Have I barely set foot here, am I already noticing that my grammar sucks.
But seriously, as I was aimlessly idling on the internet waiting for some magic to happen on my screen (no I wasn't watching porn) Roger suddenly came on the screen... well I don't mean he "came on the screen"... I mean he just appeared on MSN for a chat! And he showed me this very inspiring article he found about Paris.
I specifically am feeling cinical tonight concerning the criticism that might arise from deep patriotic parisians who will read the following article(s) as I am right now across the atlantic far from reach of those energumen that are the parisians... they can't touch me! (tanana... ta na na *can't touch me* wa wa wa wa...)
Alright stop!
Paris time:
First there was the Stockholm syndrome, then there was the Jerusalem syndrome, now psychiatrists have discovered the Paris syndrome. But don’t worry: you are not at risk unless you are young, female and Japanese.
According to Dr Hiroyki Ota, a Japanese national who works at the Sainte Anne hospital in Paris, more than 100 people pass through his consulting room every year exhibiting the same symptoms of nervous depression.
Around a quarter of them have to be hospitalised before being sent home.
In a book entitled The Paris Syndrome, he explains the progression of the disorder: first mild anxiety, then a growing persecution complex, fear of leaving home, despair and sometimes even suicide.
The cause is always the same: a bad social experience with a Parisian, triggering a profound sense of cultural alienation.
“The phenomenon is most common among those Japanese who prove themselves incapable of adapting to France because of a shock set off by a confrontation between the two cultures,” Ota says.
The Japanese have long had a love affair with Paris, nurtured by dreams of sophisticated manners coupled with physical elegance, exquisite food and lots of Louis Vuitton handbags. Most of the 28,000 Japanese residents of France live in the capital, which is visited every year by millions more.
What they find though is not always what they had been led to expect. “Often the people I show around are extremely disappointed,” said Akira Hasegawa, a Japanese tour guide who has been working in France for 15 years.
“They think Parisians are going to be clean and polite and friendly – and it’s the exact opposite. What they want is the old France – full of people like Jean Gabin and Alain Delon – but it’s not like that at all. You British have the same experience, no?” he says.
Nearly all of the victims of Paris syndrome are women, who tend to be more besotted with the city’s romantic image than men.
Press coverage of the French capital in Japan invariably plays up the “city of light” cliché, and the fact that several Japanese television and screen celebrities have chosen to settle there boosts the wannabe factor.
“There is a kind of Cinderella stereotype, especially among girls,” said Mina Hasegawa – no relation to Akira – who has been Paris correspondent for the Fuji Television Network for four years. “There are many women in their 20s and 30s who want to make a drastic change in their lives, and they come to Paris looking for an alternative.
“For the first month they feel happy and free, but then there’s a reaction. Suddenly the environment seems hostile,” she added.
It comes as no surprise to learn that for many young Japanese the most shocking discovery is the Parisians’ legendary rudeness.
For visitors from a country where relations between individuals are subject to a strict social code, the ordeal of being ignored by a surly waiter – or having a post office clerk deliberately misunderstand your attempts at French – must be painful indeed.
“In Japan the customer is God,” added Mina Hasegawa. “Not here.”
According to Ota: “The Japanese are shy and feel French impatience as an assault. Talking too much is seen as rude by Japanese people, who therefore go through torture to make themselves understood. And French humour can provoke feelings of persecution among the serious-minded Japanese.”
However, Bernard Delage, a Frenchman who runs the Association Jeunes Japon, argues that things today are at least better than they used to be.
“Up till 15 years ago it was really very hard to be Japanese in Paris. Everyone took them for Chinese – which they hate – and because they were rich back then before the recession, they were ripped off wherever they went,” said Delage, who helps Japanese executives and students settle in France.
“Today the problem is with a relatively small number of girls – spoiled types who come out with daddy’s money to experience the freedom. But they find they can’t cope,” he added.
“The same thing happens wherever the Japanese go abroad. For them other countries are always a cultural shock.
“What’s different in Paris is that they come here loving it more than anywhere else, secondly, Parisians are indeed unusually awful.”
Hugh Schofield, Paris, 19 December 2004
(Link)
And now the same text in Mandarin (so we also get the proof from the other side of the planet):
路透巴黎電---法國星期日報(Journal du Dimanche)報導，每年約有12名日本觀光客在造訪巴黎，身歷其境，遭受當地人不友善的對待，並親眼看到骯髒的街道，以致期望破滅後，需要接受心理治療。
服務於聖母大教堂附近神之家醫院(Hotel-Dieu hospital)的心理學家馬莫迪亞(Yousef Mahmoudia)告訴星期日報：「約有三分之一病患立即好轉，另有三分之一病情復發，其餘則罹患精神病。」
而就在今年，日本駐巴黎大使館必須送回至少四名觀光客，其中包括兩名婦女認為，旅館房內遭竊聽，並有對付她們的陰謀。
星期日報引述一名日本大使館官員的話說，先前的病例則包括，有一名男子自信是法王路易十四，而有名女性則認為，她遭微波攻擊。
心理學家班哈默告訴該報，當觀光客對某個國家的認知與事實衝突時，就可能導致危機，而脆弱的觀光客則會抓狂。
該報將這種心理現象稱作「巴黎症候群」(Paris Syndrome)，而精神病學期刊《Nervure》早在2004年時，便率先詳加探討。
在法國協助日本家庭安頓的Bernard Delage of Jeunes Japon協會說：「在日本商店中，顧客至上；然而在這兒，店員幾乎不正眼瞧他們...使用大眾運輸工具的人看來都很嚴峻，而提包搶匪更加深了這種惡感。」(完)
--編譯 楊幼蘭;審校 張若琪
「連結」
