WORLD V IE W | HEI TOR C A P UZ ZO
Rossiya Insurance Company Poster Russia/Soviet Union 1903
IS ASIAN CULTURE NEW TO YOU? “In the past, there was such a huge barrier in between Asia and the West. Perhaps, because of the language barrier—Asia, from the Western thinking, is unthinkable in learning. We had no idea how to communicate.” “Singapore, 15 years ago, is not as international as it is now. You know, Hong Kong is not Englishbased; Taiwan is not English-based; and, Japan is also not English-based. Like, if you want to go to Tokyo, you will have a hard time if you want to speak in English because a lot people speak the language. We are talking about Tokyo—a culture that was re-colonized by United States after the War. The language barrier may help the West relate to Asia. Another problem for the Western countries: to strategise [colonisation] in Asia.” BECAUSE OF THE HISTORY? “Yes, colonisation—and it was really painful. I am talking about Holland, Portugal, the United States, and uk . That’s why I can understand why China chooses to isolate itself because its experience —being invaded so many times by so many different countries which eventually provoked a civil war.
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That’s why, I was surprised to have been granted good access. I was a little fascinated as a foreigner.” “I was surrounded by mainly Japanese people with a Chinese influence in their daily lives. If you are from Sao Paulo, it’s not so difficult to have an Asian girlfriend because [of its population of] 3 million people. By the way, I had one. That is how how close it can get.” “But the Asians in Sao Paulo are of a different kind —they came at the beginning of the 20 th century. It means that the Chinese there didn’t have any kind of Communist experience. They arrived a period before that. And when the Japanese came, they came from the time before the World War II. It is almost as if they had no relation with the modern Japan—only the younger generation did. It meant that they were really conservative immigrants with traditions and languages, in-tact. A lot of the Japanese go to Sao Paulo to learn traditional Japanese; to study the old-fashioned Japanese language, because in Brazil, the colony there is still maintained. It is a very distinct point because they came at a time before the big changes took place. It is really interesting—that the kind of
influence they received from Asia is not so big but then at the same time, this influence was also kind of old-fashioned.” “For instance, they didn’t have dvds and videos, but in the past, they had 4 theatres in one neighbourhood. They spoke in languages that could either be Japanese, Mandarin, or Cantonese, depending on the area (or school) they learnt it from.” “And they had theatres running films everyday. In Brazil, there were a lot—usually with Portuguese subtitles. I also watched a lot of Japanese films at the theatres. Personally, I was a little bit more connected to the Japanese culture because I saw the entire Kurosawa and all those directors at the theatres before the dvds were released. Sometimes, I was the only one watching in the audience who wasn’t Japanese.” “I was always fascinated by Japanese film. Well, Chinese, ’cause the Chinese colonies didn’t build their own theatres. Every week, four new films were screened. I’ve watched more than 200 Japanese films at the time. It still remains as my preferred neighborhood at Sao Paulo. The place reminds