Cultural Hierarchies In Campaign By Khiya Soda

Improved Essays
Almost every society fabricates some form of hierarchy. Whether the discrepancy is between old and young citizens, males and female, Christians and Muslims, King and lay people, or more and less economically developed societies, each cultural group often creates an arbitrary system for classifying others. The classification of others can happen within one single culture or between two existing cultures. Ultimately, societies and cultures create hierarchies based on worth, mostly economic, or value to society, often leading to the simplification of and refusal to understand other groups and cultures.
In analyzing the movie Campaign by Kazuhiro Soda, it becomes evident that Japan has a cultural hierarchy based primarily on age and gender. The film is based around Kazuhiko Yamauchi, the Liberal Democrat Party’s candidate, and his campaign for a City Council seat in Kawasaki City. As the film progresses, peculiar exchanges occur between Yamauchi and his elders, wife, and future constituents. Representing a clear hierarchy, Yamauchi’s elders repeatedly chastise him for bowing incorrectly, neglecting to look others in the eye after shaking hands, showing up to a rally thirty minutes early, and keeping the Sensei waiting after the election. Through all of these small infractions, it is clear that the elder members perceive themselves to be wiser, more mature, and simply of a higher value to society than the younger Yamauchi. Beyond the confines of age, the film also portrays the sexism within Japanese culture. Yamauchi’s wife, Sayuri, is often referred to as simply a “housewife,” even though she works and financially supports Yamauchi during the election. Despite Sayuri’s professionality, the term housewife is used to show her as subordinate to Yamauchi. Additionally, while Yamauchi is campaigning, he tells his wife not to talk about politics, and citizens tell Sayuri that she should quit her job in order to be a better wife for Yamauchi. Merely because of her gender, others view her as less of a benefit to society and believe she would best serve society by staying at home. Extrapolating on the perceptions of societal ranking based on economic production or value to society, both the Christians in Nigeria circa 1976 and the Crown in England in the seventeenth century viewed themselves superior in this regard. In 1976, Nigeria was divided primarily between the Christians who occupied a large portion of the south, and the Muslims that had a majority in the north. As the country wrote a new, independent, and democratic constitution, fears over a
…show more content…
One of the most telling examples given by Chang regarding cultural superiority is the simplification of “all Asians look the same.” Because of unfamiliarity with distinct cultural characteristics and an unwillingness to learn because of perceived economic superiority, White people often claim that East Asians all looks the same. Historically, White people viewed Asian countries and individuals in a negative light due to lack of economic productivity, thus not caring enough to learn about their cultural differences. Relating this heritage of success and hierarchy to Campaign, the citizens of Kawasaki City were unsure about Yamauchi simply because he was not native to Kawasaki City, but rather was born and raised in Tokyo. They did not care to learn about his education, platform, or past successes simply because they viewed his culture as foreign and inferior to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    One of the common representational strategies that is used in My America… or Honk if you love Buddha is how some of the Asian Americans compare themselves to first-generation Asians. In the documentary, a Mr. Choi appears, and he is described as someone who works for a fortune cookie company, teaches martial arts, and does other tasks that are often associated with the “good oriental” image that Xing describes in “Cinematic Asian Representation.” Meanwhile, Victor Wong, who was born in San Francisco, describes himself as the “Wong that went wrong,” and is an Asian who actively takes part in the arts. Despite working together in the past, Choi practices the stereotypes that are often imposed on Asians, while Victor breaks these stereotypes.…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Minority Myth Summary

