Subject: Apes are not native to Japan
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Posted on: 2021-01-13 10:59:59 UTC
And neither are beavers and red pandas, all of which I've sadly seen in badfics set in Japan. Also, before any of us goes on to commit another instance of Bad Biology, true pandas are not native to Japan either.
So, I was thinking about the Slash Sporking Guide, and I decided to write a guide myself, dedicated to telling whether something is Fangirl Japanese or not, based upon other articles I've read that teach how to spot cultural appropriation.
Here is the guide:
We all know that Fangirl Japanese is a charge, right? But, of course, not every instance of somebody speaking Japanese is an example of this annoying phenomenon. It's a language, and people do speak it. So how can you tell the difference? Well, here are some tips to help you.
Signs that it is not Fangirl Japanese:
A character has a Japanese name, such as Keiko or Hikaru, because they actually come from Japan or have Japanese heritage.
A character is speaking Japanese because it's their native language, or they learnt it for a plausible reason (e.g. they're an interpreter).
The Japanese writing is correct and provides a translation.
Signs that it is Fangirl Japanese:
A character has a Japanese name, yet they have no Japanese blood.
A character is speaking Japanese even though it isn't their native language, and they have no plausible reason to behind looking extra smart for being bi/multilingual.
The Japanese writing is incorrect, and/or provides no translations.
Random Japanese words are inserted into the narration (as opposed to the dialogue) for no other reason than to be "cool".
Japan doesn't exist in the continuum the Japanese writing is coming from (this is a very sure sign).
Preemptively putting that out there so everybody knows that if a fic set in Japan features high schoolers drinking alcohol willy-nilly, it's a charge.
And neither are beavers and red pandas, all of which I've sadly seen in badfics set in Japan. Also, before any of us goes on to commit another instance of Bad Biology, true pandas are not native to Japan either.
It's green like everybody else. I asked a group of actual Japanese people about this myth and they confirmed it's false, and no less than 5 top Google search results on 青信号 all say it's green, so you can consider this particularly weird myth busted.
Bad and good sex scenes exist in Japanese fanfics, but there's this one pet peeve that I observe much more frequently in Japanese fics than in ones written in English – while bad English smut is often characterized by weird things going on in the narration, bad Japanese smut is mostly in the dialogue, with many authors' just spamming crying noises, especially badly spelled and punctuated ones, in place of actually describing the acts. Think overly extended vowels (aaaaaah), ellipsis abuse, glottal stop abuse (strings of っっっ or ッッッ – how the heck do you extend a glottal stop?), long vowel mark abuse (strings of ーーー, especially after anything other than katakana or after a friggin' glottal stop), liberal sprinkling of the dakuten mark, especially after vowels and consonants that can't be voiced (think あ゛あ゛あ゛), and – this is my favorite – actual use of special symbols (heart marks in dialogues, I kid you not), coupled with annoying frequency in a single scene. All these goofs make the scene ridiculous very quickly, and can take all the unironic enjoyment out of an otherwise well-written sex sequence.
(To be continued)
But what about that popular Hetalia fanon that gives Hong Kong the human name "Kaoru" even though he clearly isn't Japanese? Also, what are other acts of misrepresenting a real culture beyond language (stereotyping, extreme historical inaccuracy, conflating close but different cultures, We All Live in America) called among the PPC?
I'm sorry if this reply is getting long, but one thing that annoys me personally as a Japanese speaker is translation convention'ed fics where the characters are really speaking Japanese, but make wordplays that are impossible in Japanese. I once came across a fic where a character mistakes being asked about "hanging out" as being asked to kill herself, even though hang out and hang are two completely different words in Japanese.
Glad you approved! I'm not too sure about the Hetalia thing, since I don't watch it. I don't know what other stereotype things are called in the PPC. That wordplay thing does sound annoying!
All the aforementioned is annoying enough, but I really want to hurl every time someone claims that a) Japanese culture is weird and alien (dude, sit down and do some self reflection, I'm pretty sure your culture has "weird" stuff too), b) all Japanese popular media is hentai, c) Japanese people are perverts, or d) Japan is accepting of pedophilia and the age of consent is 13. There's weeabooism, and then there's this kind of weeabooism.
...Would be that wordplay like that is a substitute for the actual wordplay that would be occurring in Japanese, preserving that element of the narrative (because Japanese wordplay doesn't work in English either...) I tend to be charitable, but this isn't an uncommon approach to localizing Japanese works that have wordplay as a part of their identity. Ace Attorney is notable for doing this an awful lot for example.
OTOH, if the line is intended as a direct translation of Japanese rather than an approximation... Well, that's probably more of an issue
I'd also like to add that if you're writing in a continuum that has Universal Translator tech, you can always go the lazy route and have the translators translate figures of speech as well. From there, you can either have the characters be made aware of when a wordplay is made (like those T/Ns on fansubs that explain Japanese wordplay) or just have the translator give them the meanings (allowing for funny moments if the translator doesn't inform the characters where the wordplays are).