Which East Asian culture do you find the most interesting?

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Katie

Mongolian.....or maybe Tibeten....I also think Indonesia is nice.

Hmm I should have included Tibetan, and I suppose Okinawa applies as a different culture than the Japanese one. As for Indonesia, that's South East Asia and doesn't have as much in common with the ones on the poll.

[Lou 500]

Japan. Their society and culture is extremely intriguing to me.

[sdp]

Now I love Japan for the same reason everyone else here does..as a kid I loved martial arts, anime, their food, technology and videogames. And they all came from japan, the fact that their culture was so different was also very appealing. Now after the anime craze in America and the stereotype of "otaku" I kind of started drifted from the fandom. Japan is great but they're far from the perfect culture. I always wanted to learn Japanese as a kid/teen but when i finally got the chance 2 years ago I realized it wasn't for me and I preferred to learn Mandarin Chinese.

Now China had always been interesting to me but I always saw it as a lesser version of Japan and I couldn't have been more wrong. I decided to take Chinese classes since it'd be good for business and I think in order to learn a language you need to be interested in their culture which I already was so I started learning more and more and it's been fascinating. One of the most interesting things is many things that I liked about Japan were taken from China, including stuff like martial arts and spirituality, but it goes further than that. The Chinese culture has basically existed for at least 4000 years and you can still read any of the recorded history if you know Chinese since it hasn't changed unlike other languages. Their culture is as fascinating as Japan's and is unfairly looked over and thought of as a place where cheap crappy things come from when it couldn't be more wrong.

[ssjup81]

Well, obviously my vote is going to go towards Japan, as that's the reason I'm here. I'd been very interested in the culture and such for years now. The other three are interesting too, especially China, but yeah...Japan gets my vote and I owe it all to the music group Hiroshima and seeing the music video for One Wish nearly 30 years ago, where I saw a Japanese lady doing Nihonbuyo (modern Japanese dance) that just fascinated me. lol

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

I would have to go with Japanese culture, They are far more advance then we are, Lots of cool things came from them, Anime, Video Games, Electronics, Ect.

It's ahead in some ways...backwards in others. ><

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by ssjup81

Well, obviously my vote is going to go towards Japan, as that's the reason I'm here. I'd been very interested in the culture and such for years now. The other three are interesting too, especially China, but yeah...Japan gets my vote and I owe it all to the music group Hiroshima and seeing the music video for One Wish nearly 30 years ago, where I saw a Japanese lady doing Nihonbuyo (modern Japanese dance) that just fascinated me. lolIt's ahead in some ways...backwards in others. ><

People seem to be picking Japanese mostly due to anime and video games. Pop culture is very powerful can really mold people's minds.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Prowler

People seem to be picking Japanese mostly due to anime and video games. Pop culture is very powerful can really mold people's minds.

Yeah and I said this on another message board too. Went into more depth, so I'll copy and paste it here.

I just realized I never did mention how I got interested in Japanese stuff. It's slightly different from some of yours, though.

It all happened back when I was either 4 or 5. Like usual, my father and I were watching VH-1.

During the 80s, both my parents watched MTV and VH-1 a lot, so I picked up on it as well. When it comes to those two particular stations, the 80s were great. They actually played music videos. I don't know what happened to those stations. They're both awful now, imo.

Anyway, my father and I were watching VH-1. A music video came on. I'd never heard of them before. The group was called Hiroshima. The name of the song was One Wish and it was new. I loved this music video!

The only thing I remembered about the video, before finding it again a few years ago, was a lady dancing with fans and the instruments. I assumed the dance was Odori style after all these years when trying to recall what I'd seen from a child, but as I was able to check it out and ask, I learned that it was Nihonbuyo. Anyway, for some odd reason, I was mesmerized by the simplistic dance and found it incredibly cool and interesting. I liked the kimono too, and the fans. The music was also very nice, and fit very well and I saw an instrument I'd never come across before (Koto or Japanese harp). My father told me the name of the music group, since I couldn't read it at the time.

So yeah, this is what got me interested in Japanese culture, but as a kid, I didn't have an outlet for it. No place did anything remotely Japanese around me. I didn't finally get an outlet until maybe 15 years ago when I first started using he Internet.

Anywho, here's the music video...

So yeah, there goes a more thorough reason of how I became interested in Japan.

[billbot85]

I love Japanese culture out of all of these the best. I wouldn't say it's just because of video games and sushi, but I just love learning about Japanese culture in general. I love all kinds of Japanese food, history, martial arts, entertainment, practically everything. I like a few anime's, too. I certainly don't know as much as I should, but that's why I continue learning about it.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by billbot85

I love Japanese culture out of all of these the best. I wouldn't say it's just because of video games and sushi, but I just love learning about Japanese culture in general. I love all kinds of Japanese food, history, martial arts, entertainment, practically everything. I like a few anime's, too. I certainly don't know as much as I should, but that's why I continue learning about it.

Oh I didn't mean to say that everyone who has voted Japan was only due to anime and video games. Obviously Japan is a country that interests a lot of people, one way or the other.

Anyway, I'm not surprised it's leading the poll. I must say I'm surprised Korean doesn't have any vote thus far, though. Korean pop culture and electronic products have become very popular in the last decade. South Korea is an odd and incredible case. It went from one of the poorest countries in the world to a very high-tech country. Seriously, google pics from Korea cities back in the 50s and 60s and compare them to today. it's insane.

CyberCubed mentioned how incredible it was that Japan was able to climb up like it did, but what can you say about South Korea? It's not like Japan came out of nowhere. It's been a relevant country for quite a while now. And it was already the most powerful Asian nation in the early 20th century.

However, the Korean civilization is arguably living through its golden period right now. I'm not an expert on Korean history, but didn't Korea spend most of its history fighting off invasions from China and Japan? Being a fairly small country in comparison to its neighbors. Not to mention that Korean history in the first half of the twentieth century is pretty depressing.

The fact that Korea was the fastest developing nation in the 20th century and probably in history is quite insane. This is a small country(just barely bigger than Hungary and Portugal in terms of area) that has one of the highest GDPs in the world. And it also boasts a population of 50 million(!) people

[billbot85]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Oh I didn't mean to say that everyone who has voted Japan was only due to anime and video games. Obviously Japan is a country that interests a lot of people, one way or the other.

No worries, Prowler. I didn't think you were saying that at all! Japanese culture and history has always fascinated me. It's probably the historian inside of me, lol.

You bring up some really interesting points about South Korea, I'd agree that they are living through their Golden Age, and considering their rough history of fighting off invasions and the Korean War, I'd say they've come very far as a nation.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by billbot85

No worries, Prowler. I didn't think you were saying that at all! Japanese culture and history has always fascinated me. It's probably the historian inside of me, lol.

You bring up some really interesting points about South Korea, I'd agree that they are living through their Golden Age, and considering their rough history of fighting off invasions and the Korean War, I'd say they've come very far as a nation.

Although, South Korea's economic growth has slowed down in the past decade hasn't it? Let's see if the country won't go through a recession like Japan did for about 20 years.