I have been seeing people in the internet saying Western Cloth, Western Media, Westernizing, Western Movies, Western Nations. What does the term “Western” mean. Can anyone explain to me like I am 5 years old
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“Western”, in that context, means “[West or Central] European or deriving from [West or Central] European culture”, as opposed to “Eastern” (which is less sharply defined but is usually used in reference to China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan). The term comes from the location of Europe as opposed to the rest of Eurasia.
All of the major nations of Europe (obviously) and the Americas (which derive from English, French, and Spanish culture) are ‘Western’ by this definition, as are Australia and New Zealand (which are mostly populated by descendants of Englishpeople). A Hollywood movie is Western culture, a t-shirt and jeans are Western clothes.
“Westernization” is the process by which a country not in the West adopts some of the ideas and cultural norms of the West. Modern Japan, for example, is quite Westernized, partly because they intentionally imported European and American ideas during the Meiji Restoration in the mid-late 1800s and partly because the US occupation of Japan after WWII introduced a *ton* of American culture via the American soldiers stationed there. China, by comparison, is comparatively less Westernized, although some Western ideas are certainly present.
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