In early posts I mentioned eurocentrism when talking about my East Asian Studies class. To generalize, eurocentrism is the belief that Europe is the centre from which all creativity, innovation, and civilization flow, and it is only from and through Europe that other countries/nations may receive civilization, innovation, etc. Eurocentrism isn't the only type of "centrism," however; you could replace "Europe" in the previous sentence with "China," and the result would be sinocentrism.
At any rate, the thing about "centrisms" is that they presume to separate and classify things as "good" or "bad," "civilized," or "uncivilized." For example, if I held sinocentric beliefs, I might think that only the Chinese way of doing things to be right, and any other ways to be wrong, or uncivilized.
It's an interesting phenomenon. Having this belief in the superiority of one nation created a sort of...paradigm shift (hopefully I'm using the term correctly ^^;;). Before "centrism" started, different countries, customs, cultures, etc. were thought of as just that, different. After, however, all these different things were forced into a linear scale of progression, going from "bad" to "good," "barbaric" to "civilized."
But I digress from what I actually wanted to talk about today. @_@
I brought up this issue of "centrisms" because I was reminded of it when I was talking to a friend, almost a month ago, about domestic anime. My friend was...um...flabbergasted that I would urge him to support the domestic anime industry (rather than buying pirated anime). He said that he would buy the "original" (considering that he also said that they were subtitled in Chinese, it makes me a bit suspicious as to their legitimacy, but I'm sure he doesn't realize that they're pirated, if they, in fact, are) dvds if he liked it, but he was absolutely against domestic releases. Why? Because he hated the way Americans try to assimilate and Americanize everything. His specific complaint was against English dubs.
Now I can understand some of his sentiments, not being particularly fond of dubs myself, but the more we talked the more I observed some serious flaws in his logic. See, he said that English dubs were an example of Americans' attempts to Americanize anime--making it an argument against dubs in principal--yet at the same time he stated that he was fine with Chinese dubs because their voice acting was much better, and closer to the original Japanese.
You should see the problem, right? How can you oppose English dubs in principal on the one hand, and then laud Chinese dubs on the other? If he had made it an issue of the quality of Chinese subs versus English ones I would have agreed totally, but instead he continued to make his arguments as if English dubs themselves were wrong, and not just underdeveloped as of yet. I don't like English dubs, but I appreciate them because they've played an essential role in bringing anime to a wider demographic. Dubs make anime more accessible to non-Japanese peoples, whether they're American, Italian, French or Chinese. Sure the English dubs often make a butchery of the original Japanese meanings, but they're getting better. I'm sure Chinese dubs probably started off horribly as well, and have simply improved with time.
So yes, I thought his opinions were quite "asianocentric" to make up a word. The only way to logically explain why dubs in English are wrong in principal while Chinese dubs are not, is to say that anything Asian must be good and right, while anything American/European is not. Do you see how that works? Or, rather, doesn't? If you want to say that Chinese dubs are better than English dubs, that's one thing, but to say that English dubs are Americanization attempts but Chinese dubs are NOT sinification attempts, is something else entirely! (Sorry, I know I'm kind of talking in circles, but the lack of logic baffles and irritates me.)
Moreover, near the end of the discussion I asked him straight out if he wished that anime had remained a "purely" Asian thing, and he said yes. Then I was flabbergasted.
To begin with, anime has never been purely Asian. Osamu Tezuka, considered the father of anime and manga, himself drew inspiration from the simplified features and big eyes of Disney characters, and the cinematic techniques of the American film industry. Two of the most distinctive features of anime--big eyes and the graphic rather than written or spoken storytelling techniques--came from America, so how could anime be "purely Asian?" When I pointed this out, my friend argued that it was so long ago, and people don't really notice it anyway (whereas, I suppose, people can easily tell when American artists are utilizing anime styles). Maybe it's just me, but I thought that the fact that the American influence is so ingrained into the so-called Japanese animation style that you don't even notice it made an even stronger point for my case.
The other thing that bothered me about the whole "keeping anime purely Asian" thing was that, well, to be judgemental, it sounded pretty selfish. I love anime, and I'm thrilled to know that it's translated into Italian, French, and a myriad of languages other than Chinese and English, because that means that more people are able to know and love anime as I do.
Then too, if anime had remained a "purely Asian" thing, I wouldn't have been able to develop as deep an appreciation for anime as I have now. When I was young I watched Ranma 1/2 subtitled in Chinese, but, not speaking Chinese, I couldn't understand the subtleties of the dialogue, even though I could pick up on the plot and basic gist from the images, sounds, and tones. With only Asian versions of anime, for example, I would never have been able to understand, much less come to love, heavily dialogue-based series such as Hana Yori Dango, Neon Genesis Evangelion, or Marmalade Boy. (I know that anecdotal evidence isn't really good evidence, but it serves to illustrate why I feel so strongly about the subject, which is why I'm mentioning all this.)
Ah, so what was the point of all this? Well, I guess you'll have to think that one through for yourselves. Hopefully you'll be able to get some food for thought out of this even if you're not an anime fan. As for me, I guess I needed to just get this all out, considering that I'm still able to write so emotionally about this a month after the actual discussion, that probably means that it really was bugging me quite a bit. =P
Hey, would anyone be interested in reading the essay on eurocentrism that I did for my East Asian class? It was pretty coherent, I think, so it would probably make the problem with "centrisms" more clear... But I wouldn't want people to think that I'm just cheaping out on my posts (again) if I put it up! ^^;;
