I didn’t learn until I was in college about all the other cultures, and I should have learned that in the first grade. A first grader should understand that his or her culture isn’t a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society. Cultural relativity is defensible and attractive. It’s also a source of hope. It means we don’t have to continue this way if we don’t like it. – Kurt Vonnegut.
I do not know if it may just be the accidents of what I have and have not read – the echo chamber or confirmation bias effects – but, it has been very interesting in the last week or two to see a shift in the conversation, and I am very glad to see the conversation continuing. I hope that at least some of the protesters feel satisfied – they wanted a conversation, and they are getting one. Hopefully this can be a productive conversation, informing views on both/all sides, and representing some kind of genuine step forward, even if a very small one. I have certainly learned a lot, and further nuanced my views on such matters.
Here, I share a few of the articles and blog posts I have read in the last couple weeks, simply to share what perspectives have emerged. I attempted to inject as little as possible of my own commentary or positions, but I don’t think I was very successful at that.
One blogger, by the name of Keiko, on her blog Japanese-American in Boston, has provided by far the most detailed, informative description of the background of the “Kimono Wednesdays” activity that I have yet seen. It answers a lot of the questions I had had, beginning with who made the replica kimonos: they were commissioned by NHK, and made by traditional textile artisans in Kyoto, working for Takarazuka, a prominent and well-established theatre company in Japan which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary.
We are still seeing a number of posts emphasizing the offensiveness of cultural appropriation, and providing valuable insights into just how and why such things can be so hurtful to many Asian-Americans.
However, we are now also seeing many posts that stand in defense of cultural exchange, and critiquing the protestors, as well as the museum for retreating so quickly/easily. I have seen a great many really interesting FB posts and mailing list comments in the last week or so, but I will refrain from sharing them, because (1) I lost a previous draft of this comment, and simply cannot find all the relevant comments again, and (2) because most were shared in various private circumstances, and probably should not be re-shared without explicit permission from each and every one of the commenters I might seek to quote. So, there’s that. So, this addition will only include a sprinkling of some of the additional perspectives from the last week or two.
*Keiko of “Japanese-American in Boston” provides a thorough description of why she personally does not feel this is racist, “yellowface,” or cultural appropriation, and also discusses what would have needed to be different for this to be offensive to her, while also noting that there are a number of things the museum could have done better. In another, more recent post, she breaks down a number of Myths and Facts about Kimono Wednesdays and the Protests.
*Major art critic blog website Hyperallergic, in a post entitled The Confused Thinking Behind the Kimono Protests at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, has been one of a number of voices recently emphasizing that the idea of getting a feel for the weight, the heft, the feel of a garment is not itself an act of “dressing up” as anyone, or any type, and that what was really key to altering the character of the event, and moving it into more problematic territory, was encouraging visitors to take photos of themselves in the kimono.
The Hyperallergic writer adds:
However, protesters have been too quick to use the term “racist” to describe this program. To suggest, as one commenter has, that this event is akin to visitors attending museums to see people from Africa in cages, is a mistake. To be racist is to employ or advance the rhetoric and (economic, social and political) practices of reducing another human being to a set of signs (within a certain pre-existing hierarchy) that are primarily physical features, and thereby dehumanize him or her. I do not see that happening here, particularly because the woman being mimicked is Camille Monet, who is signifying a type of ridiculous European posture vis-à-vis fascination with Japanese art.
More, there is a kind of megalomania at work here with protesters conflating Japonisme with stereotyped images of Asian-Americans. The Japanese are not the same as, nor should they be confused with Chinese, Korean, Laotian, Vietnamese or Thai. The Japanese were a colonial power. In the late 19th century they willfully provided their art for Western consumption and consciously contributed to its circulation in markets fueled by exoticized fascination with the East.
