The Culture Swap between Europe and Asia
Everyone wants to be the originator. They want to take ownership of creating a new trend. When becoming the originator of a design or art or cultural aspect/characteristic, others may follow in those footsteps and try and create something similar or better than may also resonate with their audience. Often times, creativity or what is perceived as good, interesting, and unique by one culture may be used or exchanged by another culture. These cultures typically have drastically different backgrounds. That may be why these new ideas are so special and interesting to those on the receiving end, since they are coming from a different background and cultural context. This is true for the cultural exchange between Asia and Europe.
Cultural exchange is inevitable considering the history between these two very different cultures. These two continents have interacted for hundreds of years through war, colonization, disagreement, trade, etc. Although the countries that lie within these regions are not all the same, they all differ greatly from the culture of the other. Works of art and design were are easily exchanged and influence other cultures, but it at times this process wasn’t so speedy. European countries at first were very interested with the fruits of the land that Asian countries has to offer rather than the art itself. It wasn’t until the 19th century that Asian artists truly started to influence western culture (Carrier, 2011). For example, when Europeans conquered India and intended to produce a market for their art, their style became influenced in return (Carrier, 2011). Their own art started to become influenced by the very culture they overtook. It was something novel, and they took hold of that and ran with it. This would be considered a swap because their artifacts were exported and affected in return.
The end of military government control in Japan through political revolution, also known as the Meiji Restoration, opened doors for cultural exchange between Japan and Europe (Hayes, 2019). The exchange of culture is not solely up to the artist, creator, or designer’s ability to produce something worthwhile. What goes on within a culture has a direct impact on what aspects of culture can be exported from their own and imported from others. There was a lot of travel between Japan and Europe by artists who were fascinated by the other’s culture. This can be seen more recently in the acceptance and interests by the European culture in manga and anime, which are two different forms of Japanese animation that display the creativity and artistry Japan has to offer. These two art forms are said to “offer the first formative exposure to the culture for many non-Japanese people around the world” (Ro, 2019). Manga has even helped inform European’s perception of Japanese culture or a peak into it (Ro, 2019). Typically European adolescents were the ones who found an interest in Manga. At such a young age, these kids can be very impressionable.
Chinese packaging has been influenced by European culture as well. Chinese consumers are fascinated with the look and uniqueness of foreign products to their own culture (Noel, 2019). They also see foreign products as being more valuable and of higher quality than their typical Chinese products. Packaging producers are not as worried about the market as fulfilling the wants and needs of the customers. At the end of the day, those are the people that will be purchasing and using the products. The customers want products that resemble something new and foreign, typically from American and European cultural ideas and designs (Noel, 2019).
All in all, there is a long and rich history of cultural exchange among these two very different cultures.
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