Noticed today that there's some controversy over Touhou 12 third stage boss theme, 時代親父とハイカラ少女, unofficially translated "The Traditional Old Man and the Stylish Girl".
It's funny because the alternate translation is "The Traditional Old Man and the
Westernized Girl", and which you pick really hangs on how you interpret ハイカラ.
Thankfully, there was a recent
piece on Neojaponisme that elucidated the word, giving a complete narrative of its coinage, evolution,and persistence into modern Japanese, complete with wry usage notes and examples of what was, and was not, ハイカラ at any given period. It's these little rabbit holes that I really like about the web -- all this information, and sometimes you get to see it come together.
As you might guess, though, this excess of detail leaves me even more confused. I have a pretty hard time dealing with an aesthetic that can triumphantly pronounce KAWABATA Yasunari "westernized," even if it was the second year of the Showa Era, when things were different. Even after reading all this, I'm no closer than before to deciding whether she's "stylish" or "westernized."
Finally, one of the comments presents the intriguing possibility that the modern use of the word is to refer to "some anachronism of Japanese culture," and at that point I have to give up in despair.
Languages are hard, kids. I'm going with "stylish", just because I like the word better, and because I think "Westernized" means something specific and different out here in the West.
words from chris, 2009-03-16 21:15:10, los angeles
