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What about the Orient?
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What about the Orient?
Asia is one of the biggest continents in the world, made up of countless cultures which use different languages and follow separate religions. However, they are all responsible for spreading an unknown culture across to the west.
Giving the British their trademark cup of tea is one of the things that Asia has done for the UK, but just a boat journey away from this ex-British empire is Asia. Not the South which you will already be accustomed with, but the Asia of the East. We are talking about the Orient.
The orient has been responsible for many things; from huge armies run by emperors that were superstitious to weather and depended upon it for battles and to determine their reigning period, to manga, anime, technology, video games and a completely different culture to anything found anywhere else in the world.
Dating back to around the Second World War is when Japanese manga started to emerge, even though in the history of Japan there had been indications of its existence from before. The Eastern equivalent to the western comic book, manga is a printed cartoon, usually not in colour but rather in black and white, and is published as a part of an ongoing story. If it is a popular seller, then usually it is put into a compilation with the rest of the series or even created into an anime.
Animes are animated illustrations that use the same drawing style as mangas, but are predominantly in colour. Often they are based on mangas that have been popular to create a franchise but the anime style has also been adopted by major film studios such as Studio Ghibli to create feature length animations. Although they are cartoons, they are not referred to as such as they are distinctly different in style. Characters, just like in manga, are drawn with large eyes and animated in a distinct style that differs to western design.
The video game has a heavy history related to the Orient. Coming to Japan’s door in 1983 after a second video game market crash, Nintendo, Sega and Sony are three well known brands that entered into the video games market after pursuing a broader market than their previous endeavours ranging from card-making to television sales. Both Nintendo and Sega are recognisable by their mascots: Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, also bitter rivals during the late eighties and early nineties. In the current climate, Sonic is now a regular on all major consoles due to Sega’s abandoning of the hardware battle and can be seen on Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft’s latest consoles.
All three companies have made it so that western gamers have now been able to experience Japanese genius. Sony is known for its Metal Gear Solid video game (even though it started out on a Nintendo), and Sega has brought us power stone, and Chu Chu Rocket, which was one of the first online puzzle games. Nintendo is now famous for creating the casual gamer market, which attracts those people who would have not touched video games in the past. Obviously, the west has played a major role in video games; first-person shooters, for example, were not popular in Japan as they were too quick and caused motion sickness but have been one of the west’s favourite genres.
The orient is very famous for its martial arts, mainly because of its transition from a discipline in the east to a Hollywood blockbusters actor’s best talent in the west. The samurai is one of these disciplines: a Japanese martial art. Although this particular art is not something that has been adopted in Britain, its use in media has meant many engrossing stories have been told on the big screen using vast battlefields and love-stories to introduce some of the historic culture that Japan has been through.
Technology-wise the east has always been a step ahead, and it still is today. The latest Nintendo console offers a controller similar in shape and design to that of a regular remote that controls the television, in order to get people playing that normally wouldn’t. The technology inside it isn’t that new; motion-sensing technology and Bluetooth are both quite old now, but until this device it hadn’t been put together to offer a new experience.
Sony and LG are both based in the east and are leading runners in the race to release OLED televisions, which use less power than LCD TVs and are a lot slimmer too. They emit light which means that there is no need for there to be a backlight inside the TV which reduces costs and energy use as well as the side-effect of heat. Other tech to look out for in Japan is robotics which will be taking off as soon as they master the art of creating thinking robots. A scary thought...
And then there is the food. We know that South Asia has brought over beautiful curries and much more, but the East is famous for its food too. Specialising in rice, noodles, soup dishes and sea foods, they have created vast recipes based on what they can grow, catch and eat in their locale. One of the identifying factors of the whole of Asia is its distinct cuisine, and Britain has a lot to thank for the whole of Asia for because of it.
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