Week 2: Social Empahty

Mahima Rupakula
913734418
ASA 141

Week 2: Social Empathy 

The reading I'm choosing to focus on for this week is the social empathy piece by Michael Hurt. I enjoyed his take on tourists in Korea wearing hanboks, as it was a positive spin on a generally negatively regarded topic. I liked seeing how he saw genuine curiosity and social empath in the action of tourist imitation. I agree with his points to some extent, as assimilating and showing respect for a different culture upon visiting country is respectful. It provides education about the culture as well. If the clothing has a certain way of putting on that is significant to the culture, for example, the act of just wearing the clothing can create empathy for the wearer no matter their race or nationality. For example, the traditional Indian sari is a rather intricate garment to put on, and the process of draping the sari is something that Indian women traditionally view as very important to their culture. When people who are not of Indian descent learn how to properly tie the garment and educate themselves out of appreciation of the culture, it serves as a great example of how their social knowledge and empathy is strengthened.

Figure 1: Sari draping diagram 

However, there is an extremely important element of the article that I believe Hurt could have elaborated upon. When he addresses how it can be exciting and educational to step into someone else's shoes, an extremely integral part of that is doing that "without stepping on the toes of the person who owns them." I think that statement should have been pushed forward in his piece, because a problem with people wearing cultural clothes as tourists or as people not of that culture is that it can come off as appropriation. The western world so often looks down upon Asians who wear their own cultural garments, and then reveres and respects white individuals for being "worldly" when they were those garments. I wonder why a white woman can wear a sari at an Indian wedding, post pictures online and be complimented, but actual people from the desi culture are criticized as looking "too desi" or "fresh off the boat."

There are two questions I have about this article: 

How do we better define the line between cultural appropriation and appreciation? Should we first better work on the double standard prevalent that criticizes asians for being "too asian"?