Of course, it is important to remember that Japan engaged in such “cultural export” specifically within a context of desperately trying to prove their worth to Western notions of “modernity,” in order to avoid becoming colonized or otherwise exploited. I thank my friend Nick for reminding us of this; it is a point that is very much prominent in my mind when thinking of the Meiji period, in architecture, in politics, in imperialism, in court ritual, and in the World’s Fairs, as well as in painting, sculpture, ceramics, and so forth, but I am embarrassed to admit it didn’t occur to me to link that with textiles. So, the Hyperallergic commentary misses, a bit, on this point. But, still, this adds valuable nuance – not all Asian cultures are the same, and not all Asian-American experiences are the same. The kimono, Japan, Japaneseness, are particular, just like everything in the world is particular, and should not be painted with a broad brush, under umbrella notions of appropriation, racism, etc.
The Hyperallergic article concludes:
For me, the worst aspect of this debacle is that it feeds the notion that culture is a kind of precious object that may only be doled out to those outside the specific culture by those designated as appropriate cultural handlers. I do believe that culture is a precious resource. However in the view propagated by the Boston protesters, the emphasis for non-Westerners should be on guarding and regulating the representation of culture, instead of making it available in ways that are productive to a more profound understanding. …
… This was an opportunity to really engage the museum in a conversation around cultural appropriation and useful types of enhanced interaction and Japonisme. This chance seemingly has fled because of fear and the protesters mistaking umbrage for insight. We need to allow people to play with charged cultural symbols. This is how we learn. Museum visitors should not be learning the lessons of fearing an engagement with cultures not their own, even if they don’t get it right the first time.
To be sure, the museum absolutely could have done better, in a great many ways, to contextualize the activity differently, to discuss Orientalism and its impacts and implications more explicitly. It seems well-established at this point that, in this particular case, they really didn’t think about it sufficiently before doing it. And I am still unclear as to who was involved (European art curators, Asian art curators, Education), and to what extent. But, at its core, I agree, and I have read many others – top experts, with decades of experience in Japan and in the field of Japanese art – saying essentially the same thing, that we need to work to engage with one another, to talk and exchange and learn about one another, in order to move forward with greater understanding, and not to shy away from such exchange (or encourage others to refrain from such engagement) at the slightest hint of offense; we should find ways to engage in cultural exchange and experience in respectful and productive ways, and not shut down that discussion by compartmentalizing culture away – especially when it comes to something like kimono, which is not sacred, which is not traditionally associated with only being allowed to be used by particular groups; hula and feather headdresses would be a different story.
Indeed, in fact, today as well there are a great many people in Japan and in the US – traditional textile makers, traditional dance experts, and so forth – for whom the kimono is the centerpiece of cultural outreach, encouraging foreigners to try on kimono and to engage in Japanese culture. And some of them have begun appearing in the gallery, staging small, quiet, counter-protests. It simply goes to show that neither Japanese nor Japanese-Americans are a monolith. One Japanese-American wrote in an op-ed piece recently, which I touched upon and linked to in my previous discussion, “To consider that the OK of one Japanese friend who likes your kimono doesn’t mean wholesale approval from all Japanese people, let alone Asian-Americans.” This is extremely valid and important, and indeed her entire op-ed piece is extremely thought-provoking, and sympathetic, and I encourage you to read it. However, these counter-protests, both in person, and on Facebook, blogs, and elsewhere, clearly show that the reverse is true as well – just because one, or fifty, or a hundred Asian-Americans are offended, doesn’t mean that all Asian-Americans find it offensive.
As a friend pointed out, one of the really key elements of offensive, inappropriate, cultural appropriation is when someone is practicing something incorrectly, and mistakenly believing they are learning or experiencing the authentic. This is highly problematic, as it perpetuates misinformation and misunderstandings; it perpetuates a skewed, incorrect Western imagination or understanding of “the East,” of Asian cultures, and worst of all it perpetuates Westerners believing themselves to be correct when they are not – and then acting upon, or passing along, that mistaken knowledge. But, not all cultural exchange is incorrect cultural exchange. Here are experts in traditional dance, in traditional kimono-making and kimono-wearing, encouraging people to engage in this, to learn about it.
