in most (if not all) asian culture, kneeling is considered the highest form of respect.
:-)
ps: whereas in america, it has been used as a show of political disrespect. what irony.
:-)
ps: whereas in america, it has been used as a show of political disrespect. what irony.
Actually, kneeling as a protest also started as a form of respect.
ReplyDeleteIt started with the players sitting out the start of the game where the National Anthem was played. But it did not go down well with supporters as most view sitting out the anthem as disrespectful.
So it was changed to kneeling with arms locked when the anthem is played as a sign of respect for the nation and unity in protest.
So kneeling is a form of respect (or in some cases submission) all across the world throughout time.
Sam
isn’t kneeling a sign of oppression ? remember how the japanese beheaded the innocent people of south east asia those days during war ? they were told to kneel before them....i think bowing down is a more respectable gesture rather than kneeling
ReplyDeletethe important thing is to read the action (in this case) in context. and the context will include, (most importantly), the culture, and the intention behind why it is done and how it is done.
ReplyDeletekneeling is an action that in most, if not all asian culture, seen as an expression of the highest form of respect. thus, in many asian cultures, people kneel down to people and/ or objects of authority (such as their ancestors, the dead, artefacts, pictures, etc that is deemed a proxy to someone worth respecting). and people do it willingly. just look at how people fall on their knees when king bhumibol's casket passed them, or how buddhists naturally fall onto our kneels when we go to the temples, etc. for me, i had been brought up in a family where i was taught to kneel down to my elders when i offer my good tidings during say chinese new year or elders' birthdays. i still do this even as recent as 2 years back when my mum was alive. and this expression of respect is also manifested in religions where people kneel down as a form of respect to their gods. we see it in buddhism, taoism, etc.
given the acceptance of kneeling as a form of respect, in the context of war, specifically WWII where japanese invade south east asia, we need to take cognisance of the mindsets of the japanese. first, we need to recognise that the japanese culture is no different from the chinese culture where kneeling is also seen as an expression of respect. in the early 1900s, due to the political fall out between china and japan, japanese wants to be seen to be respected by chinese and thus, exact that form of behaviour on local chinese (who had generally been sympathetic to china at that time) forcefully. when we read in this context, kneeling is a form of respect, but being forced to kneel is to force a show of respect (which, as we all know, does not work).