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A study on the appropriation of the West in Japanese girl culture

  • Cross-Cultural Studies
  • 2019, 57(), pp.107~147
  • DOI : 10.21049/ccs.2019.57..107
  • Publisher : Center for Cross Culture Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Literature
  • Received : November 10, 2019
  • Accepted : December 3, 2019
  • Published : December 30, 2019

Hwang Sung Hee 1

1전북대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The Kawaii aesthetics of Japanese girl culture is the source of visual images of Japanese manga, animation, and games. Understanding the core image and essence of Japanese girl culture, the accurate understanding of Korean kidult consumption and retro consumption is possible. The key element in the aesthetics of Kawaii girl’s culture in Japan is fanciness – the quality of being fancy. It is decorativeness that realizes fantasy. The symbols and images that Japanese girl culture mobilizes for the decoration of real daily life are not Japanese, but Western. Victorian style, Art Nouveau, and Disney were exclusively inherited in the history of Japanese girl culture. The Kawaii aesthetics is full of Western images. Japanese appropriation of the West in girl culture shows the change of East–West dynamics, and the interpenetration between cultures through the meaning of decorativeness, and fanciness itself.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.