The cross-cultural representation of the exotic: the Japanese restaurant in contemporary Australia

© 2011 Dr. Iori HamadaThis thesis examines the cross-cultural representation of the ‘exotic’ as a new mode of ‘Japaneseness’ emerging through increasing cross-cultural exchanges and interactions since the late twentieth century. Based upon ethnographic data and fieldwork, it demonstrates how the exotic is produced, distributed and consumed via food as a particular cultural product and practice within so-called ‘Japanese restaurant’ in contemporary Australia. This thesis analyses the Japanese restaurant in Melbourne as an ‘exotic genre’, and how Japaneseness (or ethnic identity in general) becomes a necessary formula of the genre. In this research, I explore the changing meanings of what it means to be exotic and what is represented as Japaneseness. The study argues that Japaneseness is reconfigured through contact with other forms, such as ‘whiteness’ and ‘Asianness’, within popular commodity culture. It also suggests that this mode of representation can be distinguished from earlier formations of exoticism that locate a subject monolithically within narrow stereotypes, although the old exoticism has not entirely disappeared in cultural politics. Instead of viewing the Japanese restaurant as a cohesive category, I also conceive of it as a cross-culturally implicated formation that challenges a fixed representation of Japaneseness constructed from a single point of view. My thesis is structured as follows. Chapters 1 and 2 set theoretical foundations for discussions on the cross-cultural representation of the exotic, focusing upon food as a particular cultural product and practice. In the part of this literature review, I demonstrate how food and related practices are marked by power, as well as by pleasure, as they move between spatial/national, temporal and ontological boundaries. Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6 interrogate this cultural phenomenon, specifically in the context of the production and consumption of Japanese food in Melbourne, through an analysis of my interviews with providers (restaurateurs, chefs, wait staff and wholesalers) and consumers and restaurant observations. The part of this ethnographic study concerns issues regarding cross-cultural desire (Chapters 3 and 4), translation (Chapter 5) and ethnicity (Chapter 6) within exoticism to argue that Japaneseness can become marketable in a cross-cultural context for an exotic image that is both ‘close’ and ‘different’