Left: Ando Hiroshige
Right: Van Gogh, aftr Hiroshige
The blossoms are close-ups of:
Left:
Vincent van Gogh
Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige)
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Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: 1887
Van Gogh Museum
Amsterdam
Right:
Ando Hiroshige
Plum Estate, Kameido
1857 From
Woodblock print, 13 1/4 x 8 5/8 in;
The Brooklyn Museum
The outstanding thing when comparing the two images is the graphic quality of the Hiroshige's print, and the painterly quality of Van Gogh's blossoms.
Van Gogh has used paint, texture, color to create a three-dimensional oil painting. Hiroshige reduced and simplified his vision by carving it on a woodblock for printing, although his effort is by no means simplistic, and is in fact quite accomplished considering the medium he used.
A comparison of the two paintings, and styles, can be seen here: Hiroshige's and Van Gogh's
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My post Ethnic Holes has triggered a very interesting interaction at Laura Wood's site. When I first wrote it, I did so with some trepidation. I thought it likely that people will see it as racist, and many people have positive views of Asians (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Filipinos) and my post would seem jarring and odd.
Well, it is good to know that I am not alone with these observations.
Karl D. at Laura's site writes:
The two big things I learned about them is that when it comes to money, all bets are off. They will do or say anything to make a buck. Lie, cheat, steal you name it. All with a smile on their face. The other thing is the family/clan. That is the center of their universe. Anyone outside of that clan is suspect and fair game. And if you are not Chinese? As we say in New York, “Forget about it!”I don't know about the money part, I've never had to deal financially with an Asian, but I disagree with his family/clan part.
It seems to me that they treat their daughters that like they would money. As Karl writes: "[W]hen it comes to money, all bets are off."
When it comes to getting a white male as part of the family through marriage with their daughter, all bets are off.
I find the Chinese culture to be weirdly materialistic. And yet, despite this tendency, they still don't have the refined, aesthetic sense that the materialism of the West has. I noticed this when I was teaching English as Second Language to Chinese immigrants. There was always something missing in their aesthetics. But this is for a longer, more detailed discussion which I will tackle some time.
So, how can a culture which says it pays high respects to family and clan so readily give away its daughters to the highest bidder? I think it is materialism, tied with prestige. In their eyes, a white suitor, even a white man who is poorer than an Asian suitor, is a better catch for their daughter, because eventually even this white man can be better than the Asian, financially and hierarchically (I actually think this is true). And a half white grand child is even better insurance for these greedy parents, since this admixture will act more white, but will most likely associate with (and look like) its Asian side, and will also influence the white father to pay more attention to his Asian in-laws. I think this attitude is ingrained in Asian families, which is why so many Asian women flock toward white men.
The big question is: if Asian daughters are bait for white men (by these clan/family oriented Asians) then what happens to the Asian men that they don't marry? There certainly aren't as many Asian men/White women pairings, although that is slowly rising.
I think what is happening is that Asian men are now beginning to climb up the financial and prestige ladder. I am seeing many more Asian/Asian couples these days than say about five years ago. Once the "materialistic benefits" of the Asian man has improved, Asian women are more ready to pair up with them.
Still, the white man will always be the best catch, as the Asian man, with all his credentials, will never reach the heights of his white competitor. And Asians know this.
The other interesting discussion is about Chinese temperament, which is violent and hostile, whereas the Japanese is much more engaging.
At one point, I was very interested in Japan, its language, its music, designs. I had hopes of visiting the country, although I never did. I agree there is an engaging quality about Japanese culture, but as I studied the designs (there are some lovely kimono designs) I found a particular graphic emphasis, as though everything had been reduced to a simpler level. I also watched as many Japanese films as I could. Again, I found a limit to their imagination. Rather than elaborate on a character, a story or an environment, some of the more successful films resorted to graphic and horrible violence. Here is a blogger called Marc McDonald who reacted to this horror in exactly the same way I did, who writes:
[A]s a long-time fan of Japanese cinema, I can safely say that many of the most violent movies ever made are from Japan. A good example is the ultra-violent movie Tokyo Gore Police from 2008. Temperament
Tokyo Gore Police may well be the most violent film ever made. A jaw-dropping, astonishingly blood-soaked and hyper-violent movie, Tokyo Gore Police makes the films of controversial "bad boy" director Quentin Tarantino look tame by comparison.
In fact, as fans of Asian horror/thriller/slasher films know, many of Tarantino's films are nothing more than watered down pale imitations of the best of Asian "extreme" cinema. Tarantino rips off many of his ideas from the best of Japanese cinema and waters it all down for an American audience that, in most cases, has never been exposed to the real deal. (Films like Tokyo Gore Police, as well as the hyper-violent Japanese masterpiece Battle Royale from 2000 sadly, rarely even get a U.S. theatrical release).
Violence seems to be a theme, in one form or another, in Asian culture. I think it is a demonstration of the culture's immaturity. Rather than resolve a cinematic theme through a series of methods, from discussion, a love story, a crime thriller where the search for the criminal becomes the objective rather than the crime, Japanese filmmakers seem to prefer to resolve their stories purely through cinematic visuals, where action becomes the only way, and violent action the most effective way.
In a more subtle way, re-working ethnicity and culture by intermarriage is a form of violence. Everyone becomes disoriented, including the schemers. Life becomes less comfortable due to multi-cultural stress. People within families look different, so trust between family members becomes an issue (in a fundamental, existential level). And the society gets alarmed by these "different" peoples that populate its country, and will always be on some kind of "alert" mode, to avoid inevitable conflicts. This is now mostly done through government interventions of various laws and provisions.
At some point, though, people will start fighting.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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