Excited
Barack Obama’s bow-at-the-waist to Emperor Akihito has garnered some pretty harsh responses in the US. Namely, it is anti-Obama critics jumping on the President’s gesture with the ferocity of a jock at my high school who’s just been implicated as being gay.
That the President of the World’s Super Power akin to something along the lines of God of Earth, the United States of America should feel the need to bend over for a small Asian man (repeatedly, as Obama also bowed in an equally as controversial greeting to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah at a G20 meeting recently) is thought of as repulsive, weak and definitively, unamerican by his critics.
Never mind that in Japanese tradition, the Emperor is a direct descendant of a divine being (the sun goddess, and thus probably even more powerful than any ‘god of earth’) and in American tradition, the president is just some chap who is popular.
Are the Obama critics really so afraid of being respectful of Asian traditions that they care about the angle of the President’s back? Is the WW2 anti-Japanese sentiment resurging to combine with some weirdo homophobic pride in a hybrid critique of the nation’s first non-white president?
Perhaps it would be more productive to critique the deep bowing of Obama to a symbolic ruler who represents a government that refuses to acknowledge many of its wartime atrocities and genocidal policies towards its Indigenous cultures. Or would such a critique be too close to the truth of America’s own national history?
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I like oyur article. Well said! I could not have sadi it better mysef!
I like oyur article. Well said! I could not have sadi it better mysef!
@ Eric: Not only that, he's half brother lives in China and is married to a Chinese woman. There's a lot of Asian in his family
@ Eric: Not only that, he's half brother lives in China and is married to a Chinese woman. There's a lot of Asian in his family
You know, he does have a Chinese brother-in-law...
You know, he does have a Chinese brother-in-law...
I think Obama should have just bowed first and then shake his hand in a Western way. My issue was how deep he bowed - more like a houhai to a sempai. But I guess since Akihito was older he's showing age deference rather than position - which is nice if that's what his doing. I never felt Obama knows a lot about East Asians, but growing up in Hawaii he must have know quite a few Japanese Americans. Perhaps it is this intimate knowledge of Asians which allowed Obama to appear as being somewhat distant toward Asian issues as oppose to Middle Eastern or European issues. I just hope no Asians gang up on him when he was growing up in that Asian-majority state.
I think Obama should have just bowed first and then shake his hand in a Western way. My issue was how deep he bowed - more like a houhai to a sempai. But I guess since Akihito was older he's showing age deference rather than position - which is nice if that's what his doing. I never felt Obama knows a lot about East Asians, but growing up in Hawaii he must have know quite a few Japanese Americans. Perhaps it is this intimate knowledge of Asians which allowed Obama to appear as being somewhat distant toward Asian issues as oppose to Middle Eastern or European issues. I just hope no Asians gang up on him when he was growing up in that Asian-majority state.
Great presidential moments:
President H.W. Bush Throwing Up on Japanese Prime Minister Miyazawa Kiichi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnOnDatqENo
And as noted on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight, Nixon bowed to Emperor Hirohito and Eisenhower bowed to Charles De Gaulle. Right-wing nuts at it again ... each and every day!
Great presidential moments:
President H.W. Bush Throwing Up on Japanese Prime Minister Miyazawa Kiichi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnOnDatqENo
And as noted on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight, Nixon bowed to Emperor Hirohito and Eisenhower bowed to Charles De Gaulle. Right-wing nuts at it again ... each and every day!
having grown up in Japan, i can say that bowing is such a normal part of interactions that i would find myself bowing while talking to someone on the phone.
what i love most about this is the photo: Obama is bowing, which is the Japanese way of greeting someone. Akihito is shaking his hand, which is the American way of greeting someone. what a great image of some cross-cultural respect!
having grown up in Japan, i can say that bowing is such a normal part of interactions that i would find myself bowing while talking to someone on the phone.
what i love most about this is the photo: Obama is bowing, which is the Japanese way of greeting someone. Akihito is shaking his hand, which is the American way of greeting someone. what a great image of some cross-cultural respect!
Your last paragraph sold it for me.
Your last paragraph sold it for me.
These particular Obama critics are exactly that, Obama critics. Wouldn't matter what Obama does, they'll find something to criticize about. He could be out saving puppies and kittens and they'd find something wrong with it. There is no deeper/hidden meaning or thought behind their attacks. To think so would be giving them way more attention and credit then they deserve.
These particular Obama critics are exactly that, Obama critics. Wouldn't matter what Obama does, they'll find something to criticize about. He could be out saving puppies and kittens and they'd find something wrong with it. There is no deeper/hidden meaning or thought behind their attacks. To think so would be giving them way more attention and credit then they deserve.
Having lived here in Japan for two years and counting, bowing is just as normal as say shaking someone's hand when you meet them for the first time. It's pretty ignorant for William Kristol to suggest that bowing as a foreigner is to be seen as a sign of weakness. It's just plain respect dammit !
To suggest that Obama should have stomped his way around Japan as if he was the big man in town is similar to acting like that ignorant tourist that can't bring him/herself to adhere and respect another countries customs and culture. I even suspect that Obama learnt a few phrases in Japanese just to show effort. If he said "itadakimasu" and "gochisosama deshita" at dinner time then let's just revoke his presidency eh?
From what my friends tell me, there are different levels of bowing. You get the normal head tilt and slight bow when meeting friends to the more extreme a la Obama, meeting and saying goodbye to your superiors. My friends said that when starting their jobs, part of their training was a few good hours on perfecting the correct bow for the right type of person. I imagine Obama probably did the same thing.
When in Rome do as the Romans do.
Having lived here in Japan for two years and counting, bowing is just as normal as say shaking someone's hand when you meet them for the first time. It's pretty ignorant for William Kristol to suggest that bowing as a foreigner is to be seen as a sign of weakness. It's just plain respect dammit !
To suggest that Obama should have stomped his way around Japan as if he was the big man in town is similar to acting like that ignorant tourist that can't bring him/herself to adhere and respect another countries customs and culture. I even suspect that Obama learnt a few phrases in Japanese just to show effort. If he said "itadakimasu" and "gochisosama deshita" at dinner time then let's just revoke his presidency eh?
From what my friends tell me, there are different levels of bowing. You get the normal head tilt and slight bow when meeting friends to the more extreme a la Obama, meeting and saying goodbye to your superiors. My friends said that when starting their jobs, part of their training was a few good hours on perfecting the correct bow for the right type of person. I imagine Obama probably did the same thing.
When in Rome do as the Romans do.
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