"Wibu" is a Vietnamese assimilation of "Weeaboo" - the very terminology for those worshipping the Japanese culture so unduly that they even keep themselves back from theirs. With derision, the term is all too often wielded by those enraged by such a ridiculous, overmuch exaltation towards Japanese animes, mangas and games.
Back then, people first termed these bigots "wanpanese" - as shortened from either "white Japanese" or "wannabe Japanese". By 2005, that "wanpanese" stirred up fierce controversies among 4chan forumers coerced the forum administrator to come up with another alternative. He, accordingly, randomly opted for "weeaboo" - the very term referring to frustrating things derived from the prevailing old-school “The Perry Bible Fellowship” comic series. Otaku, on the other hand, is wielded with less aggressive connotation, referring to, on the whole, the Japanese culture enthusiasts community and in particular, those having savored Japanese manga / anime / games.
As a rule, the way weeaboo showing off their ‘mania’ itself has stoked the very ‘flame of scorn’ among others [*]: they either add non-sense Japanese words into their speeches, favoring Japanese’s over domestic products; postulating that Japanese must have been the superior race; making every effort to appear as ‘Japanese’ as possible or deadlocking themselves in the marvelous worlds of mangas, anime and made-in-Japan products.
Of which we have all too heard on 4chan, Reddit or Quora.
Nevertheless, Vietnamese netizens are associating such an ill-favored term to those ... setting manga and anime avatars (even those setting sketches as avatars are every so often referred to as wibus).
1. From "Wibu" to postmodernism: every unbearable thing is made bearable upon arriving in Vietnam.
Given the ill-favored origin from 4chan, Vietnamese netizens are actually wielding a more burlesque tolerable ‘wibu’. Nonetheless, I myself propose that my fellow-citizens should have been attentive of Vietnamese assimilations of foreign terminologies, and the very application of alien concepts into pre-existing issues.
To put into perspective, for having originated from the West - the very grounds of Modernism, inasmuch as thriving on the Christ -Enlightenment philosophical backgrounds, Postmodernism itself would only prosper within the West. People, thus, could always blame the ideology on catalyzing either the dawn or decline-and-fall of anything.
But Postmodernism was never a Vietnamese concept.
Postmodernism has, to all appearances, acted as a precursor to the recent fierce feminism movements. Still, the third and fourth feminist waves have only stormed the Western society, wherein no such joke as Vietnamese’s "gaining an immortal life upon honoring wives" could ever get fanned out.
After all, the issue of Western gender inequality somewhat originates from a male-dominated social order and many other perplexing factors. Vietnamese’s inequality, however, is mainly driven by the outdated Confucianism chauvinism. Whilst such a Westerner male-dominated social order is inherent, its Vietnamese’s ‘counterpart’ is withering. This further explains the very feelings of naiveté towards gender equality and derision at the elsewhere seemingly ridiculous feminist movement.
This is not to deny the fact that our society does have gender inequality (and many other crippling issues). Rather, it is to argue that conclusions drawn from applying alien cultures to Vietnam’s might end up any less superficial.
In a like manner, both "wibu" and otaku are purely some borrowed-bad-words from a foreign forum. Given the current situation, I myself proclaim that there would hardly exist any 'that-extreme' individuals (who satisfy these phenomena).
As long as Vietnamese well-preserve our gentle, low-key and half-hearted personality (either negative or positive).
From Nhat Binh to Ao Dai, we dress neither plainly nor pretentiously, neither revealingly nor gracelessly. Rather, we dress softly. We have even alternated the colors to ‘eye-pleasing’, which are neither dull nor colorful.
In a like manner, Vietnamese cuisines are neither low-key nor convoluted, the flavor, as a rule, is neither spicy (Mexico’s), salty (Thailand and Chinese’s), nor unsavory (Korean, Japanese and European’s). The served foods, after all, are also neither little nor plentiful; with a variant of dishes to bring out the very harmonies of meat and vegetables.
Such "ethnicities" have been analyzed by many scholars in works such as ... of ... [] . This "neutrality" even appears in Vietnamese people's ideology or behavior (do not want to become too prominent but also do not want to be too faded) or constructions (without architectural works). architecture, which is really big as other cultures).
This "neutrality" makes it easy for Vietnamese people to feel bad about things. We used to denounce KPop fans, love language, and now "wibu". However, we ourselves have forgotten that fanatic phenomena when entering Vietnam are through ethnic filter that reduce somewhat "extreme" as its inherent nature.
Astrology movement in India is a national issue, although it is also common in Vietnam but its morphological characteristics are much softer. Similarly, KPop fans, love languages or otaku in Vietnam, although there are no official statistics, studies or data, but at certain events (Hoang Sa - Truong Sa issue, Korean attitude with Vietnamese people in the epidemic, posts about the phenomenon of crazy fans abroad) ... can see the majority of reaction of Vietnamese public opinion: "Although I am a KPop fan / language / anime, BUT ...".
