Intercultural
Waked up at 6 am, turned on my PC and changed the setting of this new blog diary. By this change anonymous guests can not input their comments on my diary. It is not that I am annoyed by anonymous comments, but I just want to use this space only for my journal entry not for the communication space unlike other blogs. So, if you happened to visit here and want to make any comments. Please e-mail me. I always try to reply to you.
Last night I went to Greenbelt 1 to watch "Zatoichi" -- the Japanese movie directed by Takeshi Kitano. There are some other foreign (not Hollywood) movies that won in some international competitions; they are shown now because of Makati Cinema Festival (I forgot the exact name).
Usually (at least among my Aikido friends here in Manila) when we say "Zatoichi", it means the one acted by Shintaro Katsu. Those Aikido enthusiasts who are Filipinos are quite familiar with many of such samurai movies since a lot of DVDs are also available.
It seems they know more about those movies than I do. I know Katsu Shintaro's Zatoichi, but I do no longer clearly remember it since it was shown when I was a just small kid. For them, however, together with Toshiro Mifune's Musashi Miyamoto and many of Kurosawa's movies, Katsu Shintaro is still active as one of their samurai icons. It is interesting. Probably there must be the same situation even among the American samurai mania, I think. And such kind of "samurai media" can be one of the strong sources for them to practice Aikido enthusiastically.
In my case I started Aikido two years ago only when I encountered those Aikido enthusiasts. In fact, while I was interested in it to some extent, I had taken for granted. Rediscovering your own cultural identity because of the fans of your culture is an interesting case. Last year many Japanese have gotten interested in what is Bushido all about because of "The Last Samurai." It is also the same case that one rediscovered one's culture because of the other's appreciation on it.
In the Philippines there are also a number of foreign students of Philippine culture in the universities and graduate schools. Some are Japanese and some are even Americans. And they love Tagalog movies while Filipinos love English Hollywood movies. Although I am not saying that we have to be nationalistic and ethnocentric, it is good that we can have a chance to re-appreciate our own culture from the other's point of view. In this stance, I think, we can really appreciate our own culture without being unnecessarily ethnocentric.
For, being ethnocentric is a kind of self-inflation of your group-oriented ego identity, whereas in this case it is a kind of your appreciation on the appreciation of your friends. There is a mutual respect in it. My Aikido teacher is Filipino who is the third dan and I think it is a great opportunity to learn my traditional culture in this intercultural way.
Last night I went to Greenbelt 1 to watch "Zatoichi" -- the Japanese movie directed by Takeshi Kitano. There are some other foreign (not Hollywood) movies that won in some international competitions; they are shown now because of Makati Cinema Festival (I forgot the exact name).
Usually (at least among my Aikido friends here in Manila) when we say "Zatoichi", it means the one acted by Shintaro Katsu. Those Aikido enthusiasts who are Filipinos are quite familiar with many of such samurai movies since a lot of DVDs are also available.
It seems they know more about those movies than I do. I know Katsu Shintaro's Zatoichi, but I do no longer clearly remember it since it was shown when I was a just small kid. For them, however, together with Toshiro Mifune's Musashi Miyamoto and many of Kurosawa's movies, Katsu Shintaro is still active as one of their samurai icons. It is interesting. Probably there must be the same situation even among the American samurai mania, I think. And such kind of "samurai media" can be one of the strong sources for them to practice Aikido enthusiastically.
In my case I started Aikido two years ago only when I encountered those Aikido enthusiasts. In fact, while I was interested in it to some extent, I had taken for granted. Rediscovering your own cultural identity because of the fans of your culture is an interesting case. Last year many Japanese have gotten interested in what is Bushido all about because of "The Last Samurai." It is also the same case that one rediscovered one's culture because of the other's appreciation on it.
In the Philippines there are also a number of foreign students of Philippine culture in the universities and graduate schools. Some are Japanese and some are even Americans. And they love Tagalog movies while Filipinos love English Hollywood movies. Although I am not saying that we have to be nationalistic and ethnocentric, it is good that we can have a chance to re-appreciate our own culture from the other's point of view. In this stance, I think, we can really appreciate our own culture without being unnecessarily ethnocentric.
For, being ethnocentric is a kind of self-inflation of your group-oriented ego identity, whereas in this case it is a kind of your appreciation on the appreciation of your friends. There is a mutual respect in it. My Aikido teacher is Filipino who is the third dan and I think it is a great opportunity to learn my traditional culture in this intercultural way.
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