that of the U.S'
Brazil has a large economy, and a lot of poor people too. I doubt their quality of life is even close to North America's (except for the 1% who are filthy rich).
huu76
Wednesday, July 03, 2002 at 22:19:38 (PDT)
What was the deal with those Toshiba commercials during the World Cup? They had two of them, basically the same except for the gender and race of the Toshiba representative. The first one I saw had a Asian female rep going around looking busy. The second one had this Caucasian dude going around and looking like he was really into his job. So why wasn't the male rep an Asian? It's a Japanese company, isn't it? What's the message that they're trying to convey?
AM
Tuesday, July 02, 2002 at 23:13:57 (PDT)
I dunno
about Asian Americans, but Asians (especially older ones in China and Corea) aren't particularly looking for
a new "testosterone" laden "image" of
the Japanese. They whine about US ~
Western leadership (who doesn't) but
they prefer it over Japan's. The
Japanese know this so they keep a low
"ass kicking" profile. Its also
easier to sell your products in the
region if you don't remind consumers they were once part of the "Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere". Believe me if Japan started showing some "balls", those former members (with the exception of China) would come whining to the US to tell them
to back down.
B Chen
Tuesday, July 02, 2002 at 11:12:11 (PDT)
huu76,
Those numbers are misleading as well. If you compare the really number of those with $34,000 in China. I would suspect it would be close to 240 million new middle class in China (the entire USA population), mostly living in urban settings. Remember China has approx. 7 times the USA population.
I'm not say there are not those that are poor in China. But they have been in a transition economy for about 30 years.
question,
China has official stance is that they want to have a control population shrinkage in the country. That's why there is the 1 child law for urban families.
I don't think the PRC is deliberately trying to kill off their rural folks. That is borderline crazy talk. Just like rural USA has lack of medical facilities. One of the benefits of living in a city.
There is only one big goof in PRC when it came to AID in Hubei province. They used infected needles for blood donations. So that are a lot of tradegic cases people getting AIDS when selling blood and getting blood for medical treatment in that area. But the numbers weren't even in the hundreds last I checked.
PPP or GDP? I used a CIA drug called TTTTT (Till They Tell The Truth) on a World Bank official. He told me what's up in the world economy. hehehe.
AC Dropout
Monday, July 01, 2002 at 13:29:12 (PDT)
NEWEST COMMENTS |
EARLIER COMMENTS
|