Title: Art meets Anthropology: Balancing Tatemae (public face) & Honne (private face)
Speaker: Jeanine Schreurs (Guest Scholar, CSEAS)
Zoom Link:
https://kyoto-u-edu.zoom.us/j/85200961979?pwd=JiYKPKAnCzg1pcfjjATKqxGA5nLvkV.1
Meeting ID: 852 0096 1979
Passcode: 714546
Abstract:
How do Japanese people navigate the tension between societal expectations and personal authenticity?We are pleased to invite you to a lecture that presents the first results of an original research on the culturally embedded dynamics of Tatemae (建前 – public façade) and Honne (本音 – true inner voice). In this distinctive study, visual media and qualitative phenomenological interviews are combined to uncover how individuals cope with societal norms when personal desires are at stake. Through a series of paper collages titled Japan Through Squinted Eyes – this study investigates how Japanese individuals articulate and reconcile the demands of social conformity with the desire for self-expression. The field study is now halfway, yet it reveals an interesting variety of strategies particularly when normative expectations become uncomfortable. Results will be discussed in relation to the philosophy of harmony (Wa 和), a core Japanese concept that underpins the widely accepted explanation for the duality of tatemae and honne. Jeanine Schreurs will also briefly reflect on how the art-based method can be a valuable research tool for anthropological research in Japan.
Bio:
Jeanine Schreurs is an independent researcher, trainer and writer. She is currently a visiting research scholar at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at Kyoto University in Japan. She held a position as research fellow at Maastricht University in the Netherlands where she completed her PHD study: Living with Less: Prospects for Sustainability and at Kyoto University in Japan (in 2014 and 2020). She initiated a successful innovation in sustainable living: the Lift your Life action-program and founded the LIFT Foundation, a social enterprise for training and research. The initiative was rewarded as an important social innovation by the Oranje Fonds, the largest endowment foundation in the area of social welfare in the Netherlands and honored with a visit of Queen Máxima. The approach is also acknowledged as a European best practice for poverty alleviation and sustainability. She has written numerous publications on sustainable living, poverty alleviation, and entrepreneurial living. Besides academic work, she also creates art, photography and slam poetry.