4 ms·

"Cyberpunk is largely an expression of fears about an Asian (Japanese more often than not) "takeover" of Western society. It's actually very xenophobic" This i

"Cyberpunk is largely an expression of fears about an Asian (Japanese more often than not) "takeover" of Western society. It's actually very xenophobic" This is a very weird statement to make, the architects of Cyberpunk (Gibson, Sterling etc.) are Japanophiles if anything, the opposite of Xenophobic. Do you have any evidence to back this statement up? Cyberpunk was just an extrapolation of the tech scene of the 80s, Japanese tech was massively superior to other countries and, rightly thinking that tech would rule the future, they made Japan the dominant superpower - unfortunately the Lost Decade put paid to that.

redcap 15y ago
The zeitgeist of the 80s had a lot of concern about Japan becoming "number 1" - US manufacturing was falling behind and people thought that Japan was top of the world technologically. So while the authors are Japanophiles, they certainly tapped into the mood of the time - that the future was strange and asian-influenced.
- mindcrime 15y ago
  I'm not sure it would be correct to use the word "xenophobia" here; but for those of us old enough to remember the 80's, what redcap says is very spot-on. There was a LOT of buzz in the 80's about how Japan (and Asian countries in general, to some extent) were kicking the US's arse in a lot of areas: computers, consumer electronics, cars, etc., etc. Talk about "competing with Japan" was used a motivational material to encourage students ("study hard or you won't have a job when you graduate, because you're competing against the Japanese"), and to justify various research programs, government initiatives, etc. The whole "Fifth Generation Computing" thing really lit a fire under a lot of people back in those days: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_generation_computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_generation_computer So yeah... I don't necessarily agree that Cyberpunk as a genre is really focused on anti-asian xenophobia of any sort, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that that "80's zeitgeist" thing did influence Cyberpunk.
  - rmc 15y ago
    Just look at Back to the Future 2 (the one where they go into the future and have flying cars and no mobile phones). The older version of main character (Marty McFly) has a japanese boss, and when talking to him on the videophone he drops japanese into the convesation (opens with japanese IIRC).

redcap 15y ago

The zeitgeist of the 80s had a lot of concern about Japan becoming "number 1" - US manufacturing was falling behind and people thought that Japan was top of the world technologically. So while the authors are Japanophiles, they certainly tapped into the mood of the time - that the future was strange and asian-influenced.

mindcrime 15y ago
I'm not sure it would be correct to use the word "xenophobia" here; but for those of us old enough to remember the 80's, what redcap says is very spot-on. There was a LOT of buzz in the 80's about how Japan (and Asian countries in general, to some extent) were kicking the US's arse in a lot of areas: computers, consumer electronics, cars, etc., etc. Talk about "competing with Japan" was used a motivational material to encourage students ("study hard or you won't have a job when you graduate, because you're competing against the Japanese"), and to justify various research programs, government initiatives, etc. The whole "Fifth Generation Computing" thing really lit a fire under a lot of people back in those days: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_generation_computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_generation_computer So yeah... I don't necessarily agree that Cyberpunk as a genre is really focused on anti-asian xenophobia of any sort, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that that "80's zeitgeist" thing did influence Cyberpunk.
- rmc 15y ago
  Just look at Back to the Future 2 (the one where they go into the future and have flying cars and no mobile phones). The older version of main character (Marty McFly) has a japanese boss, and when talking to him on the videophone he drops japanese into the convesation (opens with japanese IIRC).