As Japanese sources – newspapers, blogs, individual commenters – continue to express their confusion at Asian-American protestors’ reactions, many protestors and critics have dismissed the Japanese viewpoint as deriving from ignorance of the Asian-American experience, and of the politics of race/ethnicity/identity in the United States. To be sure, there is that to a certain extent. I saw it myself, as Japanese newspapers reported that protestors were describing the kimono-wearing event as “racial discrimination” (人類差別) or as “imperialist” (帝国主義), which many protestors were, but which misses the point entirely. One wonders what the popular Japanese conceptions of “Orientalism” and “cultural appropriation” are, if they mistake these accusations for being the same thing as “discrimination” or “imperialism.” No wonder they were confused – this is very clearly not a case of discrimination, or imperialism. Then again, one wonders what these protestors are thinking, to themselves also confuse Orientalist perpetuation of stereotypes, and cultural appropriation, with every brand of oppression under the sun, from imperialism to white supremacy. I have even seen some Tweets tagged with “#whitesupremacykills” or something to that effect, as if white people trying on a kimono for five minutes was actively killing anyone; as if this was problematic in precisely the same ways and for the same reasons as the Confederate flag, police violence against blacks, church burnings, and so forth.
Now, I would like to reiterate, as I did in my previous post on the subject, my sympathy for the protestors’ views and positions. These are extremely valid attitudes and emotions, stemming from as genuine/authentic a lived experience as could be, and I think these perspectives absolutely need to be considered in the conversation as it continues. However, what continues to annoy and frustrate me about the attitudes many are expressing is the complete disregard, and dismissal, of the authenticity and authority of cultural experts. A tenth-generation kimono maker from Kyoto may not have the lived experience of the particular ethnic/racial environment of the United States, but she’s not an idiot. She has grown up her entire life surrounded by the people who have been the center of kimono production in the world, for centuries, people who have centuries of inherited experience in thinking about cultural issues – how to make and wear kimono, how to respect traditions, how to maintain them, and also how to allow them to change, and how to encourage others to engage in that cultural experience respectfully and appropriately. If they can’t be said to have authenticity and authority to say that it’s okay for foreigners to wear kimono – that it’s not offensive to the tradition, that it’s not a violation of cultural context – then who can?
As a recent Japan Times piece indicates,
The reaction… from Japan — where the decline in popularity of the kimono as a form of dress is a national concern — was one of puzzlement and sadness. Many Japanese commentators expressed regret that fewer people would get to experience wearing a kimono. … In fact, many in the kimono industry see growth in foreign markets as essential to the garment’s survival.
Meanwhile, both in Japan and in the West, many people of Japanese descent, from fashion designers to everyday sartorialists on the street, wear kimono in all kinds of ways, mixing it up, bringing it very much into the postmodern contemporary world. Kimono are, quite simply, *not* exclusive to particular traditional contexts. Manami Okazaki, Yohji Yamamoto, and Hiromi Asai are among those fashion designers seeking to bring the kimono out of its culturally-specific context into being “a modern form of dress that “is beyond cultural and ethnic boundaries.”” This is a considerable step further, beyond what traditional arts practitioners, cultural exchange workshops, and the like are trying to do, and, frankly, I’m not sure what I think about this. But, this too is a valid, genuine position, coming from a place of authenticity and authority, and should not be lightly dismissed. Speaking of Okazaki’s book Kimono Now, as well as interviews with Yamamoto, Asai, and others, the Japan Times goes on to say that
those trying to modernize the kimono by ushering it into the fashion world — rather than preserving it strictly as a national dress — will likely be set back by the controversy surrounding the exhibition in Boston. … Okazaki is also concerned that the industry will suffer if Americans are scared to wear kimono lest they are accused of being racist. … “Absolutely no one (interviewed for the book) found Westerners wearing kimonos to be remotely offensive,” Okazaki tells The Japan Times. “(They) all gave me interviews because they wanted people overseas to share this culture.”
