Interpretation

Most of you should be able to recognize this artiste above. What do you think about this picture on the whole?

Since young, I could never understand why rappers always had to act in such a gangsta’ way. As I grew up, it gradually occured to me that all these gangster elements evident in their music was part of their culture. If someone who came from a very traditional background were to see such a picture for her very first time, I am certain her initial thoughts would be something along these lines.

“Why is his pose so obscene?”, “This is incredibly crude!” or “Oh dear, I must not let my children see this.”

The point I am trying to raise here is not to ridicule this particular group of people. Instead, I want to touch on how subjective Interpretation can be. When we interpret something of the matter, we are actually attaching meaning to the information we select and organise. In layman’s terms, it basically refers to how we address the ‘why’ to our perception towards issues in our environment.

In the example above, Asian citizens might interpret such actions as crude or obscene. However, to most Americans, they are very open-minded when it comes to embracing gangsterism elements in rap music. Rappers strongly believe in respect. From their sharp dance moves to the intimidating aura felt in their performances/music videos, they might be trying to instil some kind of ‘fear’ in us that will hopefully earn our respect towards  their genre. Hence, it is unlikely for the average American to interpret such visuals as obscene, contrary to an Asian’s view…

That said, cultural differences play a big part to the way we interpret things. The best example I can think of to emphasize my point would be the one brought up in lecture last week.

 

 

This design is part of the new Adidas Y1 HUF sports shoes. Controversy was sparked when someone brought up the issue that by wearing this particular shoe, you are considered racist to the Chinese. According to South China Morning Post, “Asian-American groups are complaining about German shoemaker Adidas’ release of a sneaker with an image they say perpetuates a negative stereotype of Asians. The limited-edition shoe, a collaboration between Adidas and San Francisco speciality clothing maker HUF, features an image of an Asian man with bowl-cut hair, slanted eyes, pig nose and buck teeth.”

Personally, I would have never thought of such a design to be racist but to other Asians, they might interpret it otherwise under different environmental influences.

In a nutshell, interpretation IS very subjective. Our culture and past experiences affect the way we interpret things, alongside with our individual characteristics and how we decipher various non-verbal cues. What do you think?

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