/ot/ - off-topic

I can't help but find japanese culture, even outside of pop culture, interesting. I think its the ~athestetics~ and that its often times the complete and utter oposite of what I'm used to and the culture I was raised in (midwestern fundamentalist). People are expected to be more reserved, drive on the other side of the road, stuff like that.

Nope. I have modules in Japanese history and culture and it's fucking fascinating.
If you find it too boring/highbrow it's probably because you're examining it from the last 100 years or so, not since the countries inception.

>>87761
Personally I have not time for the modern Japanese/American Kawaii fashions and anime trends. I prefer the historic architecture and landscapes than some weeb doing "cute" dance routines.

Not really.

Classical Japanese literature, mythology and folklore is interesting as hell

Japan is pretty interesting from a sociological standpoint. Also, their their food and the history of their food is very interesting.

>>87785
This thread has reminded me of Begin Japanology. Watching the food episodes always made me hungry tbh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP1-Lm4O5Rc

Sage for samefag.

>>87780
The history is interesting. What's uninteresting to me is the material culture.

Kyoto is the most beautiful and historical city in Japan. But compared to some historical European cities and towns it's actually pretty dull.

And East Asian architecture bores me immensely. There's so little variety compared to European.

>>87799
Each to their own. I can understand your opinion. I really enoyed this BBC series "Wild Japan" the diversity in landscape is stunning
http://www.bbcasia.com/shows/wild-japan/

>>87831

I trekked through Japan starting from Hokkaido for 4 months, it was the best experience of my life. Spring is really the best reason in Japan to discover nature.

>>87799

Wow yeah, what's up with that little architectural variation. These all look exactly the same…

I think you're taking a very Western-centric perspective on this Anon. Do you actually believe you could distinguish on sight the differences between French, British and Germanic castles?

>>87841
Compare something like Lincoln Cathedral to the Pantheon. Or the black gate of trier to a French baroque chateau.

Europe objectively has more architectural styles, there's actually a reason behind this too: philosophies like feng shui placed restrictions on architectural innovation in China, there was actually a government department that ensured compliance.

>>87831
Go to Northern Italy, it's probably the most beautiful region I've ever visited. Hell even tiny European countries like Greece have immense geographical diversity: compare vikos gorge to the aegean.

>>87842
It's really not that difficult to distinguish between Japanese architectural styles, of which there are a wild amount depending on region and era.
Eurocentricism if rife in you, isn't it?

>>87774
I love Japanese politeness and their service levels are second to none. It's also nice how they don't expect to be tipped. And they're helpful.

Having said that I don't find them particularly warm or friendly. I'm always surprised when people describe Japanese people as friendly for that reason.

>>87844
Do you really think any of those differences are as broad as the difference between gothic and neo classical?

I'm not even saying one is necessarily better than the other. Christ. Can you say anything positive about Europe or America without SJWs or weeb SJWs throwing a fit.

>>87846
(btw, I do appreciate / enjoy certain styles of European architecture, I was just surprised at your ignorance)
And yes, the different styles can be told apart quite simply. Take Kinkaku-ji - three distinct styles in one building.

>>87845
From experience, people open up less readily than Westerners generally do, but at least when they are genuinely friendly, you know they mean it. idk if this makes sense though.

>>87848
Kinkaku ji is still just tiered hip rooves.

>>87850
lol shows how little you know

>>87852
That's literally what it is. Japanese architecture is essentially tang dynasty architecture, weeb.

>>87853
your eye for detail is clearly weak, then, if you feel able to make such sweeping generalisations

>>87853

Kek is that your plan here, call anybody who disagrees with you a weeb? Nazi.

>>87855
Honest question. Do you believe every region on earth has exactly the same level of architectural diversity in its architectural tradition?

I think it's pretty obvious that level varies from country to country and region to region.

