Some good, some not so good
At year’s end it is a time to
look back over the past 12 months – in words. The events in Asia during the
past year, large and small, threw up numerous colorful words in half a dozen
languages that helped to frame the events of 2011 but also to lift the corner
on the deeper aspects of Asian life and culture. Here are a few of them.
The mammoth earthquake/tsunami
that struck Japan’s northeast coast in the afternoon of March 11, precipitating
multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station gave rise to
the phrase Fukushima Fifty. It referred to a small but intrepid band of nuclear
power plant workers who braved high levels of radiation to help bring the
damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant under control.
The term Fukushima Fifty
was always a bit of hype, more popular in the West than in Japan, in that many
more nuclear power plant workers, soldiers and others, some 19,000 in total,
labored to bring the plants safely under control by the time they were finally
declared to be in safe “cold shutdown” condition in mid-December.
Another term stemming from the
nuclear accident, fly-jin, enjoyed a brief vogue referring to those
foreigners who fled Japan – or at least Tokyo – shortly after the nuclear
crisis to escape possible advancing radiation exposure, only to return
sheepishly later. In Japanese the word jin means person, and the new word is a
takeoff on gaijin, the Japanese word for foreigner.
The Japanese word for
conserving electricity, setsudan, became the byword during the summer
after the nuclear crisis resulted in many more plant closures across Japan,
sparking fears of rolling blackouts in the capital, Tokyo, and a plea to
conserve electricity. The two Chinese characters for setsudan were seen on notices
everywhere, explaining that this elevator or that escalator was out of service,
this building had dimmed its lights or curtailed operating hours to save on
electricity.
In July Japan’s woman’s
national soccer team Nadeshiko lifted everybody spirits in a country
hungry for good news after their country’s greatest post-war disaster by
beating the US women’s soccer team to win 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup
tournament, The women were the first Japanese, male or female, to win a World
Cup championship, and they became instant celebrities creating the new term Nadeshiko
Power, after a hardy, pink-frilled carnation native to Japan. The word was
chosen as Japan’s “top buzzword of the year” for 2011.
The body of the late North
Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, who died of a heart attack on Dec. 17 at age 69
lay in state in Pyongyang covered by a red blanket and surrounded by bouquets
of red kimjongilia, literally the “flower of Kim Jong-il”. It is a
hybrid of the begonia family, originally bred by a Japanese admirer and
botanist named Motoderu Kamo to honor the North Korean leader on his 46th
birthday in 1988. The flower is now widespread across North Korea and
supposedly blooms every year around February 16, which is the late Dear
Leader’s birthday.
Lese-majeste is a French term, meaning an insult to the monarch, that may seem quaint
and old fashioned, like something connected with Louis IV, but it was wielded
with a vengeance in Thailand in 2011 and appears likely to be wielded again
with a vengeance in 2012. The term refers to draconian laws that make it a
crime punishable of up to 15 years in prison for insulting the monarch or
members of his family. One Thai-born American citizen was convicted of
lese-majeste this year for tweeting passages from a banned, unauthorized
biography of King Bhumibol. The US State Department’s defense of its citizen
for this outrageous human right violation was tepid to say the least.
The growing gap between the
rich elite and the masses of the poor in China spawned a new phrase to describe
the sons and daughters of rich people, usually translated as second-generation
rich or simply “rich kids.” Some fu er dai live dissolute lives of
conspicuous consumption; others labor faithfully to maintain and expand the
family enterprises that made them rich in the first place. Resentment was
building in China not just because of the widening income gap but also the
privileges that they see accruing to the ruling elite, such as use of fancy
luxury cars while the ordinary children were killed in school bus accidents.
All of India was captivated by
a latter-day Gandhi named “Anna” Hazare. He promised to “fast to the death”
until parliament passed the Lokpal bill, the anti-corruption law in India long
sought by activists. The literal meaning of lokpal is something like
protector of the people, but it is usually translated as citizens’ ombudsman.
First introduced into the Indian parliament in 1968, the Lokpal Bill had been
reintroduced and defeated nine times, until in summer of 2011 it became the goal
of a massive protest movement led by Hazare, who seemed to tap into nostalgia
for purer days in the struggle for independence
South Korea’s government ran
into a buzz-saw of opposition when it attempted to change its tax laws to make
Islamic bonds, known in Arabic as sukuk, easier to sell and thus help
Korean companies raise capital for large Middle East construction projects.
Sukuk is an Islamic financial instrument similar to a bond that complies with
the Quranic proscription against usury. The issuer sells a certificate to a
buyer who “rents” it back at a predetermined price. However, vocal opposition
from the leaders of Korea’s huge Protestant mega-churches, who feared the
spread of shariah law in the country, helped to kill the legislation, showing that
America isn’t the only place where conservatives fret about the “advance” of
Shariah law.
When Yoshihiko Noda became
prime minister of Japan this year, he self-effacingly described himself as a dojo,
the name for a common bottom feeding eel found slithering at the mud of rivers
and canals. Noda was quoting the calligrapher and poet Mitsuo Aida who wrote
that “a dojo does not have to emulate a goldfish.” In the English vernacular,
it was sort of like saying he considered himself a work horse, not a show
horse. For the average Japanese the dojo is a staple of hot-pot dishes. It
contains high levels of calcium and vitamins, which supposedly boost stamina.
Todd Crowell
Asia Sentinel
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