Cultural Appreciation

Unconditional Postive Regard

Carl Rogers defined the term unconditional positive regard as the complete, non-restrictive acceptance of people regardless of whatever they think, say, or do. It is difficult to comprehend, especially in the worst crimes against humanity in the deviation of thoughts that emerge within us and our perceptual experiences. 

In the sense of cultural appreciation, there is a greater emphasis on unconditional positive regard. It is directed more to the format of behavior as well as speech. We see this with Japanese culture where there are specific individuals who dress up as Chicanas because they resonate with the messages the culture projects. They immerse themselves in fashion, the style, the mannerisms, and even the cars that rely on that value of freedom and authenticity. But, it is not only about cultural appreciation. The restrictions they face is that people might assume that they are ignorant or that they should only stick to their culture because they may be seen as a perceived threat or an outlier in the mix. Cultural appreciation has never really taken a platform in Eastern countries. For Japan, it is not just about cultural appreciation. In such a mundane, societal work hierarchy, there has to be more emphasis on creative expressions, especially in the states. We are encouraged to be creative in Western countries, but they are less prioritized in the Eastern ones. Of course, there is that trade-off. We may not score higher on our tests or homework, but we play with imagination the way Disneyland was made into perfection. Those creative expressions remind the Eastern countries of the impact, the substantial factor of needing that childlike behavior. It does exist in some spectrum of duality that has been here, but it is here for the purpose or returning us back to the source. The lack of creative expressions has driven many citizens to find their own reference points, their own models of which they can figure out who they want to be aside from the 9-5 workplace or even the role to promote businesses or even drive up economic numbers. It is not only with Chicana culture though. It also with the style of Harajuku. They take the essence of depression and they express it in the projection of their reality. This is another outlier. Their oppression in creative expressions has made them gravitate towards the normativity of emotions or even expressions to the point where this fashion sense of dressing as our emotions or even our words of meaningful interpretations can provide us a space to breathe, a space to show ourselves, a space to be who we want to be. We have this space where we can finally have more room to breathe, to dismantle the power society told us it had. The outliers, in some way, are seen as rebels or even ones who are lazy or unmotivated or so forth. That's not the case though. Japan has cafes full of gamers or an accumulation of Hikkokomoris. That's their relief...they are trying to escape from the societal grounds of conformity...this structure of conformity that is meant to press them to be the greatest in the economic scale, but there is no telling how it affects them. The outliers in Japan, the ones who want to do things differently, or present other models of creative expressions, the ones who want to dress us as magical realism to not impress, but tell people that it is okay to be creative, to want to fuel our creativity or to want magic. 

For us, the American Dream is the perception of magic. For them, the economic scale of sufficiency and logical intelligence is the perception of magic. But, both of them are so skewed. They have no elaboration on either side of the essence of us. They represent the fixation on the power that withholds itself from other grounds. 

It is difficult to shake off the unbearable, rattling of that one single thought of energies being projected in some other dimension that can't be fathomed: Being on the opposite side of the variations that play out through the timelines of which we have to find the creativity that is not encouraged or even told about. 

It is the same with South Korea. Bunch of Korean Pop idols who are using their platforms as strategies to encourage and let people know it is okay to have creative expressions. We are not meant to just work our whole life without our childlike demeanor. They really do make great efforts to restore what we always know. 

Even when Eastern cultures are expressing themselves as these outliers, they are not just this point inside conformity. They are unintentionally telling people, whether they know it or not, that authenticity is who we are. We are authenticity when we are not restricted to a format that makes us suck out our life force to the point where it is difficult to breathe. 

It can never be one thing. It is the whole.

The gestalt where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.