The television programme "Come Dance With Me" had its first debut yesterday. Hosted by Belinda Lee, this programme takes on "various cultures through learning the steps to a magical world of dance". The dance learnt in this programme of a total of 13 episodes ranging from "erotic belly dance, to the energetic samba, to the highly demanding Irish tap dancing where different dances represent different cultures, histories, society and people. These series explore the different cultures through the myriad world of dances." (adapted from mediacorp, channel u website)http://u.mediacorptv.sg/default.aspx
Out of all the dances screened during the advertisement, that of the Japanese appealed to me the most.As seen from the photo below, in order to perform the traditional dance, dancers are to wear the Japanese traditional costume known as the Kimono and they have to doll themselves up. The term given to these dancers is "Geisha (person of the arts) are traditional Japanese artist entertainers". In my opinion, Geisha is a good representation of the Japanese culture as it has been a tradition passed down from generations. The training of a Geisha starts from when they are young. "This culture has been learnt from the 18th to 19th century and is especially common during the American occupation of Japan. Geisha during that time carried connotations of prostitution, as some young women, desperate for money and calling themselves "geisha," sold themselves to American troops."
(adapted from http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/culture/geisha.html)
As mentioned earlier that that Geisha has been trained from young, "they are mostly from poor families where they are brought into the home of a master of some art, starting out doing general housework and observing and assisting the master, and eventually moving up to become a master in her own right." This training often lasts for many years and is still practise in Japan. Enough of the background of a Geisha, I personally feel that it is the unique culture of Japan as it is only in Japan that we can find Geisha and therefore, whenever, i come across a picture of a woman with traditional costume (most likely, i would not be able to recognise which country was the costume from), in addition to make up (rather thick though) and with their hair neatly tied up, i tend to perceive that women in Geisha as it is seriously one and only!
Apart from "come dance with me" which illustrates the strictness in the process of being a Geisha, I have once viewed a Taiwan programme where similarly, the host is supposed to challenge the task of learning the dance of a Geisha. In both shows, what I have witnessed is that the costumes that they wear are very tight as I have seen how the hosts of both the shows tried to squeeze in to the clothing and without fail, they tend to make the screaming sound "ah" and often comment that the attire is very tight. From here, one can see that it is rather difficult for one to embrace the culture of another as we will need to unlearn certain feeling and acting in our mind (in this case, it would be our culture of wearing America style of clothing, rather than our traditional costume like Qi Pao for the Chinese)that has been established since we are young. This is mainly because our culture (what we have learn from young) has already been hard wired into our mind thus accepting the culture of another is never and should not be deem an easy job. This could also be the reason why we are supposed to respect the culture of other countries as it is something that is within.
Besides the costume, the training of a Geisha was never seem easy as they are very particular with every step taken. The picture above shows host, Belinda Lee practising the dance and judging from the background, it is undeniable that such culture is graceful and important to the Japanese. However,the identity of Geisha is often discouraging because although it sets out to be an artistic performance, many people including some of the Japanese view them as prostitutes. This could be because occasionally, "a geisha may choose to take a danna (an old fashioned word for husband), which is typically a wealthy man who has the means to support a geisha mistress. Although a geisha may fall in love with her danna, the affair is customarily contingent upon the danna's ability to financially support the geisha's lifestyle. The traditional conventions and values within such a relationship are very intricate and not well understood, even by many Japanese. Because of this, the true intimate role of the geisha remains the object of much speculation, and often misinterpretation, in Japan as well as abroad."
Thus, it seems that though cultures have their own defining terms, there are bound to be misinterpretation if the understanding of that particular culture is not strong.
certain phrasing are adapted from:
http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/culture/geisha.html (based on wikipedia article)
6 comments:
It is difficult to accept and get used to something different. We have to unlearn what we learnt before. Thus, it takes a lot effort for someone to change their perceptual sets and schemas. This is perhaps why prejudice persists.
History would always play a role in shaping of a culture.
And I agree with Kai Siang, it is not easy to change those mindsets.
the culture of Japan is much more strict and particular abt details than those in Spore because of their emphasise on the values and beliefs that plays a huge part in their daily lives.
compared to the japanese, we do not really infuse culture principles into daily activities. like mentioned, we do not wear qi pao, but instead adapted the american sense of dressing. and even on CNY, we do not wear qi pao also.
The arts is so important in representing a culture, that a culture can never be said to be complete unless you incalcute the arts in it. The great civilizations of the past have thrived well in the arts, producing iconic symbols everyone will immediately recognize as being associated to that particular culture; as geisha is to Japan, kungfu to China, the epic of Ramayana and Mahabhrata to India and the list goes on.
It is true that people are sometimes uncomfortable, even afraid when faced with elements of the other cultures that are not familiar to them. But instead of shunning it and closing one's self, we should embrace the diversity of the arts of different cultures and learn to appreciate them in all their beauty and significance. After all, would the world not be more boring and less colourful if everything were to be the same...
i noticed how the singaporeans chinese are rapidly forgetting their chinese roots, where traditional costumes are seldom worn, not even during chinese new year! you'd see teens wearing a tee and baggy jeans for visiting...
as compared to the japanese (in the negative sense), indeed, we singaporeans chinese have a more diluted culture.
Whenever I read about Geisha in English blogs, newspapers or magazines the article invariably starts something like this:
“Contrary to popular belief, geisha are not prostitutes.”
While technically this statement is true it does not tell the whole story.
Geisha are a traditional type of hostess. When I say hostess here I mean it in the most Japanese sense of the word. Meaning they are paid to entertain men at a drinking establishment.
Now, if you went to a hostess club in Japan 50 or 100 years ago there was no Karaoke machine, no loud music in the background, no sumo on the TV etc… So Geisha learned various arts to entertain customers. Geisha were often well trained in instruments like the shamisen, shakuhachi and could sing traditional songs, perform traditional dances. In addition to this Geisha were well versed in Japanese tea ceremony, literature and poetry.
Modern day hostesses in Japan are similarly expected to be able to talk about business issues, sumo, baseball and current events. They must be strictly polite at all times and speak Keigo (a very polite form of Japanese). Like Geisha, modern hostesses go through training in the art of entertaining lonely guys.
When you read many western articles today they would have you believe that Geisha were some kind of elite class of artist. But in fact they were very analogous to modern day hostesses in Japan. Girls who may have few job opportunities but use their feminine charms to earn good money. Normally modern day hostesses are considered part of Japan’s massive sex industry. So why not Geisha?
Geisha most certainly dated and had sex with customers. In a similar system to modern day hostesses. Today, hostesses typically make the majority of their money dating customers on the side. While this is not as straightforward as western prostitution … the Japanese concept of “compensated dating” is certainly a form of selling sex.
Throughout this post I have spoken of Geisha in the past tense. What I have said up to this point has been about historical Geisha from the time before the modern hostess. Geisha still exist and are Geisha clubs are normally among the most expensive hostess clubs in Japan.Are we to believe that Japanese guys flock to these expensive clubs for their love of culture and arts?
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