Cultural Authenticity

Cultural authenticity is probably a discussion point for all travelers who are also armchair sociologists. What’s meant by cultural authenticity? Is it something we should strive for in our travels, knowing that we’ll never be able to achieve it? Last week, teachers were saying they wouldn’t waste their time visiting Disney because they didn’t want to waste their time on a tourist activity. Yet these same people happily woke in the middle of the night to have an ‘authentic’ experience at the fish market. As I noted in earlier posts, I saw no Japanese visitors at the fish market and no other westerners at Disney. Since Saint Stephen’s took our Chinese visitors to Walt Disney World last year, we obviously thought that it was a worthwhile “must-see” activity.

Is Disney culturally authentic(in Florida or abroad)? I’d argue that it’s not, but I don’t mean that in a pejorative way. It isn’t authentic because you have to pay to enter, because the streets are clean, and because everyone returns to their “real lives” at the end of the day. Work at Disney is an authentic experience for the workers; it is their work, after all, but Disney itself is not. Guests come to escape the authentic-financial worries, a difficult job, the sad realities of a sick child. Authenticity is the daily grind. Are national parks authentic? For nature-lovers, they’re an escape into the majesty of nature, just as Disney is for others.

During this trip, I’ve spent a lot of time by myself. This is my choice; I notice a lot more of the activity around me when I’m not talking to anyone, and when I can’t puzzle through foreign sign meanings with someone else who speaks English. Plus, this way I can stop whenever something looks interesting and move on when it ceases to interest me. In that way, I’ve navigated the supermarket, the post office, libraries, and jogging paths. I also spend hours on the computer. If my life in Florida is any measure of authenticity (no guarantee that it is-I spent about ¼ of my year elsewhere) my trip sounds a whole lot like my real life.

Another example that hit a personal note is with our free day last Saturday. As I mentioned, many people took the train south to Kamakura, to see “real” Japan. I stayed in Tokyo.* Most people were optimistic that there was so much to do in Japan - no choice was wrong or better than another - yet, a few said derisively, “Tokyo's a city. I could go to New York if I wanted to visit a city.” I have three responses I’d like to give to the people who had this viewpoint. First, all cities are not alike. As I’m quite familiar with New York, I can, in fact, say that New York is not like Tokyo, although Tokyo is a city with Western features. (Aren’t others as curious as me about what’s been adapted from the west and how these “western features” are used in the east?) Second, Tokyo is the real Japan for 12 million Japanese people! It may not be historic Japan, but it is their lives. Finally, only a few other teachers on this trip live in or near New York City. Are they planning a trip there anytime soon? Even so, they’ll still be viewing the city with “tourist” eyes.

We’re neither here nor there with this post; I have no conclusions or answers. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about and wanted to share.

*Another side note about technology and travel today. Most of us are downloading and backing up our photos nightly, then resetting our memory cards in the morning. Last night, another group member set up a snapfish account for the group and personally downloaded over 500 photos. As a member of the group, I can copy them at will and could pretend I also visited Kamakura. I’m not planning on that. But this site will be great for shots of me since I’m in none of the shots I take---I don’t do the “profile picture” thing, holding the camera in front of my face. Even limited to my small group, the member contributions of each of our own photos means that I’ll have access to 10s of thousands of personal photos! This is a great example of social networking, bottom-up content creation on the world wide web. No one’s controlling the types of photos I post, if they’re appropriate, if they were taken by me, if they were even taken in Japan. Had I not brought my camera on the trip, I could even freeload and post no pictures while taking for myself the photos others had posted.