On the West Coast, the bright, young, artsy filmmaker guys find their groove in things Japanese: Manga comics, anime, Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese pop, and, of course, the Japanese girlfriend. At least, now I've encountered at three instances of this in LA.
On the East Coast, Lincoln Center is enthralled by things Chinese: Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road project, Placido Domingo playing The First Emperor of China in Tan Dun's epic opera, the Film Society's 3-week retrospective on 100 years of cinema in China, and there's actually a New York Chinese Opera Society.
I suppose I'm comparing apples and oranges, and the young hipster guys on the Lower East Side probably also have Japanese girlfriends. Also, to be fair, if there's a society for some esoteric art form, it'll be in New York, and I'm sure there's an ukiyo-e society, too.
It does rather seem like things Japanese lend themselves to the compact and popular, whereas things Chinese lend themselves to the grandiose (and rather less popular). So, I'm doomed.
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