How Japanese Comic Books Influence Taiwanese Students A dis

221 Pages·2015·2.66 MB·English

UCLA
UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Reading Comic Books Critically: How Japanese Comic Books Influence Taiwanese Students
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6n85z2w7
Author
Hsu, Fang-Tzu
Publication Date
2015

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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University of California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles

Reading Comic Books Critically:
How Japanese Comic Books Influence Taiwanese Students

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy
in Education

by

Fang-Tzu Hsu

2015
© Copyright by

Fang-Tzu Hsu

2015
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Reading Comic Books Critically:
How Japanese Comic Books Influence Taiwanese Students

by

Fang-Tzu Hsu
Doctor of Philosophy in Education
University of California, Los Angeles, 2015
Professor Carlos A. Torres, Chair

Education knows no boundaries but hot button topics, like comic books, demonstrate school,
teacher and parent limitations. Japanese comic books (manga) are a litmus test of pedagogical
tolerance. Because they play an important role in the lives of most Taiwanese teenagers, I give
them pride of place in this dissertation. To understand Japanese comic books and their
influence, I use Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy to combine perspectives from cultural studies,
comparative education, and educational sociology. With the cooperation of the administration,
faculty and students of a Taiwanese junior high school, I used surveys, a textual analysis of five
student-selected titles and interviews with students and educators. I discovered that Japanese
manga contain complex and sometimes contradictory ideologies of ethnicity, gender, class, and
violence. From an ethnic perspective, although students may glean cultural content from
manga heroes and their retinues, people of color and non-Japanese Asians are either caricatures
or non-existent; although Taiwanese teenager readers seem unaware of this. From a gender
standpoint, neither the female characters’ provocative representation nor the male characters’
slavering responses to it raise students’ and teachers’ concerns.
ii
Depictions of social and economic class are sometimes distinct in Japanese comic books.
However, the dominant ideology of their creators is middle-class. Students are mostly
oblivious to such distinctions, but may notice that ancient caste precepts survive. Although
most manga focus on violent combat, students have no problem with excessive gore. By a
process I call “fantasized death,” violence is not only neutralized but transformed into aesthetic
and spiritual challenges that encourage readers.
Taiwanese students love Japanese comic books. However, from a post-colonialist
perspective, the growing hybridity of Taiwanese and Japanese cultural images may create
challenges for the future of a discernible Taiwanese phenotype. I suggest that critical pedagogy
may provide an antidote to this unfortunate fusion, which is currently unrecognized by the
adolescent comic book consumers who are its harbingers or by the majority of their preceptors.

Keywords: Comic Books, Freire, Critical Cultural Studies, Post-colonialism, Taiwan

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This dissertation of Fang-Tzu Hsu is approved.

Douglas Kellner

Richard Desjardins

Virginia Walter

Carlos A. Torres, Committee Chair

University of California, Los Angeles

2015

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Dedication Page

I dedicate this work to Huan-Tang Huang, my beloved fiancé, who has had the greatest patience
in the world to wait for me for ten years. As a professional librarian and a comic book lover, he
supported my study from start to finish. His company and kindness helped me overcome many
challenges, even though we spent three years living on opposite sides of the Pacific Rim.

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION p.1
1.1 Teenagers and Comic Books p.1
1.2 Taking Comic Books Seriously p.4
1.3 Structure of Chapters p.9

CHAPTER 2: A FREIREAN APPROACH TO COMIC BOOK ANALYSIS p.13
2.1 The Influence of Japanese Manga on Taiwanese Youth p.13
2.2 Cultural Studies Perspective: Ideologies in Comic Books p.15
2.3 A Comparative Educational Perspective on Japanese Cultural Influence p.29
2.4 Educational Sociological Perspective: Influence of Comic Books p.33
2.5 Conclusion: Building Up a Freirean Approach p.37

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND METHODS p.40
3.1 Freirian Methodology p.40
3.2 Multiple Methods p.43

CHAPTER 4 THE DAZZLING COMIC WORLD: REACTIONS OF TAIWANESE
STUDENTS AND EDUCATORS p.66
4.1 Results of the Survey: Comic Book Reading Preference and Top 5 Comic Books p.66
4.2 The Reactions of Textual Analysis: Ideologies in Mainstream Comic Books p.71
4.3 Interviews: Perspectives of Students and Educators p.86

CHAPTER 5 INTO THE GREAT COMIC BOOK ERA: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF
RESEARCH RESULTS p.116
5.1 The Ideology and Influence of Ethnicity p.117
5.2 Ideologies of Gender and Their Influence p.129
5.3 The Influence of Class Ideologies p.141
5.4 The Influence of Ideologies of Violence p.151
5.5 Japanese Cultural Dominance in the Neo-liberal World p.159
5.6 Is Critical Pedagogy for Comic Books possible? P.169

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CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION p.178
6.1 Answers to Research Questions p.178
6.2 Research Limitations and Possibilities p.182
6.3 Implications p.185
6.4 Final Thoughts p.188

APPENDIX 1
APPENDIX 2
REFERENCE

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List of Tables

Table 4.1 Time spent reading comics or watching Japanese cartoons every week p.67
Table 4.2 How I acquire comics/animated cartoons p.68
Table 4.3 Do you pay attention to the rating of comics before reading them? P.68
Table 4.4 My favorite comics p.70

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