Neo-Ottomanism and Cool Japan in comparative perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID6094022
AuthorsM Ergin (0000-0002-8447-8014, Koç University, corresponding author), Chika Shinohara (Momoyama Gakuin University)
Year2021
Volume65
Pages27-48
Publication date2021-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Perspectives on Turkey (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0896-6346 • E-ISSN: 1305-3299
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/npt.2021.17
OpenAlexW3200196488
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited39

Turkey and Japan have comparable histories of modernization beginning in the nineteenth century. They have since then produced modernities that are considered a mix of “Eastern” and “Western.” Over recent decades, both faced the question of what comes after modernity and began manufacturing their versions of authenticities and cultural exports. This paper comparatively locates two symptoms of this process. “Neo-Ottomanism” refers to the increasing cultural consumption of Turkey’s imperial past while “Cool Japan” emphasizes popular products in entertainment, fashion, youth culture, and food, intending to shift Japan’s image to a “cool” place. Both projects, in different ways, are sponsored by the state; yet their reception in popular culture illustrates the vexed relationship between the state and culture: while states endeavor to colonize culture for their own interests, popular culture provides avenues to outwit the state’s attempts. Popular culture’s autonomy in both contexts has to do with the collapse of traditional hierarchies, which has paved the ways for the promotion and export of new identity claims. Local and global representations of neo-Ottomanism and Cool Japan differ. Internally, they are fragmented; externally, they are linked to international “soft power,” and offer alternatives modernities in Turkey and Japan’s regional areas of influence

Autonomy · China · Consumption (sociology · Economics · Economy · Entertainment · Media studies · Modernity · Modernization theory · Political economy · Political science · Popular culture · Power (physics · Promotion (chess · Social science · Sociology · Soft power · State (computer science · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Turkey's Politics and Society

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access