Kindergarten

[imomus]

There's a kindergarten just around the corner from my new flat with lovely folksy decorations. This morning I snapped a few pictures of them.



I was going to give you some spiel about how pre-school decorations like these are a direct route to national particularity, and how much more interesting I find the rooted, quirky imagery here than the "rebellious" (but in fact monocultural and conformist) imagery showcased by the trendy shops slowly taking over storefronts here with their denim and trainers. I was going to talk about how, along with the dress-styles of the elderly, the kindergarten was an exemplary reservoir of "Germanness", reproducing national identity as a series of values to its multi-ethnic pupils at their tiny desks. And I was going to state again that while I'm all for the preservation of national flavours, I'm not for rigid links between national flavours and ethnic groups. Anybody can be the "guardian" of these national flavours, not just an ethnic German. Anyone can go in and rewrite the code.

But then an interesting man came along and told me that his daughter had gone to this school, and that the person who runs it is Polish. So these decorations might be "reproducing Polishness". Suddenly the owl and the little grey woollen kitten looked incredibly Polish to me. Had I got my national stereotypes wrong?

Perhaps not; the putative Polishness of the school didn't contradict my thoughts about the arbitrary nature of national identity. If "anyone can go in and rewrite the code," if national identity is "open source", why shouldn't German imagery be disseminated to the next generation by a Pole? And why shouldn't there be a certain amount of Polishness in Germanness? The border, after all, is just an hour away.

Comments

[wingedwhale.livejournal.com]

I think, more than it should be considered racist ( a word with little appropriateness in Japan) or nationalist, it should be considered fear of cultural homogenization, which is happening around the world. I also have seen some Americans in Japan here and there, and they often seem to disregard unspoken social rules of the country that they should've picked up as they spent time there. Also, people like this Aruto Debito or whatever seem to forget that, unlike the United States, which is a young country with a rich multicultural base, Japan is a much older country with a much older homogeneous culture and racial makeup. He seems completely unwilling to compromise for Japan, and not only is that thoughtless in general, it's especially thoughtless when considering that a big part of Japanese culture is the value placed on harmony with your peers.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[(Anonymous)]

When Momus needs to unwind after a long day in the recording studio, he chooses Haggar Easy-Fit Action Slacks. Slim and stylish, they're relaxed enough for complete freedom of movement - don't let your pants tell you how to move.