Gaijin Card

Lori Lancaster | January 12, 2006
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Kris Weberg | January 12, 2006
A lot of people don't realize that Japanese society was and remains very culturally chauvinistic. Unlike Germany, Japan never owned up to documented atoricities it carried out during the Second World War, and one can read a Japanese school history book without ever learning that Japan was a ruthless imperial power.

I am referring to oficial attitudes; there are certainly Japanese groups and individuals who don't fit the above profiles.

Scott Hardie | January 13, 2006
I finally saw "Memoirs of a Geisha" last night after reading for weeks about the controversy – both Japanese and Chinese people are furious that Chinese actors played Japanese characters; one Chinese blogger wrote that "hacking [Zhang Ziyi] to death would not be good enough" – and while I can't be offended by the casting, I can say it was damn distracting. Seeing nothing but Chinese women on the screen kept making me think the movie was set in China; every time a pagoda or kimono or Shinto shrine came on the screen, it had a jarring effect as I suddenly remembered it was supposed to be Japan. Weird. Otherwise, pretty good movie.

Erik Bates | January 15, 2006
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Scott Hardie | January 15, 2006
This is the best I could find that wasn't pornographic: (link) Japanese women second from the top, Chinese women second from the bottom. Does that help?

Erik Bates | January 15, 2006
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