This is the latest in a long line of products and behaviours that exoticise and trivialize people from Asian countries. I came upon a really dumb website to-day. it is called asiajam.com. Here is its description:
Asian Fashion starts at AsiaJam.com. We carry a huge selection of the newest Asian Fashion from Japan, Hong Kong and Korea. You can find styles from Japanese Streetwear for teens to fruitsy t-shirts for girls which are ‘kawaii’ or cute!
Not content with fetishising Asian women and emasculating Asian men, hijacking the language of Asian countries as decorations and funny pictures, and trivializing the traditions of these people, we now need to mimic their style of dress! North America will not be content until we can compartmentalize everything about a culture, saving the stereotypical parts, and throwing out what makes these people “people”.
I realize that this is sort of a trivial (and somewhat egregious) leap to make, but let me remind you that this is most probably taking off from the popularity of Gwen’s Harajuku girls; who aren’t allowed to speak English in public (even though they can!) and who grossly misrepresent Asian and Asian American women as mysterious sexual objects. In light of this, AsiaJam.com becomes more than a harmless site where you can buy trendy Asian fashions, and more like another way to show how we in the west can hijack the culture of others without paying attention to the worth and value of people.
You mean…I could dress and look like asians?!?!
This is AWESOME, I always wanted to look ASIAN!
mmm actually i don’t really see a problem with asiajam.
its not people who want to dress like Asian people because theyre Asian wannabes, its just people who like the clothes and Japanese street fashion. Whats wrong with that? It’s simply an appreciation of what Japan is well known for – its unique style.
i like the ‘bohemian groove’ section myself. that, or ‘party fantabulous’.