CHAT: colours (out damn spot...;)

In a message dated 2004:04:26 01:03:07 AM, "uaxuctum" writes:

>White is an epitome of purity in all cultures.* In fact,
>white is perceived as such a pure and unmixed a colour
>that when scientists realized that white light could
>be decomposed through a prism into chromatic lights by
>separating the different wavelengths of the spectrum,
>there were people who opposed the idea saying that it
>was a heresy against the purity of white.
* IMO not "all" - Beware of sweeping generalizations when it comes to
cultural anthropology!

    In quite a number of cultures, white is the colour of skulls & bone(s),
mourning, death, etc. In many older southern Chinese and Asian jungle-dwelling
tribal cultures, jade is the colour of purity and of talismanic
power/protection - hence IMHO the modern-day Southern Chinese obsession with jade jewelry.
    But, of course, due to the in-roads "Westernization" has made, having a
"white wedding" or "American-style wedding" is so _tres chic_ - esp'ly in Hong
Kong, Singapore, etc. esp'ly amongst the educated middle and upper classes.
Ditto in Japan - ever since the American Occupation after WWII - an even more
extensive level/amount...

    1/2 joking opinion: Their Shinto mythos is right, the Japanese _are_
half-breeds descended from space alien gods and proto-humans.
    No wonder they are so utterly strange (IMO) &, as one can see from their
art, design, architecture, & _manga_, rather obsessed with sci-fi
style/aesthetics while simultaneously holding onto their own _varying_ degrees of
traditional Japanese Zen-influenced aesthetics.
    No matter how "Westernized" and PC [Politically Correct] a Japanese
person may be - even them totally goofy Japanese Rockabilly types, they will always
have some ethnocentric Divine Imperialism in 'em...
    Just observe Japanese tourists anywhere in the world or celebs like Yoko
Ono & then try telling me I am absolutely totally wrong!

    One of my distant ex-headhuntin' Borneo relatives - during the Japanese
Occupation of Borneo - bleached a Japanese flag totally dingey bone white.
    A Japanese officer asked him why he, my relative, bleached the Divine
Imperial Flag.
    My grand-uncle - a lil imbalanced from barely recovering from various and
sundry Japanese interrogation methods - dryly said that the flag looked like
it was stained in blood.
    The Japanese officer was stunned and, then in a Zen-like moment, started
laughing so hard he cried.
    Amazingly the American-educated Japanese officer not only spared my
relative - over the ojections of other officers - he made my relative camp
laundryman (Damn, why are we expat Chinamen always frikkin' laundrymen in hostile
conditions/cultural environments?).
    My grand-uncle still thinks that the Japanese flag is just one big
"bloody spot" needing a good bleaching.
    Up to the time he was committed to a mental hospital in Sabah, he was
constantly trespassing on the Japanese Embassy grounds and on Japanese corporate
properties in K.L., Malaysia and Singapore giving Japanese security officers
headaches and ulcers with his "ant"-like guerilla tactics.
     The war has never ended for him cuz the Japs never _officially_
surrendered to the Borneo _Semut_ Commandos [_semut_= Indonesian for "ant"].
     And believe it or not, this is why to this very day many flagpoles on
these Japanese properties now have their own alarm systems or even armed colour
guards!
    The war has never ended for the Borneo _Semut_ Commandos and their
descendants... cuz the Japs never _officially_ surrendered to us. And it is doubtful
they will. So Japanese flags will prob'ly remain targets for some generations
to come...

BTW, AFAIK In many Theraveda Buddhist cultures of South East Asia (i.e.
Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, etc.) saffron/gold is the the colour of purity.


--- *DiDJiBuNgA!!* Hang Binary,baby...---

Hanuman "Stitch" Zhang, ManglaLanger (mangle + manga + lang)
<A HREF="http://www.boheme-magazine.net">=> boheme-magazine.net</A>

"Some Languages Are Crushed to Powder but Rise Again as New Ones" -
John McWhorter, _The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language_

"WITH MASTS SUNG EARTHWARDS
the the sky-wrecks drive.

Onto this woodsong
you hold fast with your teeth.

You are the songfast
pennant." - Paul Celan



= maeci legosetplex caca plus debri !
    prizerva. saalva. ricue. scopé-gomi plus riçyc'l ! =

English translation of the above _dzjunk lego_, "junk language":
"Fight {Maquis/-machy} Linguistic Waste & Trash!
    Save, Salvage, Recover, (creatively)Scavenge-Found-Objects & Recycle!"

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