2. Back to wibu, and the expansion of Japanese culture.
The Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbor or created famine in 1945 in Vietnam, now there is another way to assert that they are really powerful and affect all humanity, as well as can quickly shape Japan. Version with cuteness instead of dictatorial, fascist and evil: composing manga / anime.
From the 1960s, Japanese comics and cartoons began to reach out to the world, becoming a cultural product exported to the US and European countries. After the success of the Astro Boy or Dragon Ball, the storm of manga / anime returned to Asian countries - including Vietnam; and continue to stir many markets in the world until now [2] .
Looking at sales, events, communities and products (models, clothes, collectibles, ...), it can be said that manga / anime has become a global phenomenon, a novel. Orthodox on a world scale. Its strong influence spread to even remote African countries like Algeria, where it created a "hybrid" comic line called DZ-manga [3] with lines drawn from Japanese comics, or even conquered fastidious Muslim countries with cultural import issues like Saudi Arabia [4] . Recently in the US, the manga / anime even successfully overtook the unique position of the superhero comic line in the home market of X-Men and Superman.
The charm and appeal of the manga / anime (and later the video game with names like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest ...) is not only in the style of character with impressive and drawn characters. detail, but also by the variety and originality of the content.
There's always a manga / anime about anything, for anyone.
Not just tied around common motifs like heroes, myths or history; Their theme could be anything that the human mind is capable of imagining. From sports, politics, humor, gloom, sex, demons to humans, people to devils, whatever 'crazy' you can imagine ... there's always a manga made about it.
For example, the only comic book series is Hen ***, its content is rich enough that everything darkest has been composed long before you start imagining it. .
In short, manga and anime can indeed offer "traditional" lessons about friendship, courage or sacrifice; At the same time, there are also purely comic books that meet the entertainment needs of all audiences, even with the most bizarre reading styles. Therefore, since this diversity has helped this culture affect the whole world, the Japanese protest created not an unfounded slander by the "anti-wibu", but rather something real.
In the essay "The Cultural Impact of Manga on Society" [6] , the author analyzes that; With criticism aimed at violent content and excessive erotic images, manga / anime are often viewed as "soul-piercing worms" in the eyes of many parents. Facing fight scenes and nudity, governments in many countries had to get involved. The number of manga sold in Iran is quite limited because of the approval of the Ministry of Islamic Culture, while Singapore prohibits all content related to yaoi genre (homosexual love).
The same thing - fairly understandable, also happens in China; when it came to a character like Doraemon, the blue cat could not escape the accusation with "political smells" [7] . But even in an openly popular culture like the United States, conflict and protest erupted over a number of manga / anime series that were meant to show ridicule or insult. A well-known franchise, Pokémon, has been met with fundamentalist "fundamental Christian" religious beliefs because these lovely beasts are the embodiment of evil and violence force.
3. Your feelings are off the ‘point’.
For everything is inherently entangled, given their pure natures, neither manga nor anime could ever conquer the world, inasmuch as neither of which could win the ‘throne’ without some all-time dissidents. After all, the rancor against either the Japanese culture (manga and anime) or "wibus" must have been a dull matter of fact.
Further stoking the flames have been either the so-called "Otaku Killer" [8] (the murder of 4 girls were allegedly affected by the H* story); the raging hikikomori syndrome [9] (literally antisocial, neither work nor study, holding on parental aids and only staying in their own rooms, similar to "NEET") [10] [11] , or the weird sensational desires towards virtual girlfriends [12] . And all the flames are licking round another as-fierce-movement against Japanese’s.
On the whole, neither of those vigorous dawns must have stemmed from any specific causes. In other simplified words, people loathe something, for they loathe it.
Still, given that we are also hurting for some logical reasons to either justify or explain our feelings, such an effort is rather futile and time consuming. We are who we are even before we could ever reason our feelings. After all, our perceptions on manga, anime, and Monster Box exist independently of their nature.
As afore-argued, exposure to violence or pornography might not have been the direct cause of related behaviors [13] [14] , or even among the "addicted". Given the very fact that manga and anime are exceptionally rich in content and sublime, artful arts. Whether something is enough to build up an "isolation fortress" [15] or to stoke some tucked-away resentments should be purely a question of concern.
On the other hand, given the irrefutable entertaining and humane values, the manga and anime culture also brings about certain effects. For Syrian refugee children, it serves as a runaway from their traumatic reality to keep holding on their painful dreams [16] . For researchers, it might come in handy as an intervention for psychotherapy and physical health improvement [17] , in education [18] [19] [20] .
After all, prejudices might have been bred, instead of thriving on the phenomena’s intrinsic characteristics. Our hostility, as a rule, might have originated from either xenophobia or some other mental buried-deep resentments.
The past did witness the violent derision towards KPop fans, contemporary wibus, and whatever following by. Such a feeling is passed on, thus, latent even before that ‘whatever’ could ever exist.
This is the end. We hereby welcome any comments and suggestions. Everyone would be equally treated.
Except for those setting animes as avatars.
