Chanpon
By Dyske May 9th, 2002
I moved to the States when I was 17, and I’m 35 this year, which means that I’m over 50% American, that is, if I assumed a linear relationship between the time spent and the amount of cultural influence. However, most things of this nature rarely have a linear relationship. We tend to learn much quicker when we are younger, and I would imagine that at some point, the speed at which we acquire knowledge levels off. Because of this, in some ways, I’m more Japanese, but the fact that I spent the last 18 years of my life here in America, makes me more in tune with American culture than I am with Japanese culture.
Today, I received an Email from a writer of a site called Chanpon. “Chanpon” in Japanese refers to a bowl of noodle soup with a variety of vegetables and meats. The word is also metaphorically used to refer to things that are mixed up beyond recognition. As I was reading the articles posted on this site, I realized that the site is truly chanpon. Some articles are about the experiences of the foreigners living in Japan, while others are about the exact opposite, the experiences of those with a Japanese background living outside of Japan. I’ve always been curious about the experiences of my counter part in Japan. This site gave me a glimpse into that world.
I’ve always imagined that a Westerner going to Japan is easier than a Japanese going to the West, for several reasons. The most significant reason is that the Japanese people adore Westerners especially those of non-Asian race. This is essentially reverse racism, and I could imagine that it could cause some difficulties, but reverse racism in general offers just as much advantage as it does disadvantage, if not more. But, perhaps, this is a glass-glows-gleener phenomenon. One tends to exaggerate one’s own experiences in comparison to others. And, I’m certainly not trying to play a piece of violin music along to the story of my life.
What Chanpon.org is trying to achieve is conceptually quite peculiar. In a way, it is trying to find similarities in the opposites. It is sort of like the axiom in physics, “The only thing that is constant in this universe is change.” Perhaps, upon deep analyses of any relationships between individuals, one may find that the only thing that is similar is the dissimilarity.
“Community” by default seeks similarities. I normally dislike communities for this reason. Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying that communities should seek dissimilarities. I just find the activity of seeking similarities to be boring. I like communities whose reason for forming is not quite so obvious and contrived, especially since the driving force behind seeking similarities is usually a form of fear.