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The video also mentioned that the stereotypes of all Asian Americans are seen as “honorary whites”, overachievers, and as a monitory group that does not…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nicholas Kristof’s, “The Asian Advantage” employs a humane, yet insightful tone and a free-flowing syntax composes a sound analysis of stereotyping and the role it plays in shaping a group. In the article, he claims that the titular group, Asian-Americans, aren’t necessarily successful due to intellectual prowess, but that it can be attributed to high expectations and family value. Experimental research in addition to expert testimony sprinkled throughout allow the claim to gain credibility and inevitably become common-sense. The implication of stereotyping playing a vital role in an individual’s success is explored in depth throughout this article.…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The phrases were misrepresentations of Asians developing negative stereotypes. Orientalism developed a threating representation of Asian Americans for many Americans. This resulted in many Anglo Americans mistreating Asians and showing racism towards them, as they have done with other racial groups. For portraying Asians in narratives, they look for differences between characters. According to Nakayama, we see more images of Asians than we do Asian Americans.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The model minority myth allows the further hindrance of other races, as Yanagisako explains: “…thinly disguised behind the celebration of Asian American achievement in the myth is both the legitimization of White privilege and the reinforcement of racist beliefs about African American failure” (Yanagisako 284). This myth celebrates Asian Americans for being so successful and consequently supports the myth of equal opportunity in America, which makes people think that a minority’s failure to succeed is their own fault. Here we clearly see how these two races are set in relational to each other. Whilst the Asian American is set on a pedestal the exploited African American is thrust to the…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water portrays various lives of characters intertwined by the Native American folkloric gods. Lionel Red Dog, a man turning 40 years old attempts to reconstruct his life on a better path while struggling with his identity. As a born Canadian with an Asian ethnicity, my personal reading of Lionel and Charlie’s father Portland Looking Bear highlights their struggle with identity. Although never explicitly stated, the conflicting needs of being an individual and belonging in a community suggest the impossibility of feeling included as whole in the world.…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Liu’s thesis, in my opinion, was written as a revised quote previously foresaid by William Shakespeare. It read, “Some are born white, others achieve whiteness, still others have whiteness thrust upon them” (Liu 101). Liu goes on using examples, definitions, and narration to explain why he doesn’t consider himself and the other millions of people in America who have an Asian heritage to be a part of an indigenous class. In the end, Liu concluded in his memoir that because…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Title Have you ever been told that you can’t do something because you’re a girl, or heard someone say to stay away from black people, or even been told that you aren’t right for something just because of how much money you have? All of these things would be social inequality. A social inequality is is the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. Social inequalities can be based off of anything you classify yourself with.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Though there were various types of Asian that came to America, many of Americans during the late 19th century and early 20th century perceived all Asians with a similar perspective; an outsider and a threat to the American supremacism. Asian Americans were often mistreated and disdain by the “whites” due to many racial and cultural differences, which caused the institution of “work” to distort the lives of Asian Americans’ economically and socially. One of the major effect from the disdain were the differences in labor niches such as types of occupations, jobs, and industries occupied by Asian migrants. The labor niches often separate the lives of each ethnic groups, therefore also establishing many racial dynamics that impacted the lives of many Asian ethnic groups in the pre-exclusion years.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    7.1 How do societies rank people in social hierarchies? The ranking of people into various “classes” is a common practice in many of the world’s cultures. While these social rankings are practiced throughout the world, they can vary widely depending on each society’s cultural values. The text provides a familiar example in the form of the American social class system.…

    • 1499 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some people even view it as a “model minority.” On the other hand, Professor Ronald Takaki thinks differently. In his essay “the harmful myth of Asian superiority,” Ronal wants to prove that what people think about Asian Americans minority are misjudges. The author uses a lot of evidences and statistics from real life to support his idea. By using persuasive techniques such as ethos, logos and pathos, the author successfully…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout history, the United States has always been in conflict over the subject of race and racism. Although, the United States in reality is supposed to be free and united as the country name says it is, however that is not the case as it stands now. Racism has been around for a while and no one has said a thing, until a group of brave people, The United States Constitution, and Henry Luce present their sides about the truth about race and racism. To begin with, in an article written in The New York Times by Geeta Gandbhir and Michéle Stephenson, they write about how Asians are experiencing being stereotyped by the public. It is for some people that Asians are considered to be a “model minority” and superior to the other races.…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Those at the bottom of the hierarchy are expected to accept the authority of those at the top, and in submitting to authority, they are often exploited. ”(Smith-Acuna, 2011, p. 89). Putting down a group or an individual that is beneath the levels of superiority as defined by the hierarchy is not helpful. A good set of order and guidelines can improve these relationships.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Four seasons is synonymous to providing high quality and personalized service. This has helped distinguish themselves in the industry and has become their competitive advantage and company value. Its mission is to be the world’s leading operator of luxury hotels. Four Seasons operating model is each property is a profit center. Furthermore, to achieve their objective they have set very high standards to achieve and maintain in each department.…

    • 2038 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Men, women, and children are often organized into particular categories or groups. Wealth, being one of the prime components that is used to stratify people. Wealth is considered everything that a person owns, along with their real estate, income, stocks, and a lot other possessions. Once it starts to increase, it gravitates in that same place. The second component to classify the society is by power, which is often express in more than one way.…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays