blog 1 : lecture reflection
For Better Lives Unit, I had a chance to take various lectures and out of those, there was one lecture that I would love to share – the cultural sustainability lecture by John Lau.
Throughout the lecture, lecturer John Lau has shown a picture of a Japanese painting. He pointed out that this picture could be seen and interpreted differently depending on Western culture and Japanese (Asian) culture.
original picture – seen from Western perspective
picture seen from Japanese perspective (picture flipped sideways)
Taking a close look at the picture, mountain fuji is in the back and 23 people riding the boat in big waves. Japanese people usually read from right to left, when western culture is based on reading from left to right. From Western perspective, the waves are coming from left to right, which make it seem like the fisherman are riding the waves; on the other hand, from the Japanese perspective, the waves are almost crashing into the fisherman.
The meanings become very different from those perspectives. Lau added, “challenging yourself,.. whether you are seeing is a true representation of what it is intended form.”
My overall experience of cultural sustainability lecture was quite amazing as lecturer Lau has pointed out how one simple thing could be interpreted so differently depending on what culture a person is raised from. As a Korean-American student, I thought I was eligible of switching on and off western perspectives and asian perspectives quite quickly and easily. However, through his lecture, I came to the realisation of the importance of understanding various perspectives and even what could lead to cultural sensitivity.
After the lecture, I had a chance to think about the idea of misinterpretation and how some behaviours that are meant to represent the culture could possibly lead to cultural appropriation; this left me a question of ways to discontinue this continually occurring idea of misinterpretation in the fashion industry. As lecturer Lau has mentioned in his lecture, misinterpretation of fashion in well-known brands such as H&M, Dolce and Gabbana or Katy Perry could possibly lead to forming/creating misconceptions. And in the future circumstances, I want to make sure that I respect and have a deep understanding of the cultures beforehand.