Last night, I found myself unexpectedly in the home of my Japanese tutor enjoying year-end soba noodles and good company. I had gotten an email the evening before asking for my attendance, and even if I had something else to do, this sounded like fun. I was the last one to finish eating because I had also been asked to bring pictures of America to show the family. Having only digital copies I brought my computer, but with the help of technology these pictures were soon rendered in all their glory upon their wide-screen T.V.
My tutor's family (her husband and two daughters aged 11 and 14) listened politely while I tried to explain Oregon in halting Japanese. Strangely, the girls were especially enraptured by the pictures of squirrels from the Capital Park in Salem. While they are as common as pigeons in Oregon, I guess they're a bit of a rarity in Japan.
After my photo montage (“- and here is my family sitting on a sofa and watching TV!”) we switched over to real television- NHK's year end music contest program, “Kohaku Uta Gassen” more commonly shortened to "Kohaku". It is a musical war of the sexes, in which male and female music stars compete to win the evening. Most of the artists were from Japan, but there were a few notable pop groups from Korea, as well as a guest appearance from a certain famous American.
My impression of most of the artists were average. There was the usual assortment of boy bands, female soloists, country singers, and the occasional opera star. What is noticeably different between Western and Asian music entertainment, however, is the advent of large female “idol” groups. I suppose these are bands, although some of them are more rightly called this than others. Smaller idol groups are 6-9 women, while the largest, AKB48 has 48. And now for a quick rant:
(AKB48)
I will never tell my students this, but I really don't care for AKB48. For one, I'm told that in Japan cute equals sexy in a woman. This means that while, ostensibly, the group's members are of legal age, this doesn't prevent them from appearing in music videos in school girl's uniforms (with the shortest of skirts) or having pillow fights with teddy bears in lingerie. (Seriously, if you thought Katy's Perry's “I Kissed a Girl and I Liked It” had a risque music video, look up “Heavy Rotation”) It makes me a bit uneasy. There's also the practice of having the fans vote every year on who the members of the band get to be, who gets to be in music videos, singles, etc. Finally, the band members are forbidden to have boyfriends, and can be fired if they do decide to fall for someone. In the end this creates a group of scantily clad young women in their early 20's who must constantly vie against each other for popularity, while also creating the illusion that they are all available for lucky fan boys. Ugh. I do not envy them.
But, now that I have indulged in some feminism, back to the Kohaku. There were a couple singers that I really liked. One of them was Sachiko Kobayashi, an Enka, or Japanese country music, singer. Kobayashi is in her 50's now, but is a little like Madonna in terms of maintaining popularity. In her numerous Kohaku appearances she has also garnered a reputation for wearing costumes that would make Elton John jealous. This year, she appeared on stage wearing a sequined gold dress with a matching crested swim cap. Halfway through the song, the head of a Chinese Lion rose up around her, followed soon by it's body. As the dramatic music rose, Kobayashi reappeared on the Lion's head as the body began to dance around in time to the music. It was all very inspiring.
(In China, the lions dance to scare away evil spirits at New Year's. I suspect her dress could have done the same ^^; )
(A previous year, a different dress/giant animal to ride on- I've been finding these photos on Google.)
Late in the evening a more familiar face took the stage- Lady Gaga performed two songs, playing the piano for the first and dancing for the second. “You and I” and then “Born this Way”, the second of which is being hailed as being the new GLBT positive anthem of the age. I think it can apply to anyone though, as it tells people to love themselves no matter how strange others might see them.
Anyway Lady Gaga danced around a gothic stage set dressed entirely in black leather and sequins, singing about “being beautiful in my way.” In that moment a strange feeling overtook me...
...I was proud to be American.
-Andrew
Yeah, it happens every now and then, doesn't it? I'll never forget the first time I felt the same way watching TV. It was while watching the Winter Olympics as a kid. They were showing the ice skating contestants for each country. The Germans looked very German, the Japanese looked very Japanese, etc. The American was Michelle Kwan.
ReplyDeleteI was like, "Yeah, we'll take the best, and we don't care where they come from. My country is cool."