Blog3:Moe Culture

    At first I should clarify the title. This moe is not the “Ministry Of Education” that we often refer to. Actually, it is a Japanese slang word originally referring to fetish for or love for characters in video games or anime which is a Japanese style of motion-picture animation, characterized by highly stylized colorful art, futuristic settings, violence and sexuality and manga which is a Japanese graphic novel, typically intended for adults.

    Nowadays, moe is very popular in china, but it has deviated from its original meaning. In Japan, it used to describe a strong emotion like fire caused by some features of characters’. However, in China, its meaning is “very very cute” and it is accepted by Japanese now.

    Although it is a common sense, it still has differences between “moe” and “cute”. We can use “cute” to describe a lady, an animal or even a thing that does not have life but we cannot use “moe” to describe anything except a person. To illustrate, we can say that this kitten is so cute but we cannot substitute “moe” for “cute”. But in reality, if we describe a thing as “moe”, we will not feel strange because it is not wrong in grammar or logic.

   
As a matter of fact, we cannot change the common sense. What I want to show is that sometimes common sense is not absolutely right and we must recognize it clearly.