I just watched the two-hour "Samurai Japan WBC" movie on NetFlix, consuming a very un-Japanese dish of three scrambled eggs in tortillas two-thirds of the way through, and I'm reminded of my most recent interaction with someone concerning Asian culture.
In a trip to see Shohei Ohtani (stay with me, here), I talked for three innings, standing, shielded in the shade on the Upper Deck of Dodger Stadium with a white (though culturally Jewish) American who was seeing his first Dodger game in years, having just spent six months in Taipei on an internship, I think.
He was glad to be back on American soil, having grown up in West L.A., I believe, very much in reactive mode to the "shame-based" culture of Taiwan. He called Taiwan the "Disneyland" of that part of Asia, with beaches, showy culture, very "surface" in his short experience there.
Though only 24, I believe (I'm 72), this young man has traveled to many parts of the world, including Israel (though not on a "birthright" trip, as he called it) and many countries in Europe. So he's not a newbie on travel or exposure to cultures other than his own secular Jewish upbringing.
I've forgotten his name (this visit occurred June 17, and here I am writing a month later), but he was so filled up with being around an environment in which "you don't do anything to make yourself look bad", you don't stand out, that he was done with travel for a while.
Which brings us back to the Samurai program. As you recall, the Japan team did not win this year's World Baseball Classic--Venezuela did--but the movie immerses you in a subtitle-reading mode (for two hours--my brain is tired--I don't speak Japanese except "MLB", "Acuna Jr., "meeting" (they use a lot of words from outside the culture).
What did I learn that was new? Power-hitter Seiya Suzuki of the Cubs and Ohtani are long-time friends and associates. Suzuki sported frosted tips in his hair during the WBC. He clubbed a few homers right behind Shohei's leadoff home run-hitting antics.
Ohtani has a thick, lush movie-star-type mane of hair, which flows prominently. Reinforced was the fact Japanese fans revere Ohtani and adore the other Japanese baseball players in the same manner.
Connecting to my earlier comments on my conversation with the 20-something West L.A. fan, I sensed some of the conformity Asians comply with, the military discipline their country has a history of. You don't see Asian males with long, outlandish hair, none with tattoos. I know that the film is aimed at Japanese fans, so though they show Suzuki's knee injury at the start and later in the movie--"the triumphs and tough spots" of the Samurai Japan team's WBC campaign--it is very much the fan piece, lots of puff that fans will enjoy, kind-hearted kidding and joking among team members.
There is a lot of camaraderie on the team depicted in the film. Of course, different from my experience but something I'm aware of, team members bow as they shake hands, kind of a mix of Asian and Western adaptation.
Earlier this year, a South Korean-born male who grew up in California shared his analysis that Japanese are staid, resistant to accept new ideas, in his view, compared to South Koreans, whom Japanese (he said) regard as kind of entrepreneurs, go-for-broke business people who will try new ideas. This man, whom I have known for 20-plus years, said it is very hard to get Japanese to try new things. The Confucian way says stay with the tried-and-true, tradition, don't veer another direction, off the beaten path.
Both Japanese and Korean traditional cultures are so different from my own. In those cultures, both these observers said, you don't do something that will shame your family and your ancestry. So, standing out by doing something differently from anybody else is a big risk, and carries the possible consequences that you will not only look foolish yourself, but shame your whole family line as well.
My mother was born and grew up in China until 15 years of age, but as a white American--though learning a perfect native Chinese accent from her nanny, or ama (she was called), which she retained until the day she passed away at age 64--she very much embodied the mores of Western culture. Those mores of individualistic culture were passed on to us three kids, reinforced by the modeling and teaching of her life partner, our dad, who grew up in good old Toledo, Ohio. "Go west, young man," and all that.
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The athletes depicted in "Samurai" are not your average human beings. When they hit home runs--Ohtani and Suzuki, especially--they make it look like a video game, like you just walk up to the plate and bash one out of the park. That is not easy, or normal.
Even Shohei's Samurai teammates watch the public, ticketed (probably cheaper than the World Cup this month!) batting practice that was held in the Tokyo Dome with wonder, as he hits shot-after-shot well up into the outfield stands.
