Ch 9 & 10

Ch 9
This chapter is about the scientific ways of seeing and how technology allows us to see the human body and life in different ways, through microscopes, X rays, MRIs, and so on. Previously, I never thought that scientific looking is also culturally specific. Science should be about the “Truth.” But when reading this chapter, I was quite shocked by the ideas of the anatomy theater, the Paris morgue’s displaying of dead bodies, and public anatomical dissections. I thought that dead bodies and the interior of the human body are something that only professionals are allowed to see. Should the general public be allowed to see that? I wouldn’t want to be gazed upon like that. The body’s interior is one’s privacy. Being dissected in public is worse than being naked. Anatomy is okay for educational purposes and medical advancement, but not for pleasure gazing and public display.

Personally, it’s hard for me to imagine why the public would want to see that in the first place. Out of curiosity? Or in the pursuit of knowledge? In Western science and medicine, to see is to know. Looking in depth leads to more knowledge. Doctors and scientists want to see everything, looking beneath the surface and magnifying everything. But in the name of science and knowledge, do we sometimes see what we shouldn’t see? There’re always reasons to justify the “seeing,” like security checks and patient observation, but not all seeing is appropriate or necessary? If we compare the East and the West, western doctors think it’s necessary to see the body’s interior in order to diagnose the patient, so they developed X rays, Ultrasounds, MRIs, CAT scans, and so on to see through the human body. But in traditional Chinese medicine, the doctor diagnoses the patient by taking the pulse. If the patient is female, there will be curtains around her bed, and the doctor can only see and touch her wrist for the pulse and listen to her cough to diagnose the patient. In very extreme cases, like if the patient is the wife or daughter of the emperor, the doctor cannot even see or touch her hand. He can only tie a piece of thread to the patient’s wrist, and judge the pulse by touching the thread. From a modern perspective, this kind of diagnoses is totally unscientific. But in Chinese history, the best doctors were the ones who could make a correct diagnosis without seeing, and those were the doctors who would be invited into the palace to be the emperor’s doctor. This example shows that the relationship between seeing and knowledge is culturally specific.

Ch 10
This chapter is about globalization and the flow of visual culture. Globalization influences the production and distribution of films, images, and other visual cultural products. However, this open media flow didn’t create “a more democratic flow of information for the people” (p. 399). Instead, it reinforces cultural imperialism. In my personal experience, the most obvious example of cultural imperialism is the relationship between Taiwan and Japan. Taiwan used to be colonized by Japan. Even though now we’re free of the physical colonization, Taiwanese culture is still deeply influenced by Japanese culture. We eat Japanese food, listen to Japanese music, and watch Japanese movies and TV shows. Fortunately, the flow of the media and popular culture is not just one-way now. For example, a very famous comic book series in Japan, “Hana-yori Dango,” was made into a TV drama version in Taiwan. The show was very popular in Taiwan, and later broadcasted in Japan as well. It also got good ratings in Japan, so later the Japanese also made a Japanese version of the TV show. As the global image and media flow go back and forth, new cultural identities emerge. Through Youtube and other online medias, diasporic communities can get back in touch with the culture of their ancestral land. For example, Asian-Americans who cannot speak the language of their ancestors can still listen to Chinese songs or watch Japanese drama and animation (with English subtitles). In the past, Asian-Americans want to be distinguished from newly-arrived Asians, so they avoid “fobby” (Fresh Off Boat) cultures. But now, Asian popular culture is becoming a trend in Asian-American groups, and it influences their cultural identity and relationship with their two “homes.”