So, this is a complex issue, and I am glad to see the conversation continuing.
1) Japanese kimono makers that immigrated to Hawaii in the early part of the 20th century took part in the development of the Hawaiian shirt (or aloha shirt). These kimono makers pretty much created the Hawaiian shirts from bolts of material used for Japanese kimono.
Would these protestors be angry at these Japanese kimono makers from Hawaii’s past for using Japanese materials and techniques in the manufacture of an item sold mainly to non-Asians? Would these protestors accuse these kimono makers of misusing Japanese kimono material for a western shirt?
2) I think the Japanese in Japan tend to have a hard time understanding the way Asian Americans think because discrimination in Japanese society is more so due to classism whereas discrimination in American society is more so due to racism. I think for the Japanese in Japan, they do not normally think about race because almost everybody is Asian. As for Asian Americans, we are more conscious about race and racial identity.
This is just a supposition of mine. I could be wrong.
1) Yes, a great point. Fashion and culture evolve. Today, aloha shirts are totally accepted – perhaps even “traditional” in a sense. The fact that aloha shirts were made, and became so successful, goes to show, I think, that the Japanese people involved in making them genuinely thought the kimono something not so sacred…
But, yes, I wonder….
2) Yes, absolutely. I can’t remember where I saw it, but one of the many articles or FB posts I’ve read noted that Asian-Americans (in the mainland) live their entire lives subject to whites’ gaze, subject to whites judging them as being American enough, or not American enough, and so many people come to develop deep insecurities about their Asian identity – or, in a broader sense, develop some sort of particular at-times-difficult relationship with their Asian identity… whereas Japanese people in Japan are not subject to that: their Japaneseness is never under question, and so they do not feel it needs to be protected in the same way.
A puzzling thing to me is, why do Asian Americans feel like they have cultural possession of a specifically Japanese form of dress? Shouldn’t this enter into anything they want to say about “cultural appropriation”? It doesn’t have much to do with them at all.
I think this opinion piece from the Boston Globe provides good personal, emotional insights into this one woman’s feelings on it.
She happens to be mixed race, but I can easily imagine that even for many Asian-Americans not of mixed-race, for them too, their connection to their Asian identity can be tenuous. I don’t know the numbers at all, but I suspect that most Japanese-Americans don’t speak the language, and not being raised in Japan would have a different relationship to the culture. If you feel an outsider in Japan despite being “Japanese,” you’re going to have some insecurities about your identity, and so this sort of thing is going to feel all the more painful.
Reading things like this, I begin to feel that for many Asian-Americans, their relationship to Asian culture is a very personal thing – for them, it is something that comes from their home life, from their childhood, from their parents and their grandparents, and so it is deeply tied into a very personal sense of “tradition.” For them, the actual Japan, halfway around the world, is a whole other thing; for them, what’s more real (and with good reason; I don’t blame them for feeling this way) is the Japaneseness that comes from their grandmother’s teachings, from their mother’s cooking, and so forth. And so, yes, they feel some sense of ownership, that these are things that belong to their tradition, to their community, and through that, they feel a sense of the sacredness, or traditional-ness, or untouchableness of these things. These things, e.g. wearing kimono, are so personal for them because everything about their Asianness is so personal, is so tied into family and local community, because their more public lives and activities are not so Asian. Through my own experience growing up Jewish, I wonder if there are sufficient parallels for me to begin to understand; I hope I am not too off-base.
….
