As already pointed out yesterday, I went on a search for some papers on cultural adaptations, especially in relation to Manga products in the West. To my dismay I didnt find anything that fit my research criteria 100%, however I did stumble over more than a few papers on globalization.
Of course, it has to be pointed out here, that cultural adaptation and globalization are very different concepts, depending on the definition people like to use, despite sharing some striking similarities as well. Both require a reformation of cultural values in order to best suit a specific target group. The difference is that in cultural adaptation, the change is one-sided only, namely in the location the product is introduced to. Globalization on the other hands means, that both parties change in order to form a mutual cultural understanding, which benefits both sides and makes the product in question culturally readable for both.
The paper introduced in this post however, looks at yet another phenomenon, which can be closely linked to both globalization and cultural adaptation. In addition, it also offers one more point of interest, which will be discussed later. To start with culture-related issues, Takeshi Matsui examines the cultural diffusion of Manga in the US Market, where the foreign product, in this case Manga, has its cultural properties scattered, leaving only digestable chunks for the american audience. One can of course argue, that this is destroying the true cultural value of Manga, and while I am inclined to agree, I also like to point out that a lot of Manga’s initial success in the West was based on said cultural diffusion. It made this particular cultural export approachable to an audience, which in most cases, has never been in touch with Japanese culture. I have also noticed a very clear shift in fandom dynamics, where a lot of Manga-enthusiasts start with culturally diffused products and slowly work themselves towards the ‘original’, gradually becoming more accustomed and atuned to the style and cultural flavour.
To come back to the actual paper, Takeshi Matsui focused his work on the publishers’ perspective and their role as gatekeepers, a term more closely explained in Peterson Richard’s The Sociology of Culture : Emerging Theoretical Perspectives. What I find fascinating about this paper is exactly said perspective, as it gives not only a cultural viewpoint, but also a commercial and economic one. The diffusion of cultural products is closely linked to its ultimate consumption and, in economic terms, to the amount of sold publications. Often I find, that people question the importance of looking into cultural aspects of fan studies, which is a shame, for it is a most interesting topic. This paper however managed to show the bridge between cultural analysis and economic values and I hope to find more papers of this kind.
– Matsui, Takeshi (2009), The Diffusion of Foreign Cultural Products: The Case Analysis of Japanese Comics (Manga) Market in the US, Graduate School of Commerce and Management, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan
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