John C. Maher
Metroethnicity, language, and the principle of Cool
Cultural essentialism and ethnic
orthodoxy are out. In Japan, Metroethnicity is in. Cool rules. Metroethnicity is
a reconstruction of ethnicity: a hybridized ‘‘street’’ ethnicity deployed by a
cross-section of people with ethnic or mainstream backgrounds who are oriented
towards cultural hybridity, cultural / ethnic tolerance and a multicultural
lifestyle in friendships, music, the arts, eating and dress. Both Japanese and
persons with minority background ‘‘play’’ with ethnicity (not necessarily their
own) for aesthetic effect. Metroethnicity is skeptical of heroic ethnicity and
bored with sentimentalism about ethnic language. It views such narrative as
inevitable but logocentric. Metroethnicity hears the cry of minority rights but
positions itself in a more distant and cooler place. This place involves
cultural crossings, self-definition made up of borrowing and do-it-yourself, a
sfumato
of
blurred ethnic ‘‘identities’’. The operating system is Metroethnicity. Its
desktop cultural expression is Cool. The cultural effect examined here involves
(ethnic) language as an off-the-shelf, take-it-or-leave it lifestyle accessory
that conforms to aesthetic demands rather than ethnolinguistic duty. The
criterion for language maintenance and allegiance for the metroethnic then
shifts from loyalty to ethnic heritage and political duty to questions of
lifestyle emancipation. Is it worthwhile? Is it interesting? Is it funky? Is it
a cool thing to do and to have? Cool is the capacity to ignore or minimize the
claims of ethnicity. Ethnicity will be deployed ? later ? for lifestyle purposes
when it is deemed cool. Cool is not the same as fashion or popularity. Cool
includes a perceived ability to see the flipside or alternative side of things;
an ability that multicultural-perspective people or ethnic minorities are
uniquely believed to possess. Cool is quirky, innovative and tolerant. Cool is
an attitude and a hope. The historic struggle of Japan’s language minorities
(Korean, Ainu, new migrant) may be giving way to a new metroethnic generation.
Cool has a brittle cultural logic. It is a residual code that has turned itself
into an emergent code. Its performative style is based upon and derives
simultaneously from the symbols of both disaffiliation and association. Gone are
the immutable ciphers of ethnic identity. Here comes Cool.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 0165-2516
Volume: 2005, 11/2005
Pages: 83 - 102
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