My Introduction! よんでくだちい。

はじめまして。キえんです。New York　ししゃの　キえんです。わたしの　めいしです。どうぞ。わたしの　でんわばんごうと　めいあどれすは　めいしに　あります。わたしは　あめりかじんです。わたhしは　あめりかじんです。Columbiaの　だがくせいです。べんきょおを しました。せんこうは　びじゅつしです。どうぞ　よろしく。

Manga!

Konbanwa!

For those of you who love/know manga well, could any of you possibly explain how it differs from Japanese anime?
Are they different, and if so, how? I might possibly incorporate it in my thesis, and so I was just wondering if any of you guys could fill me in. Also, are any of the manga/ anime characters androgynous, i.e. neither clearly masculine or feminine in appearence or coded to be read as both female and male?

Also, is anyone nervous about the listening comprehension part of the test?
I'm a bit scared that after only hearing it played once, I won't fully understand what's being said and thus won't know how to respond. I've been listening to the c-d, but still I have to play it twice or three times in order to complete some of the exercises. If anyone has any other suggestions about getting better at this, let me know! But I have a feeling it's just a matter of listening to the exercises over and over again. Yikes!

Ja-mata!

Konbanwa!

I thought I give some information regarding the contemporary Japanese artist, Morimura Yasumasa, to which I am writing my thesis on. This is my interpretation of him in my thesis, and importantly, not fact, for those of you who read this. But let me know what you think, and if have are interested in hearing more or have any questions, please let me know either via blog or in class.

Essentially, Morimura records and, in turn, incites his psychologically ambiguous experience with self-identity in the modern world by replacing the iconographic space reserved for protagonists in European art history and mass media culture with his own face and body. Thus, rather than discarding the Western canvasses which he states, “exclusively” dominated his academic “curriculum” in the aftermath of WWII, he decisively occupies them, forcing them to assume new ambiguous meanings concerning self-identification as his mere presence inherently dismantles gender and cultural boundaries in regards to identity. Having been born into a society of rapid industrialization, critically accelerated by the onslaught of American influences since the Second World War, his Japanese identity as portrayed by his self-portraits is not just another product of complete Western expropriation. Rather, his superior consciousness of identity is one of seemingly manifest contradictions as he exhibits himself as being neither male nor female and neither Eastern nor Western. This is exemplified in the self-portraits of him that I posted as he is subversively a blatantly Asian-looking male adult assuming the identity of a youthful Western female in his self-portrait, Daughter of Art History: Princess A, based on a portrait of the Infanta Margarita (1656) by Velázquez (image #1). Morimura is also without a doubt a man even though he is transposing himself as an infamous French female prostitute in Edouard Manet’s Olympia (image #2) as his chest is clearly that of a male’s and his challengingly direct gaze is that of an Asian man sitting on what is a Japanese Kimono.

Thus, currently as a part of my thesis, I am positing that Morimura’s self-portraits need not be viewed as an objective critique of the sanctity of Western art, but rather as a critical exploration of not only self-identification, but identity as ambiguous roles amenable to change, mutation, and instability as a result of the heightened self-importance and dominance of its cultural imperial rulers in the wake of WWII. This again, is just part of my project and discussion on Morimura. There is more, but unless you are really interested in art history, it may seem fruitless. Again, if you guys would like me to elaborate, clarify, or have any questions, please let me know! Hope you like the photographs!

Morimura Yasumasa

Kombanwa,

I don't believe I have told anybody about this in class, but the reason for my interest in Japanese is because I am currently writing my senior thesis on post-modern Japanese art, concentrating specifically on the body of work done by Yasumasa Morimura. I don't know if anybody knows much about him, but he a contemporary Japanese appropriation artist whose works primarily consists of self-portriats. I don't know if anyone is interested in him or his body of work, but if you are PLEASE let me know. I would love to talk about him with any of you, instead of writing my thesis topic word for word on a blog.

But anyhow, this past weekend as I was researching him in Avery and the East Asian Library, I was so happy to find that I could recognize and read some of the words in Hiragana in the texts written in Japanese. While what I could read was clearly VERY little, it was great to see how much I've learned in our class in such a small amount of time.

see you all in class!

Ja-mata!

Konnichiwa!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!
I was unable again to make the Japanese Chat Club meeting this past Friday. But this coming Friday I will for sure be there. But for those who did go, did you guys find them helpful/ interesting/ fun !?! Did you feel comfortable in practicing your Japanese in front of students who have been taking the language a lot longer than us? I know for me at least, I sometimes get nervous when speaking Japanese and unfortunately loose track of what I wanted to say or rather, how to say it. This somethimes happens to me in class when Sato Sensei calls on me. It's strange, because I'll know exactly what to say in my head, but because I get a little nervous, I can't form what I know verbally. Hopefully, this will soon go away by talking more in class and getting used to it. Also, because I get a little nervous when speaking in front of the whole class, I find it really beneficial when we break up into smaller groups. In these situations I tend to feel a bit more relaxed and thus comfortable with speaking, as well as making mistakes, especially now that we are learning how to form long sentences in Japanese. Do any of you feel this way...? Hopefully I am not the only one...

See everyone in class!

Shitsureishimasu!!!!