[lojban] Re: Lojban Kids Show

[Lindar <lindarthebard@yahoo.com>]

We need to start a list of culturalisms that we want to borrow
directly from cultures. I'm starting with the base languages, but
please link to other cultures at the same time.

Chinese:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_ancestral_treasures
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_guardian_lions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_in_Chinese_culture
Colours? I'd love to have an agreed colour-meaning.
Maybe that would be subjective? Maybe not used at all? (too
metaphorical?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Chinese_culture
Same for numbers?

Perhaps incorporate Chinese festival things for country holidays?

English:
Uhhh... I can't grasp anything unique from this. I can't really
describe English culture as that's what's normal for me.

Indian:
I can spot a few things that I -personally- find interesting, but I'm
having a hard time with this one. The interesting aspects overlap with
the things I like about other Asian cultures (theatre, music, stories,
food). Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with Indian culture to
make a good evaluation of its key components, but from what I
understand of personal experience and from reading about it, Indian
culture seems very family-centric (to the point of having 3-4
generations all living in the same house, brothers, sisters, cousins,
uncles, and every other family member), patriarchal (men have the
final word, men invariably lead the household), and traditionalist
(religion is the law above everything). A -lot- of these concepts seem
to be polar opposites of modernist ideas of society (equal treatment
between sexes, fluid maternal and paternal roles, independence).

Apparently a popular fashion statement in both India -and- Russia is
the bindi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindi_%28decoration%29

This just looks comfortable. ~____~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhoti

As does this!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lungi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarong

Spanish:

I don't know anything about Spanish culture (I know a bit about
Mexican due to my living in California), but I've only met one Spanish
person in my entire life, I have never had Spanish food, and so on.

However, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapas looks freaking DELICIOUS.

That is all I really know about that culture.

Russian:

Russia has, as I understand it, a strong history of literature, art,
and technological innovation (some 1/4 of all scientific works are in
Russian as I understand it)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_jokes

However, I also understand that they're going through a cultural/
social/artistic depression right now (based on descriptions from a
previous room mate and a class mate)


Arabic:

I'm not fucking touching this one with a lunar rover.
Have fun!


Perhaps we can start to come up with some social customs and holidays
with this and borrowing from other cultures?

Japanese:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gagaku
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunraku
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh (nogaku)

~_____~


By the way, I'm not including food because it's impossible to do. I
don't really know what Arabic food is, but Spanish food looks amazing,
Indian food is AWESOME, English food is mostly Indian food nowadays so
therefore is AWESOME, Chinese food is great, and Russian food
is...boiled... Outside of the source language circle, I am a rather
large fan of washoku. I think that there is too much food out there to
say that we'd have a specific kind of food or a particular blend. Food
fusions might be awesome (I make baked spam and udon with a mean curry-
shoyu broth), but let's just let the food fly for now.


I see Lojbanites eating a slow lunch, napping in the evening for an
hour or two, dinner near midnight, and having a lot of nonbiological
extended family for twice-weekly dinners. Everybody is Uncle/Aunt or
Friend, people have several mothers and fathers (whether or not
they're biological, adoptive, or whatever doesn't really matter), and
even enemies are friends (ala the Japanese concept of "rivals"). Most
importantly, people mind their own damn business when they should.

I also think that, in this universe, but not in this particular story,
we should include Uncle Robin's nontheist/whatevertheist church (we
had a long and very fun discussion about that some time previous). I
think that would be a great thing to include in stories that take
place on the station, but aren't this one, because the topic (or not
topic) of religion (or unreligion) doesn't really belong in this kind
of show.

Ideas?

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