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I think the last line is the key quote of the article: Kaori Nakano, a professor of fashion history at Meiji University put it to me this way: “Cultural approp

I think the last line is the key quote of the article: Kaori Nakano, a professor of fashion history at Meiji University put it to me this way: “Cultural appropriation is the beginning of new creativity. Even if it includes some misunderstanding, it creates something new.” It may be the key to the future of kimono fashion. "Cultural Appropriation" seems to be oft-used in a negative term, but it's just the spread of cultural ideas, traditions, fashions, etc. We're all just individual humans, we're born without culture and we adopt the culture of those we're raised by and those we surround ourselves with. Is it "whiteface" cultural appropriation when Japanese baseball players wear American-style uniforms with their names written out in Romaji on back instead of Kanji? This kind of protest seems like the latest in outrage culture over something that, in the end, is just human nature. Who gets to decide what is your culture and what culture you choose is appropriation? If I'm 1/16 Japanese and nobody in my family has been to Japan in 2 generations, can I wear a kimono? If my parents are both Indian but I was born and raised in Japan, can I wear a kimono? What if I'm white, born in America, but was adopted by Japanese parents at age 8? Professor Nakano has it right. Cultural appropriation should not be a dirty word, it should be a sign of mixing of ideas to create new ones, and bringing people together over something that they didn't know they had in common.

jboynyc 11y ago
In his book Hyperculturality (2005), the Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han distinguishes between "cultural appropriation" and "cultural exploitation." He argues that appropriation per se is not a problem (because culture, after all, is generally not diminished by being appropriated), but exploitation is. Exploitation occurs when there is a clear power differential between appropriator and expropriated (think whites poking fun at blacks in a society that used to be based on the slave labor of black people), but there are plenty of examples where processes of appropriation do in fact lead to "new creativity" (think Korean tacos).
- vlehto 11y ago
  In your example, cultural appropriation is bad when it happens to be racism at the same time. (Not to mention that making fun of someone can be asshole thing to do in it's own right.) Could you give example when cultural appropriation is bad without something obviously bad shit being bundled with it?
  - vidarh 11y ago
    I think you're right, but sometimes it becomes easier for people to complain about cultural appropriation because of the context. E.g. consider how black women often get criticised for styles that are then praised on white celebrities. Things like hairstyles that have been common in black culture for a long time, like corn-rows, for example. In those cases, it's easy for people to dismiss criticism of this as not having anything to do with racism by saying that "oh, no we really didn't like them, but now someone has shown it can be cool, and it has nothing to do with race" or something similar. Fashions change. It's a plausible excuse. Sometimes. Talking about cultural appropriation then becomes a way of criticising that practice in a way where you make the "oh no it's not racism" excuse moot by re-framing the debate. In that way, it could be a useful way of attacking hidden racism. The problem, of course, is that it works exactly because it ignores the intentions of the people involved and becomes a weapon that hits equally hard against people intentionally or unintentionally perpetuating hidden racism as against people who are genuinely appreciative of something.
    - vlehto 11y ago
      I see your point. If you allow dishonest stuff to pass because it combats racism, then there is a risk that you just paint SWJ crowd dishonest. If racism is well enough hidden, I don't see the point opposing it anymore. I don't think people should be burned because of thoughtcrime. We can agree that it's not cool behaviour to run around with plastick indian headress while high. Or dunkenly sing Elvis songs in karaoke. But I don't think it is immoral, and I don't think who does it matters too much.
- viraptor 11y ago
  Just to confuse the naming, some people who say they care about the distinction call those culture- "appropriation" (bad) and "appreciation" (good).

jboynyc 11y ago

In his book Hyperculturality (2005), the Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han distinguishes between "cultural appropriation" and "cultural exploitation." He argues that appropriation per se is not a problem (because culture, after all, is generally not diminished by being appropriated), but exploitation is. Exploitation occurs when there is a clear power differential between appropriator and expropriated (think whites poking fun at blacks in a society that used to be based on the slave labor of black people), but there are plenty of examples where processes of appropriation do in fact lead to "new creativity" (think Korean tacos).

vlehto 11y ago
In your example, cultural appropriation is bad when it happens to be racism at the same time. (Not to mention that making fun of someone can be asshole thing to do in it's own right.) Could you give example when cultural appropriation is bad without something obviously bad shit being bundled with it?
- vidarh 11y ago
  I think you're right, but sometimes it becomes easier for people to complain about cultural appropriation because of the context. E.g. consider how black women often get criticised for styles that are then praised on white celebrities. Things like hairstyles that have been common in black culture for a long time, like corn-rows, for example. In those cases, it's easy for people to dismiss criticism of this as not having anything to do with racism by saying that "oh, no we really didn't like them, but now someone has shown it can be cool, and it has nothing to do with race" or something similar. Fashions change. It's a plausible excuse. Sometimes. Talking about cultural appropriation then becomes a way of criticising that practice in a way where you make the "oh no it's not racism" excuse moot by re-framing the debate. In that way, it could be a useful way of attacking hidden racism. The problem, of course, is that it works exactly because it ignores the intentions of the people involved and becomes a weapon that hits equally hard against people intentionally or unintentionally perpetuating hidden racism as against people who are genuinely appreciative of something.
  - vlehto 11y ago
    I see your point. If you allow dishonest stuff to pass because it combats racism, then there is a risk that you just paint SWJ crowd dishonest. If racism is well enough hidden, I don't see the point opposing it anymore. I don't think people should be burned because of thoughtcrime. We can agree that it's not cool behaviour to run around with plastick indian headress while high. Or dunkenly sing Elvis songs in karaoke. But I don't think it is immoral, and I don't think who does it matters too much.
viraptor 11y ago
Just to confuse the naming, some people who say they care about the distinction call those culture- "appropriation" (bad) and "appreciation" (good).