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- Title
Unwrapping the Secret Desire of Wrapping: Aesthetic Regimentation of Society and Nature in Japanese Culture.
- Authors
Shudong Chen
- Abstract
Japan is an enigma, a tantalizing paradox that defies logic, and it demands a special verbal imagination to approach it. It is, therefore, often depicted not as what it is but what it is like, i.e., a "swamp" a "model/lobster shell" an "oyster," a "pressure cooker" a "treasure house" or a "cocoon." These metaphorical observations, each in its own way, indicate something so truly Japanese, a unique "culture of wrapping," which envelops all conceivable aspects of Japanese life. But beneath and behind the culture of wrapping, what still remains alive and hidden, as this essay so argues, is Japan"s almost unconsciously deified hidden desire to control not only society but also nature through aesthetic regimentation, which should guide us like "the incorrigible textuality of Japanese culture" or the indispensable and dependable "screen through which [we] view the [Japanese] world" (Richie 2004,270).
- Subjects
JAPAN; GIFT wrapping; QUALITY of life; CONDUCT of life quotations; GIFTS -- Social aspects; MANNERS &; customs; LIFESTYLES; JAPANESE people
- Publication
Japan Studies Association Journal, 2010, Vol 8, p117
- ISSN
1530-3527
- Publication type
Article