As for why Chinese-Americans or Korean-Americans or Vietnamese-Americans should feel they have any rights to Japanese culture, that’s a separate thing, and yeah, I don’t get it. Each of these groups have different histories, different histories of discrimination, different cultures in fact and different relationships to that culture, so to say you know how kimono ought to be treated because you know how qipao ought to be treated is not really properly applicable…
But, I wonder if a part of it has to do with the way we as Americans discuss race. Nuance and complexity very rarely enters into the conversation – we tend to think of race in big blocks, in terms of whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. And so, with “Asian-American” being one big group, well, there just isn’t enough attention paid, I think, to nuance, complexity, and difference.
All of this makes me really want to take more Asian-American Studies classes – to see what they talk about, how they approach these things.
“As for why Chinese-Americans or Korean-Americans or Vietnamese-Americans should feel they have any rights to Japanese culture, that’s a separate thing, and yeah, I don’t get it. Each of these groups have different histories, different histories of discrimination, different cultures in fact and different relationships to that culture, so to say you know how kimono ought to be treated because you know how qipao ought to be treated is not really properly applicable…”
1) I think with such technological advancements such as the internet, Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, and etc. are starting to see themselves as part of a larger Asian American community rather than as part of a community that is limited to one Asian ethnic group. Our identity as Asian Americans is growing stronger, while our identity as being Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese is becoming weaker. And because we see ourselves as being Asian American, and as part of a larger Asian community, we see Asia and the Asian culture of different Asian countries as being interconnected with each other rather than something that is completely separate.
2) I am Okinawan American. I see myself as being somewhat different from the mainland Japanese, and very different from the mainland Chinese, the Koreans and the Vietnamese. But when I compare my cultural values with the culture of white, black and Hispanics, I see an even bigger cultural chasm than I had with the Chinese, the Koreans and the Vietnamese. So, I see myself identifying myself more so with the culture of the mainland Japanese, the Chinese, and so on.
I think the everyday encounters Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese Americans have with whites, blacks and Hispanics made these Asian ethnic groups realize that their culture was more similar than they realized, and so they began to identify with each others culture.
Thank you for this excellent write-up.
I am a Japanese national who is Caucasian and lived in Japan for a quarter of a century. I own various (male) kimonos and wear them often — not just for special occasions. There are actually certifications you can get regarding kimono history and wearing in Japan and I am class 2 — class 1 is the highest.
However, I will probably refrain from ever wearing one in the United States after reading this; I’m too concerned that an Asian-American activist will become offended and verbally attack me and possibly escalate — throwing liquid or something at me and staining / ruining my garment — like animal activists do towards people wearing fur: throwing red paint at them.
Message received: because I am white, I apparently am not allowed to wear (or do) anything that appears “oriental” without their Asian-American SJW tumblr group consensus permission. Judging by the rash actions emotional and not rationally thought out actions of these activists, I doubt they will ask me or inquire regarding my bone fides before making up their mind that I am “culturally appropriating”.
I am being a little snarky here, but also serious. Even though I know far more about kimonos (and own more) than even the average Japanese, neither I nor the kimono study groups I belong too believe that the kimono is a solemn, sacred garment that you must don with the gravitas as wearing black at a funeral.
We encourage newcomers and all to wear and enjoy them. Even if you’re not wearing them 100% correctly and/or the garment is not 100% “authentic”. For serious occasions and not so serious occasions. Drinking and partying in kimonos is fun and encouraged: a big part of getting your certification is learning how to remove various food and drink stains from the delicate textiles. :)
Attending a 30 minute lecture about Japanese-American internment during WW2 or reading an undergraduate’s critical race theory paper on the amount of therapy John Hughes’ Sixteen Candles put Asian-American teenage males through in the eighties should not be a prerequisite for wearing one.
One more meta comment: the Boston Globe Opinion piece you linked to in the comments and in the main body of the text is 404ing.
Thanks for letting me know about the Boston Globe link. I’ll see what I can do, once I get back to my computer.
I’ve changed the link. Hopefully it works now.
