The British media and its representation of the Japanese

This event has ended.

The sixth event in the Cardiff-Japanese Lecture Series, this time with Professor Perry Hinton (University of Warwick). This event is sponsored by the Sakura Network Japan Foundation.

Abstract
Since the Portuguese first arrived there in the 16th century, Japan has been perceived by Europeans as a strange and exotic place, leading to the Japanese being characterised in Western texts, for over five hundred years, through representations of difference. In the 20th century, these representations have often involved the use of particular stereotypes of the Japanese, related to Western perceptions of them, ranging from anxiety to admiration, within specific historical and intercultural contexts. It is argued in this presentation that this is often still the case in the 21st century. Indeed, British media reports about Japan will be examined to illustrate the modern stereotyping of the Japanese. Taking a cultural psychological perspective, it is argued that stereotypes arise within a cultural context, and often reveal more about the people doing the stereotyping that the people being stereotyped. Indeed, British media representations of the Japanese may tell us more about British hopes and anxieties with respect to the Japanese, rather than anything relevant about a distinct Japanese mentality or character.

Biography
Professor Perry Hinton is a cultural psychologist in the Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick. He has degrees from Warwick and Birkbeck (London), and a doctorate from the University of Oxford on cognition and language. He has worked at a number of British universities: teaching on psychology degrees, and on interdisciplinary programmes in culture and media, as well as taking on senior management roles.  His research focuses on the relationship between culture and cognition.

His recent book, Stereotypes and the Construction of the Social World, 2020, challenges the Western academic view that stereotypes are a form of mental “error” and he proposes a cultural model of stereotypes, which is better able to explain the research data than the current cognitive approach. He has also written a number of research articles about Western representations of the Japanese. While knowledgeable about Japanese history and culture, his primary interest is in the intercultural contexts in which various Western stereotypes of the Japanese have emerged. Hence, he considers himself more of an expert of Western perceptions of Japan than on Japan itself. He is currently working on his next book, Japan and the Western Imagination, to be published in 2023.

Event format & recording
The event will take place online as a Zoom webinar and will be recorded for publication after the event.

Simultaneous Translation
The event will be delivered in the medium of English. You are welcome to ask questions in the medium of Welsh during the Q&A session. If you intend to do this, please contact mlang-events@cardiff.ac.uk by Wednesday 26 January to request simultaneous translation. Please note that 10% or more of those planning to attend will need to request this provision in order for it to be sourced and will be subject to resource availability.

Registration
We apologise that the entire registration page is not available in the medium of Welsh. Unfortunately, the platform we use does not offer this service.

Data protection notice
Please note that when registering, your data will be held in accordance with our Data Protection Notice. We will process the personal data you provide to us in accordance with data protection regulations.