Astro Boy, Ultraman, hello Kitty, karaoke, dunk master, emoji... These things, across time, have become the childhood memories shared by almost all Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z people.
Of course, this influence is still the same today. For example, the dissatisfaction caused by ultraman's removal some time ago is a vivid case.
Beginning around the 1960s, these things were gradually created and spread by Japan, bringing wealth and a surge of cultural influence to Japan.
Matthew Matthew, author of the book "Japanese Originality", which explores the creativity of Japanese culture, In Arter's eyes, these things are "three no-noes": irrelevant, inevitable, and immeasurable, and he describes them as "fantasy satisfaction devices". In his view, these small cultural products are fictional and fantasy, but these fantasies have reshaped all of us.
So how exactly did Japan create these fantasy products that changed us all? What impact have these products had? Today, let's explore it with the unread jun.
The metacosm of "Made in Japan" is "fantasy"
In fact, the whole of Japan is a complete fiction. There is no such country, and there is no such people ... As I said, the Japanese people are just a style, a delicate artistic fantasy.
—Oscar Wilde, The Decline of Lies
Oscar · When Wilde calls Japan "downright fiction," he refers to and tries to subvert a deliberately glorified arrogant mentality: Japan is the product of Western fantasy.
| Wilde
It is what people called the "ancient country" of the Victorian era, and it has been a wonderful place for people to think about for many years. In the eyes of Westerners, Japan is a "land of fantasy" and a "paradise for babies." It wasn't until World War II that this assumption was shattered.
In 1945, after Japan's defeat, Japanese manufacturers did everything in their power to conceal the origin of the products they sold around the world. Ten years later, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kennedy, who has always been known for his toughness and brutality, said that he would not be able to do so. Foster · Dulles casually told Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida that Japan should never expect its goods to find a big market in the United States, because "What is made in Japan is not what we want." Privately, he has even acted even more arrogantly, telling a close friend, "For anyone who cares about Japan's economic future, it is most logical to choose to commit suicide." ”
Indeed, the first Japanese goods to flow into the global market after World War II provoked ridicule rather than admiration. "Made in Japan" became a joke and synonymous with cheap junk goods in the defeated countries: a dollar shirt, a tin toy made from recycling cans, a small, light paper umbrella stuck in a cocktail...
At this point, however, the situation is already quietly changing.
Gadgets with big twists
In the winter of 1957, just two years after Dulles's statement, a pocket semiconductor radio overwhelmed the crowd and became a must-buy item for Americans at Christmas.
The brightly colored TR-63 is the first product to bear the Sony logo, and the name "Sony" was chosen because the cultural connotations behind it sound ambiguous.
At the time, the TR-63 seemed like a new holiday fad, but it upended American expectations for The performance of Japanese products, and that was just the beginning.
| A batch of TR-63 radios airlifted from Japan to the United States in 1957
In the 1960s, novelties from Japan continued to flow into the United States like water droplets, and by the late 1970s and early 1980s, Japan's high-quality electronics and cars flooded into the United States. Suddenly, it seems that the Americans have become the laughing stock.
At that time, when "interlopers" such as Toyota and Honda replaced local products such as Ford and Chevrolet, the American people could not sit still, and their previous arrogance was replaced by anger, and there was often news of smashing Japanese products on TV.
Children, however, do not have the anger of adults about Japanese products. Because many of the things that children need, there is no counterpart in American culture.
Examples include irresistible gadgets like walkmans and karaoke machines; a cute kitty, whose name appears as "Hello," on a range of products tailored for schoolgirls; well-designed toys, video games, anime and manga...
| HelloKitty is not a cat, her back is actually a little girl, and the secret of her success is what the Japanese call "kawaii"
| behind Astro Boy is a kind heart and young people's excitement about the future
In the 1990s, the stock market crashed, the bubble economy burst, and Japan's economy bottomed out. The Japanese have made the twenty years after the bursting of the bubble a "lost twenty years," but in this bleak twenty years, magical things are happening.
The economy is down, but cultural influence is soaring
In the 1990s, Japan was at a low ebb. However, this "lost twenty years" is also the 20 years in which "Made in Japan" has gradually occupied the hearts of young people around the world.