Thank you for this informative and well-thought post. I’ve been following this conversation since its beginning on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. After communicating with a few protesters, I agree many have “extremely valid attitudes and emotions, stemming from as genuine/authentic a lived experience as could be.”
However, their lack of cohesiveness and their shifting concerns make me wonder if their primary intent was to draw attention themselves and not their cause.
Saddest to me is that this group who has now changed their rallying call from “Stand Against Yellow Face” to “Decolonize Our Museums” (http://decolonizeourmuseums.tumblr.com/post/124746823015/beyond-stopping-yellow-face-decolonizing-our) have, by their lack of consideration for Japanese and Japanese American concerns, have brought about a kind of “colonization” of the Japanese culture by Asian Americans.
“brought about a kind of “colonization” of the Japanese culture by Asian Americans.” An interesting way of putting it, and definitely something to think about. Still, as naminori adroitly pointed out above, there are important reasons that many Asian-Americans identify closely with one another, across ethnic/cultural lines.
That said, even as they claim they are not actually speaking for all Asian-Americans, by declaring something to be objectively, and not subjectively, offensive, by dismissing or even disparaging the views of others, they effectively erase, or overpower, dissenting Asian-American views, and thus /do/ play out as representing *the* Asian-American position.
After all, if they weren’t speaking for all Asian-Americans, then the conversation wouldn’t be “Shut It Down! Racists! Shame!” It would instead be, “we think you should shut it down, and here are our reasons, but if others think otherwise, then….”
As for the lack of cohesiveness and shifting concerns, I think it’s important to remember that, as in any discourse, there are going to be a diversity of voices. The protestors and critics are not a monolith – they are not a single group or organization, and I would imagine that many of them would disagree with how others are representing it, confusing the message. So, rather than thinking of it as one group, which doesn’t know what it wants, we have to acknowledge that many of the protestors, as individuals, likely have relatively clear, un-confused notions about it, and it’s only in aggregate that it seems confused.
That said, there are obviously those who do /not/ have a cohesive message, and who are simply using any language they can to bring negative attention onto the Museum, regardless of whether it’s properly applicable. These are the people screaming “white supremacy kills” and labeling anything and everything “yellowface,” “imperialism,” and “colonialism,” despite the extremely complex and different, if overlapping, problems those terms point to. And, they ruin any attempts at a calm, nuanced, serious conversation for everyone.
As for the issue of Decolonizing the Museum, this is very much a conversation already ongoing within the museum world, and I do very much think that museums are making efforts to move forward, to improve. Every Museum Studies course I have taken has placed this issue front and foremost, and tons of essays and books have been written on it.
Many curators and other museum staff (including directors, trustees, and so forth) at many museums are Asian-American, Asian, or of other ethnic minorities, and whether through lived experience or extensive education & experience, are quite sensitive to these issues.
I do think that museums need to go further, to try harder, to do more, to distance themselves more from their Orientalist/colonialist histories, in order to transform themselves into more fully non-imperialist, non-Orientalist, institutions. One big step art museums need to take is to stop focusing so exclusively on aesthetics, style, influence, and so forth, and to start engaging more extensively in historical context. Even outside of issues of racism or Orientalism, just purely in terms of the myriad ways an object can be represented, and the myriad things one can learn at a museum, I am growing tired of the needlessly narrow approach in many museums that all of these objects are to be appreciated, first and foremost, for their aesthetic qualities, rather than as products of a particular time and place, of a particular culture, of particular ideas or interests. We could learn so much about Japanese history, religion, theater, music, politics, economics, society, etc. from these objects, but instead, in exhibition after exhibition, we are expected to focus only on the artist’s masterful skill, stylistic influences, and overall final aesthetic impact.