>>87859
of course not, I just feel that people tend to overplay European architectural diversity whilst underestimating Japanese architectural diversity
let's face it - europe, yes lots of architectural diversity
different european countries on their own - not as much as people like to think

>>87861
I disagree. I'm happy to acknowledge areas where other civilizations produced what I feel was a superor material culture (I'm not chauvinistic). For example, pre-Han Dynasty Chinese bronzes are unparalleled in their beauty and workmanship.

But Europe really does have an enormous volume and diversity of material culture as far as architecture goes. Classical, Romanesque, Byzantine, Neo-Byznatine, Gothic, Neo-Classical etc.

If you feel I'm being unfair comparing Europe to Japan individually, we can compare Europe to East Asia as a whole.

Trying to slag off East Asia's architecture as not being "diverse enough" when compared with the whole of Europe is completely retarded given that there are over 50 countries in Europe but officially only 10 countries in East Asia.
What kind of backwards comparison is that?

>>87865
China is an Empire-state encompassing 52 different ethnic groups and 1.4 billion people, well over twice that of Europe. The comparison is apt.

>>87866

Well which China are talking about here exactly; pre-Ming China or post-communism China. There's a huge difference in ethnic and cultural diversity.

>>87867
The borders of modern China are defined by its historical dynasties though, most obviously the Qing since it was the campaigns of the Banners that brought places like Tibet and Xinjiang under titular "Chinese" control. Plus the tributary system of China had been "harmonizing" culture in the region for far longer, see the the Yongle Emperor's letter to the Vietnamese. That's why the Vietnamese imperial palace is basically a small scale recreation of the one in Beijing.

>>87869

Indeed but even so there still existed mass cultural and trade exchange between independent dynastic rulers. Obviously with the absence of any real defined borders you can expect architecture across China as we know it today to be unvarying in its design. If it fits I sits.

It is cool talking with other History Anons about this shit. Concerning China I'm really interested in how they managed to go so long before standardising both their written and spoken language. Must have been a bloody pain in the arse for the scholars of the time.

>>87876
The Chinese language was standardized, in a written form, back in the Zhou Dynasty period in an unofficial way and was formally homogenized into a single script under Qin Shi Huang (the first Emperor of a unified China in any real sense).

>Obviously with the absence of any real defined borders you can expect architecture across China as we know it today to be unvarying in its design. If it fits I sits.

Not necessarily. Hakka roundhouses are quite distinct for example.

I think the real origins lie in both the predominance of the Chinese state over other ethnic groups in the region as well as the strict, ancestral-traditional rules & laws that governed the construction of buildings by the state. There are actually numerous examples of buildings in China that were constructed, concluded to fall outside the principles of Feng Shui and promptly torn down by a government department in the Imperial period that I forget the name of.

There's another theory I read in a paper years ago that I'm desperately trying to find which attributes the lack of comparable (to Indo-European traditions) architectural-material remains in China to a sort of philosophical mentality among the Chinese that views the attempt at building for the sake of posterity as pointless and not worth doing. I'd go one further and suggest this mentality has its roots in the longevity of China, particularly in the idea it owes its longevity to the abstract notion of the Chinese state itself. Particularly the huge professional bureaucracy that even foreign invaders inherited.

This can be contrasted with Indo-European and Western philosophical and mythographic traditions that are obsessed with the idea of "decline", see the Kali Yuga in Hindu tradition or Hesiod's ideas of a succession of degenerating ages for mankind in Works & Days. This cultural meme had particular weight in Europe as, following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Europeans became fixated on the idea of resurrecting it (the HRE among the Germans, the campaigns of Belisarius among the Byzantines and later campaigns by people like Napoleon).

In a nutshell this concept of decline and fall of one's own civilization found actual currency in the chaos that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west, which only intesified the idea that a polity or state or sovereign has to immortalize himself/herself in great and lasting architectural projects.

>>87883

Ooooookay well you obviously know a hell of a lot more about this than I do.
I just did a 2 semester module on Chinese History and Culture, but unsurprisingly we didn't really fit a whole lot in because Chinese history is FUCKING. MASSIVE. Fascinating though.