McDonalds to Kpop Quiz 1

heterogeneity

the quality or state of being diverse in character or content.

homogeneity

the quality or state of being similar or uniform in character or content. the quality or state of being all the same or all of the same kind. It often refers to a lack of diversity in a group or system.

“face” (in Chinese culture)

The respect of the group for a man with a good moral reputation; prestige or reputation achieved through getting on in life, through success and ostentation 

“The notion of face permeates every aspect of interpersonal relationships in Chinese culture because of the culture’s overarching relational orientation” 

(banquet hosts/customers losing face or gaining face)

rice (in East Asia)

Rice treated most respectfully; Parents always tell children to finish every grain of rice in the bowl, because every grain represents a hardship of labor.

“Rice and the paddies it grew in” —> Japanese cultural identity and national identity

Self is to other as rice is to meat.

Meal = cooked rice

Rice imbued with symbolic meanings, perceived as sacred

Eating rice promotes commensality (sharing a rice-based meal).

commensality

“Rice is the only food shared at meals, served by the female head of the household, while other dishes are placed in individual containers, Rice stands for ‘we’, i.e., whatever social group one belongs to, as in a common expression, ‘to eat from the same rice-cooking pan.’”

groupism/collectivisim

The practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it. This is a common ideation within East Asia, as opposed to the more western ideology of individualism.

sinto-buri

The idea of sinto-buri as a philosophy that dominates the foodways of Koreans as a whole. 신토불이 —> ‘body and soil can not be separated’. Our bodies and spirits are at their best when eating foods that grow on the soil we step on.

gender and family

(think obento and the familial responsibilities associated)

kyarakutā

Anthropomorphized cartoon figures

Can be found anywhere, a common part of Japanese consumer life “enchanted commodities” that transit “enchantment and fun as well as intimacy and identity”

kawaii

relationality overlapping with Euro-American “cute”

Certain kinds of commodities invoke empathetic - even motherly - responses from adult female consumers

mukokuseki

(without nationality) the erasure of the signs/symbols of national origin in commodities or popular cultures.

decentered globalization

The west, particularly the US, is often considered the center of globalization. Hello Kitty is an example of globalization for the “Rest” to the “West”

consumutopia

consumption + utopia

Fandom, consumer fetishism

“The most basic trait of consumutopia is the production of an endless variety of products that nevertheless possess some unifying theme, emblem, or motif”

McDonaldization

The process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world. (Ritzer)

Globalization

describes the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of world cultures and economies

Globalism

“describes an essentially impossible condition that is said to prevail when people the world over share a homogenous, mutually intelligible culture. Watson, P7

Deterritorialization

—uprooting from time and place—of culture

“the world economy can no longer be understood by assuming that the original producers of a commodity necessarily control its consumption.” Watson, p11.

Transnationalism

“describes a condition by which people, commodities, and ideas literally cross - transgress - national boundaries and are not identified with a single place of origin.” Watson, p11

Glocalization

emphasizes the integration of the global and the local

Culture

…taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired as a member of society.” (Primitive Culture, 1871, Edward Tylor)

Local culture

refers to the “experiences of everyday life as lived by ordinary people in specific localities” Watson, p9

Cultural imperialism

“a new form of exploitation that results from the export of popular culture from the United States, Japan, and Europe to other parts of the world” (Watson, p5); also see the separate document

Neolocality

forming a new household separate from those of their parents

Patrilocality

living with or near the husband’s parent

Conjugality

marriage and the family unit that it creates family (conjugal family; two adults and their dependent children)