But I also think that a great many museum professionals *are* very much trying to move forward, to change, and to represent the Boston Museum, or all museums, as completely refusing to do so, as completely resistant, is disingenuous and offensive. Museums are not monoliths – they are composed of staffers, trustees, etc. of diverse backgrounds and attitudes – and they are not steadfast bastions of conservatism, not hardly. First of all, curators, like most academics, tend to be quite liberal and progressive, even if trustees are not necessarily the same. There’s nuance and complexity here, and very few people, if any, study Asian art without some significant, considerable desire to educate others (the public) *out of* Eurocentric, ethnocentric, racist, Orientalist attitudes. They are allies, not enemies. We need to work together, and not against one another, to fix this.
Quoted from the FAQ on the A-A SJW tumblr blog “thisisnotjapan” (written by five activists who don’t live in Japan):
Q: Can I wear kimono if I’m not Japanese?/Is it cultural appropriation if I wear kimono?
A: … Probably the only times a non-Japanese person can wear a kimono is 1. when they’re marrying a Japanese person 2. when they’re invited to by Japanese people. … However, it’s important to keep in mind that a white person wearing kimono or taking part in cultures and customs of a people that has been oppressed and colonized by white people is going to be problematic no matter what.
Japan really doesn’t fit well into such a monochromatic world view, either as oppressed or as oppressor. The slightest knowledge of Japanese history, including their active attempts to invite foreign participation in their culture, quickly upsets this childish parody of Hegelian dialectic.
Hyperallergic has now published another essay on the subject, this one by Ryan Wong, entitled “Seeing Beyond “Kimono Wednesdays”: On Asian American Protest.”
Like many of the other commentaries I’ve read, Wong fails (or opts not) to address precisely what makes this particular case offensive in precisely which way, instead including it under a large umbrella of offense, saying “When we walk into a museum or open our social media to see wealthy old white people putting on a kimono and smiling for a camera, it triggers a long history of memories like this. This alone should be enough to stop the event, and any discussion around it.”
However, his discussion is quite reasoned and nuanced, overall, explaining the history and background of Asian-American protest and solidarity. As this is taking place in the US, the US’s own history of Orientalism, appropriation, and racism /does/, I think, need to be taken into account – we need to account for the “optics,” to use a current political phrase, to account for how this looks, how it makes the museum look. And we need to account for the feelings of Asian-Americans, who are, after all, members of our society just as much as anyone else, and deserve to have a say, just as much as anyone else.
As for the final overall gist of Wong’s piece, I am a little unclear. He seems to be saying ‘we’re just expressing our opinion, our position, and it’s only one of many possible positions…’ He writes: “we, of the Asian diaspora, have the power to assert our humanity through protest,” and “no one [i.e. not even the protestors] has the power to make such a dictate on costume.” This is a most welcome allowance or admission that no one speaks for everyone. But, then, the tone and content of much of the rest of his piece still seems to imply a tone of speaking for everyone, and of being correct, disallowing alternate opinions, even as he claims to be openly allowing for them in other areas…
In any case, one point he makes that I would really like to point out, and share, is that this year, as the Met’s Asian Art department celebrates its 100th anniversary, and the MFA’s its 125th, both are holding major exhibitions not about China/Japan, but about Chinoiserie/Japonisme. As Wong writes, “All of this work, of course, is more about whiteness and European-ness than it is about actual Asian people.” And that, right there, is the core of Orientalism itself. I have no problem with exhibitions about Orientalism – I think the art produced at that time is fascinating and interesting, and some of it quite beautiful, and it’s an opportunity to really teach/learn some really important things about inter-cultural appreciation, etc., about what exactly constitutes Orientalism, and why it’s wrong. But, if you’re not going to make your exhibition about that lesson, then at the very least, that Japonisme / “China Through the Looking Glass” exhibit needs to be pushed into a different season, not included in your “Asia 100” year. The Asia 100 year should be all about *Asia*, or about the history of the collection (but in a more self-critical way than the Met has done), and not about whiteness and Europeanness.
….
