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What exactly is cultural appropriation? How does it differ from cultural absorption? Is there any culture that has not engaged in either of the two? Does the culture itself get to deny something as cultural appropriation?
These questions have come up many times, and I don't recall if I have ever seen them directly answered. They could have of course, and I just missed the threads.
One of the things that came up in a recent conversation with my husband and one of our wives was that Chinese food in the US is not the food that is eaten in China. There is a TED talk out there (I'll add it if anyone is really interested) where a woman talks about this. Among other points she brought up the dish Chop Suey. IIRC, it more or less translates into "this and that". She noted that going to China and asking for chop suey would be like a Chinese coming here and saying, "I heard that you had this really great dish I want to try called Leftovers." It was also noted that chinese food in other countries, such a Spain, is different than not only China, but also in the US. So here is the trick question. Given that these dishes actually originate in either the US or Spain, respectively, if a Chinese person were to open a restaurant in China serving those styles of food, would that be cultural appropriation of US or Spanish culture? Conversely, are any Chinese who are in the US guilty of cultural appropriation when they open these restaurants that are not authentic Chinese dishes?
With regards to the last question, we have seen examples of where a person has been accused of cultural appropriation only to have people of the supposedly appropriated culture come out and deny the appropriation.
Here is an example, albeit a bit indirectly:
There there was this controversy:
And then there is the Moana controversy where a Brigham Young Professor, whose name I can't recall, claimed cultural appropriation on the film and Disney, and when it was pointed out that the people of the culture itself approved and helped with the film, stated that they didn't know what was good for them or something to that effect. I'm trying to find that article, but right now I am getting more hits of a different professor there who recently released a study about the princess films having good long term effects. My Google skills are weak, so if anyone knows of that incident, feel free to throw it up.
So can someone from outside a culture claim cultural appropriation when those inside say it is not?
And as a final question, can others culturally appropriate from US or west European cultures? Got any examples?
These questions have come up many times, and I don't recall if I have ever seen them directly answered. They could have of course, and I just missed the threads.
One of the things that came up in a recent conversation with my husband and one of our wives was that Chinese food in the US is not the food that is eaten in China. There is a TED talk out there (I'll add it if anyone is really interested) where a woman talks about this. Among other points she brought up the dish Chop Suey. IIRC, it more or less translates into "this and that". She noted that going to China and asking for chop suey would be like a Chinese coming here and saying, "I heard that you had this really great dish I want to try called Leftovers." It was also noted that chinese food in other countries, such a Spain, is different than not only China, but also in the US. So here is the trick question. Given that these dishes actually originate in either the US or Spain, respectively, if a Chinese person were to open a restaurant in China serving those styles of food, would that be cultural appropriation of US or Spanish culture? Conversely, are any Chinese who are in the US guilty of cultural appropriation when they open these restaurants that are not authentic Chinese dishes?
With regards to the last question, we have seen examples of where a person has been accused of cultural appropriation only to have people of the supposedly appropriated culture come out and deny the appropriation.
Here is an example, albeit a bit indirectly:
There there was this controversy:
And then there is the Moana controversy where a Brigham Young Professor, whose name I can't recall, claimed cultural appropriation on the film and Disney, and when it was pointed out that the people of the culture itself approved and helped with the film, stated that they didn't know what was good for them or something to that effect. I'm trying to find that article, but right now I am getting more hits of a different professor there who recently released a study about the princess films having good long term effects. My Google skills are weak, so if anyone knows of that incident, feel free to throw it up.
So can someone from outside a culture claim cultural appropriation when those inside say it is not?
And as a final question, can others culturally appropriate from US or west European cultures? Got any examples?