A Conversation With Natalie Ngai

Kawaii aesthetics is a Japanese cultural phenomenon that emphasizes cuteness (which is translated as kawaii in Japanese) and adorableness and crosses national borders. Natalie Ngai, who teaches media studies in the LMU College of Communication and Fine Arts, studies kawaii aesthetics and Lolita fashion, as well as media aesthetics, digital media, cultural histories, and gender and race. 

How do you describe kawaii aesthetics?

Defined simply, kawaii aesthetics has to do with cuteness. It is child-like. What counts as child-like charm depends on context and culture. This child-like charm has an affective, emotional aspect, evoking a kind of heartwarming, caring, nurturing emotion in the spectator or consumer.

Is kawaii aesthetic seen only in fashion and clothing or is it found in other things, too, such as objects, merchandise, toys, even emojis?

Yes, it is a broad aesthetic that can be seen in products, inanimate objects, animated objects, behavior, and mannerisms.

You’ve written about Lolita fashion, which reflects the Asian kawaii aesthetic yet closely draws on English Victorian styles of clothing. But it didn’t arise in England.

Lolita fashion is recognized, especially in the West, as originating in Japanese or East Asian culture. But it appropriates that British, rococo style. In 2012, there was an exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London titled “Kitty and the Bulldog: Lolita Fashion and the Influence of Britain.” The exhibit portrayed how British culture has influenced kawaii aesthetics in Japan. It’s fascinating that a national ideology in Japan uses fashion to appropriate Western culture for its own use. A few years ago, there was even a Cool Japan tourism campaign by the Japanese government that used a Lolita fashion girl as a kind of ambassador, or symbol, of Japan.

Do girls and young women who dress in Lolita fashion do so as a symbol of a unifying bond they feel with one another? 

Sometimes in a Japanese setting, girls and young women face sexualization by adults. So, this is a mocking of that experience. They want to reclaim femininity and dress in a way that is hyperfeminine, then care for one another and bond with others who are like-minded. A lot of people who don’t know that part of the culture think this is something women do to please men. It’s a way to reclaim femininity in a patriarchal context.

You’ve studied how Lolita fashion, which is popular both in Japan and in the United States, is marketed differently in those two places. How so?

Japan is a very homogenous population, but marketers use predominantely white models in promoting Lolita fashion in Japan. It’s not the Marilyn Monroe kind of white model. It’s a very non-threatening, accessible, teenage girl kind of image. I compare that to advertising in the United States or other English-speaking countries, where that white face gets wiped out. Instead, it’s an Asian thing. When Lolita fashion came to the United States, it became a symbol associated with Asian culture. In Japan, it’s promoted or associated with Westernness and whiteness.

Since Lolita fashion is popular both in Japan and the U.S., do you consider it an example of benign cultural cross-pollination or cultural appropriation?

In Japanese culture, girls and women who dress in Lolita fashion appropriate the British symbols, but you wouldn’t normally say this is cultural appropriation because of the power differential between Japan and the British empire. As for how that culture is perceived in the West, those who dress in this fashion are themselves mostly part of the Asian diaspora. So, you wouldn’t say they are culturally appropriating Asian culture. But there is a hiccup that we must pay attention to. When Americans see this aspect of culture, they often wonder, is this a kind of Asian fetish? Regressive feminism? Actually, no. We have to look at the East Asian experience. It’s an effort to reclaim femininity, to push against patriarchy. I wouldn’t use the term cultural appropriation.