Observing some Japanese culture through the lens of Go
The link is here.
If you are not particularly interested in Go, just randomly watch maybe 2-3 min in the beginning. If you click CC bottom right in the video, you get subtitles. It's a game between two very high ranked player (second-highest rank possible). At timestamp 2:18, they introduce Michael Redmond, who is the only ever white person to attain the highest Go rank possible.
Interesting things to notice:
- The players are at least from my western reading completely emotionless on the surface.
- The female co-commentator who is like 'hai'/yes all the time and really what I read as subservient/respectful to Redmond
- Redmond himself: Being super high-ranked in a national/traditional Japanese game, he must have dedicated his life to it. But also, Japan being xenophobic and protective of their national art forms might have given him a hard time occasionally. I feel I can read some sort of humbleness/gentleness from him. Leaning out of the window, he might resemble the construct of western 'female' gentleness and vibe.
The desert: Skip to 1:25:00. It's the last minute or so of the game. The guy on the left runs out of time and you hear the aide counting down (or rather: up) the remaining time. He misplays/stress-plays, the guy on the right plays and wins by left guy resigning (which is usually how it ends). The way he does it is again just a small move of his head and everything is over. Extremely small catharsis, none of them shows any (to me readable) emotion. They thank Redmond, the end.