A mum in the US decided to throw a Japanese themed birthday party for her daughter and write about it on her party planning blog The Gala Gals.
The blog’s tagline is ‘a celebration of life’, and the pages are ripe with unique and joyous ways to do just that. This includes, like in the case of the Japanese themed birthday party, many multi-cultural inspired party ideas.
What this mum did not realise was that she was about to ignite an internet wide debate over cultural appropriation.
Picture: The Gala Girls
In amongst the onslaught of negative comments including people saying, “we need to teach children this is wrong” and people calling the party and the attire involved an act of “yellow face”, a Japanese person chipped in to defend the mother and her daughter, saying the party was actually a celebration of culture.
Boom.
Cultural appropriation is the buzzword of the moment and it’s easy to throw around in a passion of online vitriol without understanding what it really means.
When we do this, we’re creating a stigma around the sharing of cultural elements which in turn only creates a larger rift between people and nations.
The mum and blogger has addressed the controversy in a reply on her blog, saying:
“I assure you the intent was only to share food, traditions, and cultures with kids in a positive and fun way.”
