Kenan's Freewrite
Research Freewrite
Beijing and Shanghai have been increasingly exposed to advertisements from their neighbors to the east: Japan and Korea. There has been a increasing trend in the “fashionable” Korean and Japanese products, clothes, and cuisine marked by pop culture imports such as Korea’s Winter Sonata TV Drama, Japanese face lotion, and the perception of female beauty from both countries. What the Chinese call “Han ri” and “hang Han” ) (literally “trendy Japanese” and “trendy Korean”) have swept the metropolitan areas, especially with the youth who are constantly exposed and more receptive to movies, music, and personalities from other countries. I will research questions such as: what were the origins of this East Asia import fad? What has influenced Koreans or Japanese and indirectly influenced the Chinese? What are the key perceptions of beauty, glamour, success that the Chinese see in their neighbors? How has Korean/Japanese imports been molded or integrated for the purpose of Chinese use? With China’s increasing appetite for global imports, metropolitan Chinese youth have adopted the Korean and Japanese food, fashion, and culture as their own when determining their own sense of style in the context of China’s economic liberation.
I will examine photos taken of advertisements from Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjing, and Nanjing: China’s biggest metropolis as well as from Hong Kong to compare the influence of colonialism vs. Korean/Japanese influence. Visuals will also include commercials, publications regarding the topic. I will anticipate finding many articles about the topic with first hand accounts using interviews about Japanese and Korean influence. Korean/Japanese TV shows, which are especially popular will also be a part of my research.I also will have interviews on my own with my contacts in China who are in the prime target age group for this “trend”. Secondhand sources will include articles, journals, and any other publication that could shed light on the imposition of a new concept of beauty after the fading out of western beauty. After a period of using western people as the standard of beauty, the Chinese figured that copying westerners made little sense and they turned to their “more advanced” Pacific Rim neighbors for inspiration.
This is a relatively raw topic that has not been recognized fully in the academia. Trends of influence usually require more than 50 years to be a “definite” influence as stating that Japanese/Korean influence has been prominent in China carries politically incorrect undertones in light of the past 100 years. Thus, many secondhand publications would be deterred from publishing on this subject, but with the worldwide globalization, other explanations besides Japanese cultural imperialism can be explained about this topic. The effectiveness and accuracy of my claim can also be debated as many youths in China either still do not have access to this type of materialism, are uninterested, or are not influenced by its ideology. All three cases would disprove my thesis, and I will have to be careful in noting that the influence is a “trend”, not necessarily defined by majority participation. The trend is rather a highlight of metropolitan youth in China today, rather than an overwhelming statistic. In fact, statistics cannot measure the extent of a topic as subjective and “sticky” as Japanese/Korean materialistic influence on Chinese youths.
A Shanghai Taxi Ad advertising plastic surgery. A young woman is shown wearing traditional Korean robes, suggesting that the “Korean” perfection or beauty can be achieved through plastic surgery.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jowong/203679754/