During this period, the sales of Japanese comic books far exceeded that of American comic books, and the New York Times was forced by the situation to split up an independent best-selling comic book list; niche fashion brands such as Anyi Ape and Emisu began to enter the wardrobes of international celebrities; fashion pioneers such as Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto jumped from local stars to the world's trend vane; and super retailers such as Uniqlo and MUJI developed rapidly.
| Kawakubo Reiwa Yamamoto Yohji
Novelist Haruki Murakami began to attract a large number of foreign readers; director Hayao Miyazaki won an Academy Award for an animated film, and a very Japanese animation film, "Spirited Away" in 2003. Since then, Miyazaki has become a legend, and Japanese anime has also been loved by countless people around the world.
As the economy has declined, Japan's cultural influence has skyrocketed. Because the real way most of us interact with Japan, both on an individual and societal level, is through products, and we all interact with it through products.
Through these "three no-nos" – anime, games, Ultraman, Pokémon, emoji emoticons, Cosplay, etc. – created in Japan, the way we interact with the world, the way we communicate with others and be alone with ourselves, and the way we shape our identity has changed.
| The image of the first monster model produced by Maruzan was derived from the earlier episode of "Otter Q" created by Eiji Marutani, which laid the conceptual foundation for Ultraman
Japan has made its fortune by peddling to us the products we need, including cars, home appliances, and portable electronics, but it has also made itself loved by selling what we want.
| First Lady Hillary Clinton playing a red and white machine on "Air Force One" Clinton, photo taken in 1992
"Fantasy Satisfaction Device"
These "three no-products" are called "fantasy satisfaction devices" by the authors in Japan Originality, and the book tells a story about products of excellence that are truly culturally attractive on a global scale.
British diplomat Ali Kuni, who in 1863 jokingly called Japan a "paradise for babies" was shocked by the undisguised enjoyment of children's pleasures by adults.
In 1876, the American educator William H. Elliott · Griffiths once said in amazement: "We often see adult men and able-bodied Japanese people, playing with joy the game that Westerners have long been shelved with their bibs." ”
He originally referred to traditional entertainment such as spinning tops and flying kites, but as time went on, "entertainment" became more and more complex, and Japanese creatives drew inspiration from old and new fantasies to create an increasingly powerful entertainment mix.
| Yuichi An, a pioneer in streaming karaoke technology
As new technologies such as transistors gradually move out of the lab and then into the consumer market, as modern life becomes more and more foreign, fantasy satisfaction devices are no longer simple products of the times, and they are beginning to change the times in which they live. Entertainment began to become a tool, and its practical appeal far exceeded that of the natives who were designed at the beginning.
| The first Japanese creation to sweep the world, Sky Invaders
It was for this reason that Japanese culture was able to expand outward during the economic collapse of the 1990s, spreading its hopes and dreams around the world— a supernova-like society driven by games and fantasies. We absorb Japanese fantasies and thus generate new perceptions of "cool," "cosmopolitanism," "femininity," and "masculinity."
"Home Economy" and "Metacosm"
A naked, sometimes surprising and occasionally frustrating fact, shows that a bunch of outright freaks are unconsciously changing our reality.
In the virtual world, communication between people is gamified, and the final reward is points, medals, and likes. The boundaries between creators and consumers, novices and veterans, creators and fans are gradually blurring. Everyone spends all day in the virtual world, defining themselves by absorbing fantasies.
This is no longer simply for entertainment, but has become an urgent need to escape from reality. The arrival of the epidemic has accelerated all this.
Today, all of this has become an integral part of everyday life, and it's easy to take it for granted. Therefore, the most "metaverse" country is not the United States, but Japan, and the gene of this fantasy is the core of the real "metacosm" and the unspeakable secret of the cultural and creative industry.
If you are interested in Japan, Japanese cultural products, and Japanese originality, you may wish to go to "Japanese Originality" to find out.
In addition, as Wu Xiaobo, a well-known entrepreneur and financial writer, commented:
From the perspective of an investigator, this book deeply sorts out how the craftsmen, merchants, artists, and writers of post-war Japan created a wave of cultural consumption that swept the world while satisfying the domestic needs of the people's spiritual life. I have to say that Japan's original level of "manufacturing ability" is what we need to learn and surpass.
| Wu Xiaobo
The book "Japanese Originality" is not only a story about Japanese craftsmen, artists, businessmen, geniuses and geeks. It is also a business history of the rise of Japanese cultural consumption trends, and a reference book for insight into the trends of China's new consumption era.
Talk about it
What was your childhood "fantasy gratification device"?
Let's talk about it in the comments section
Text = Nobita, 33
Typography = 33
Cover = Red Hot Chili Peppers
Picture = book in the text, internet
The way to learn "fantasy"