Enchante, O-France, Chanson: Honorable France in Japanese Popular Culture

September 19, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Mānoa Campus, East-West Center Research Program, Burns Hall, Room 3012

Enchante, O-France, Chanson: Honorable France in Japanese Popular Culture


David Wu

Adjunct Senior Fellow, Research Program, East-West Center

Midori Hino

Visiting Scholar, Research Program, East-West Center

Monday, September 19, 2016 | 12:00 noon to 1:00pm
John A. Burns Hall, Room 3012 (3rd floor)

Since the 19th Century, at the peak of the Meiji Westernization project in Japan, France has been held by Japanese people in high regard. During our field investigation in Japan in the past two years we discovered important connections in people’s day to day life of three seemly unrelated French things: (1) consumption of French cuisine and development of French restaurants since the1970s; (2) admiration for France as portrayed in old comic books and new manga films that revive the phrase of Honorable France (O-France), coined by Fujio Akatsuka; and (3) teaching and performing classic chanson since the 1950s, as well as faithfully attending musical shows of the (all female) Takarazuka Revue (established in 1914), which continues to entertain Japanese with imagined romantic drama of the French Revolution Era.


In this talk, we wish to discuss theoretical interpretations of the Japanese unique style of globalization and Westernization, in which Japanese popular culture went through “gender revolution,” “nationalism and international cultural diplomacy,” and “urbanization and industrialization” in Kansai area that initiated by industrialist tycoon, Ichizo Kobayashi, founder of the Takarazuka Revue. In conclusion, we wish to describe this unique Japanese cultural tradition with a new metaphor - “Occidentalist Nippon”.


David Wu (Ph.D. Australian National University) is a long-time associate with EWC and 51²è¹Ý, former Chair Professor of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and is currently affiliated with Academia Sinica (Taipei) and Institute of International Affairs, Aichi University, Nagoya, Japan. He has conducted field research on ethnic minority, nationalism, and food issues in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific. Wu is also Co-editor of the Journal of Archaeology and Anthropology (Taipei).


Midori Hino (Ph.D. Osaka University of Foreign Studies) is a Research Fellow at the Institute of International Affairs, Aichi University, Nagoya, Japan, and has taught in various universities in Japan, including most recently, School of Global Communication, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. In collaboration with local governments and universities in China, Hino did long term research and published on contemporary Chinese social-economic issues; such as “Human Resources Market” and “NGO and Social Welfare.”


Event Sponsor
East-West Center, Research Program, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Laura Moriyama, (808) 944-7444, Laura.Moriyama@eastwestcenter.org

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