I had intended this to be only a short comment. Sorry. But, bear with me for one more moment, so I can touch upon just two more things. First, the power relationships. Wong speaks very eloquently and adroitly when he writes that “the Boston MFA is one of the most well-funded, prestigious, and influential arts institutions in America. If anything, it is large arts institutions that act as cultural police by writing histories of our art, and deciding when and where and in what contexts art is shown.” Indeed, the power of canon is incredible, and easily overlooked. What we take as natural – which artists & pieces are great, what particular pieces mean, etc etc – is actually artificial and created by the museums and art historians. But, even so, power is complicated. It does not work in just one way. When Wong writes as if they have no power at all, that they are “people speaking to a power system from the margins,” he is ignoring the incredible power the protestors have of speaking from a position of authority of lived experience, authority of cultural authenticity, authority of being wronged – the power to make even as powerful an institution as the MFA feel that “this alone should be enough to stop the event, and any discussion around it,” and to make anyone questioning or critiquing the protestors’ position feel like they are a racist, and complicit in the perpetuation of oppression, just for being white and/or just for having a different, or differently nuanced, view on this…
Finally, on that point, contrary to the typical Internet wisdom of not reading the comments, there are some really good ones on here. Keiko of “A Japanese-American in Boston” notes that the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) issued a statement which said, in part, that “by acceding to the demands of protesters and canceling the program, the museum has privileged their voice over any others who may see it in a different way.”
Whirled Peas argues: “The author of this article is “appropriating” the struggles of Asian Americans to rationalize the actions of these confused museum protesters. To link the two shows how little he knows about the Asian American movement. The Asian American movement fought against REAL problems: housing discrimination, stereotypes in the media, job discrimination, the glass ceiling, police brutality in Chinatown, reparations for internment of Japanese Americans, violence against Asians (like Vincent Chin)…”
And JR DNR writes about the extreme trouble faced by the kimono industry in Japan, which is desperately trying to drum up interest and support, encouraging people overseas to wear kimono and be interested in kimono, because otherwise the kimono industry itself is going to disappear extremely soon. They write: “You can’t say that the museum is ignoring the “bigger picture” or the “bigger context” – because they know the bigger picture. They know the context. … It’s the protesters who refuse to look at the big picture.”
Finally (for me, here), Nathaniel Purdy, among others, re-emphasized the idea that it is a museum’s job to *teach* and that the MFA has failed to properly teach about the broader context of all of this, something I would certainly agree with without even having to see the exhibit – I have no doubt, after all that I’ve read in the last few weeks, and just knowing “Education” departments in general who don’t work sufficiently with curators, and who water down and dumb down the curators’ content, that the museum failed to engage visitors in a sufficiently contextualized, informative, nuanced understanding of the issues involved.
So… that’s that. As other responses come up, I’ll continue to post them here. Maybe not with quite so long an analysis… really didn’t mean to go into it so much..
I thought I’d point out this great op-ed that just appeared on Japan Times about this subject: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2015/08/04/commentary/japan-commentary/kimono-cultural-appropriation/
Wow. This is really something. Thanks for sharing it. I love his turns of phrase, as he doesn’t pull punches, calling the protestors’ writings “sophomoric manifestos … featuring tone-deaf karaoke of their hero… Edward Said,” and their identity politics agenda “parochial.”
Plus, calling attention directly to the question of whether Said’s ideas are relevant here, when the Japanese, unlike the Middle Easterners Said talks about, are quite willingly offering up these aspects of their culture, is important. Many other articles and blogs, including my own, have sort of drawn a separation, but not really addressed precisely why Said shouldn’t be applicable.. yet, here it is, one potential argument on that point.
Cheers.
[…] whole kimono thing last month really kind of exhausted me. Dominated my attention, and my time, and so I certainly wasn’t […]
[…] as we have seen in recent months especially both with the Chinese fashion show at the Met and the kimono debacle at the MFA, is that the museums, as “art” museums, seem far too intent upon this […]
Tha amazing blog post. Thanks for sharing informative blog.