http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/08/22/sports/olympics/0824-TATTOO_12.html
While tattoos have become more readily accepted in American culture (something like 40 percent of Americans have some kind of body art), in China they've been taboo in the true sense of the word, and are just beginning to be understood..
Why do you think that is?
How do politics affect ideology surround the idea of being "individual" and "self expression"..?
I think since tattoos represent a form of self expression, they would be completely taboo in a country with a national identity. To be an individual and means to be distinct from everyone and everything else in the form of a personal beliefs and representations. If I'm not mistaken, China has a communist ideology that when first heard of by Americans during the Red Scare, was seen as oppressive and totalitarian. It's interesting bc in reality the state does have a totalitarian notion to it here in the U.S. and in other countries- even though elites make illusions to show there isn't such a notion (i.e having nothing to say against tattoos as a form or self expression an individualism here in the U.S.). So what do the countries really want from their people? A national collective identity which is imagined or individuals with different ideas and beliefs who show their individualism say for example through awesome tattoos?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this... so why do you think tattoos are coming back in style more recently in China?
ReplyDeleteI didn't know they were but I'll take a guess and say it's due to diffusion of the tattoo culture in China. Maybe it's being more accepted nowadays.
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