PPT on the culture of any country (except China, Japan, Korea)

Historically, Japan absorbed a great deal of Chinese culture from the Tang Dynasty for more than 1,000 years, and after the collapse of the Tokugawa regime in 1868 and the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, Japan entered a period of "civilization and enlightenment". During this period, Japan introduced Western civilization in the same way that it had accepted Chinese culture in its entirety eleven centuries earlier, and achieved great results, laying the foundation for the construction of a modern nation. The formation and development of any culture is influenced by many factors; national and foreign history, as well as Buddhism, Confucianism, and even Christianity have all played a role in Japanese culture, which is changing, but has never really departed from its oldest native cultural roots.

This situation can be seen in many phenomena in Japanese society. Television, air-conditioning, automobiles, computers, and vacations abroad have now penetrated so y into the average Japanese home that the surface of Japanese life has become unrecognizable. Nevertheless, behind the curtain of modernization many things belonging to Japan's native culture are still preserved, and in a deeper analysis, Japan is still a traditional country. For example, they love to eat raw and cold food, more reverence for the original taste; preference for plain colors and natural interest; family power, family consciousness and group consciousness is very strong; folk beliefs and witchcraft is particularly prevalent; the woman's meekness and dependence on the man; want to get rich, can get rich, but after getting rich and do not know what to do; and so on.

This contradiction and unity is also manifested in the import and export of culture.

Japan is a very important and very good at absorbing and importing other cultures of the nation, from the 7th century "Dahua Reform" large-scale importation of the culture of the Tang Dynasty, to the 19th century "Meiji Restoration" large-scale absorption and importation of Western culture, have played a great role in the development and progress of Japan. The large-scale absorption and importation of Western culture in the 19th century and the "Meiji Restoration" all played a great role in the development and progress of Japan. In contrast, China has historically not been very good at absorbing the cultures of other countries and other peoples. A long history and a vast territory is certainly an advantage, but if you only pay attention to output but not input, and do not pay attention to the culture of other countries and other peoples to absorb nutrients and constantly develop themselves, then this advantage will also go in the opposite direction.

With the high growth of the Japanese economy, Japan has become more and more aware of the need to promote its culture to the outside world, and has come up with the strategic slogan of "internationalization," as Yasuhiro Nakasone, who was once the prime minister of Japan, called it. The Japanese government has invested a great deal of money in this area. According to a statistic from the 1990s, the annual budget for overseas cultural exchange programs under the auspices of Japanese official institutions, such as inviting or dispatching scholars and foreign students, and carrying out large-scale cultural activities, was 1 billion yen. The International Exchange Fund under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan encourages and subsidizes mainly Japan-related projects, such as Japanese language education abroad, research, translation and publication of Japanese cultural and literary works, or cultural activities related thereto. The government's initiative to invest heavily in the promotion of its own culture has yielded significant results. The fact that the Japanese tea and flower ceremonies are world-renowned, and that Japanese literature is available in good quality translations in many languages, is closely related to these initiatives.

There is also a paradoxical unity between the official culture and the folk culture of old Japan.

In ancient Japan, no matter how much the government emphasized foreign culture, folk culture remained largely intact. For example, in the Heian period (794-1185 AD), when the Tang culture was strongly promoted, all the literati men in Japan wrote in Chinese, but not the women, and as a result, they became the pioneers of native Japanese literature.

For a long period of history, people were allowed to do as they pleased within the boundaries of many areas that were permitted and controlled by the government. There, male impersonators, male prostitutes, prostitutes, and woodblock artists could please the gods. The urban folk culture of the Edo period, especially in the more prosperous 17th century, was inextricably linked to this narrow world of pleasure. Many writers, musicians, actors, and painters were in and out of or active in this "world of debauchery," which was scorned by the government but loved by the common people. Violent entertainment and outrageous pornography continued to be an important means of venting one's feelings under strict official control. The importance of this phenomenon cannot be underestimated, as the fundamental changes in this type of culture have been minimal, regardless of the times.

Finally, this paradoxical unity is expressed in the elegance and vulgarity of sex.

It should be recognized that the Japanese people are, on the whole, a refined people. In daily life, Japanese people are "gentle, meek, polite and mild", and they express themselves with "gentle human feelings" rather than with "dry, hard theoretical ideas". They express themselves with "gentle human feelings" rather than with "dry, hard, theoretical ideas. Compared to most other peoples, the Japanese are more bound by their feelings. For example, when two people are arguing, a Westerner will often say angrily, "Don't you understand what I'm saying?" Whereas, if it is a Japanese, he will hide his anger and displeasure under a mask of politeness and say, "Don't you understand my feelings?" From a general point of view, the Japanese are more tolerant, often using different ways to maintain superficial harmony, and conflicts are always covered by a veil of gentleness and politeness.

This cultural phenomenon is of course manifested in all aspects of social life, but also in the sexual problems of men and women. In the Japanese men and women in the process of sexual intercourse, even if it is a prostitute, people also pay attention to the rules, pay attention to politeness, the most vulgar sexual activity with a layer of elegant coat, otherwise afraid of being looked down upon by others, and the vast majority of Japanese people are very important to face. In this regard, there seems to be a lot of similarities with the ancient Chinese advocate of "warmth, goodness, respect, thrift and letting go", but the difference is that the Japanese people attach more importance to this attitude to form a kind of external etiquette, and there is also a contrasting rough, violent side.

Answer Supplement

The tea ceremony, flower arrangement, sumo wrestling, judo, hot spring bathing, kimono, sushi, cherry blossoms, Osaka-yaki, bar mitzvahs, summer festivals, lacquer ware, Mt. Fuji, ukiyo-e, the Sapporo Snow Festival, dolls, kabuki, haiku, shamisen, and omotenashi (folding fans).