this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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The west has no emotional connection to China's past or history. The only history the west knows is kung fu, a monkey series, some people know three kingdoms vaguely from dynasty warriors and then there's the century of humiliation.
The largest part that they actually know is the century of humiliation. This is in large part due to british influence.
They know nothing else, so anything they see just feels hollow because there's no context for any of it. It doesn't feel real.
Contrast this with what they do know - european history - and they have a completely different feeling about all art and culture because they can contextualise it in their knowledge of that history. It feels right, it feels real, and it doesn't feel fantasy, because it is something they understand.
Contrast this again with Japan and you can see how Japanese culture, religion and art resonates with people in the west because they can contextualise it better as a result of far more engagement with and understanding of Japan.
This "feeling" issue is just vibes created by familiarity, with the history and the culture.
You've got it backwards. People learn about a culture's history after being interested by the culture itself. The reason why Chinese culture doesn't resonate with the west is because it was never fully subjugated in the same way India or Japan was.
People don't get a history lesson on Japan and then get into anime. They get into anime and then get history lessons on Japanese history. US schools aren't teaching yanks shit about Japan beyond WWII. The reason the why so many yanks is because the Japanese have a lot of practice selling GIs manga.
Similar relationship with India. If you're a Brit maybe you got a proper history lesson on India but as a Yank I got jack shit. Way less than on China. I still know less about Indian history than Chinese. Yet Indian culture is way less foreign because of how many indians speak English. I wouldn't be surprised if a French or German had zero grounding when it comes to Indian culture.
Only thing that covers some of this are RE classes.
No thats impossible. My perspective is neutral, and my emotions and sentimental attachments are the correct ones.
Definitely deploying this at work.
yes, except that most westerners know barely more about european history than they do about chinese history. they know a narrative they've been fed that is somehow about ancient greece, handwave, then the roman empire, handwave, then some medieval shit, then liberal democracy emerges.
Each European country knows more about the most recent 300-500 years of their own country compared to the longer history, which is essentially just connected to the history of the church. You missed Vikings though too they love that shit.
Example, here in the UK we know a fuckload about monarchs because that shit is forced down our throats. Particularly the Victorian era as it's tied to support and pride for the British empire, while the rest is tied to england coming into existence as a united entity and foundational to what it means to be "English". Without that knowledge there basically is no English identity and the English could go back to being 20 different groups. The midlands, the South, Cornish, Northumberland etc etc, these are all unique identities without the indoctrination that schools provide to forge the idea of "England", they are still unique identities to this day and I could very much see a scenario where they split off again in the face of a rejection of English-ness under the right sequence of events and conditions.
Some of the same shit I imagine also plays out in each European country. I can't say for sure as I've not really dived into how they teach their history and maintain that identity, I assume similar reasons for what they teach but different history of course.
Each individual European country knows a good chunk of its history along with how that history connects to the christian church. This ties together euro cultural identities.
i forgot the vikings because they're not relevant to our myth here in hungary :) which ties in neatly with what you said about each country building its own little myth.
Hungary has kalandozások instead of vikings.
that and mongols
I completely agree and last week I made a post about this cognitive hole. Real vs hollow is exactly my subjective experience of it. Despite ofc "knowing" that it is wrong and ignorant. Simply being aware doesn't solve it.
Having even the most cursory familiarity with greeks > romans > christians > protestants > british > americans makes learning anything in that timeline 100x easier than anything outside it. And vikings too. Anyone else ever wonder how many converts fascism was delivered from the multiple streaming TV shows about vikings?
You know I see all this stuff about how "representation" of different identities is important in media so people who have been historically under-represented can "see themselves". And that may be; but I also think a diverse representation of identities/experiences/collectivities benefits everyone. Because we can "see each other".
I heard there is research (but haven't looked into it) that the TV show Will & Grace had a big impact on turning americans away from hating gay people so much, especially those who "didn't know" any gay people. It provided a "humanizing" opportunity. Even though Will & Grace has lots of critiques from gay side of things, ultimately that was not the direct target audience, although there as indirect benefit.
All this fighting over "DEI" and whatever, it is because these people recognize, in a different way and with different judgements, that all these casual exposures add up over a lifetime.
HEY, some of us know it from Capcom's 1989 smash hit JRPG Destiny of an Emperor for the NES!
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...No?