Me too -- I reacted this way when I read it, and posted it here to see if others would agree or if there was some nuance I was missing. In particular I bristle at this frequent juxtaposition of the US and Japan (or "East" vs "West" more broadly) in terms of individualism and collectivism -- those terms aren't well defined enough to not be misleading, and might convey truth in some cases but better specificity would help us avoid wrongheaded generalizations based on old tropes and stereotypes
It makes sense to me that there would be differences in how people with various cultural backgrounds interpret art, since we largely know that the way people experience and think about color is different, though
It's also funny to see US vs Japan as a stand-in for East vs West, because eg Japan and China have very different cultures; and eg Germany and the US also have their differences. (Or Chile and the US, if you want to stay far in the West.)
Me too -- I reacted this way when I read it, and posted it here to see if others would agree or if there was some nuance I was missing. In particular I bristle at this frequent juxtaposition of the US and Japan (or "East" vs "West" more broadly) in terms of individualism and collectivism -- those terms aren't well defined enough to not be misleading, and might convey truth in some cases but better specificity would help us avoid wrongheaded generalizations based on old tropes and stereotypes
It makes sense to me that there would be differences in how people with various cultural backgrounds interpret art, since we largely know that the way people experience and think about color is different, though
It's also funny to see US vs Japan as a stand-in for East vs West, because eg Japan and China have very different cultures; and eg Germany and the US also have their differences. (Or Chile and the US, if you want to stay far in the West.)