Master of Fine Art RESEARCH PLAN for MEXT Scholarship Japan 2022

Hi guys, my name is Audhia from Indonesia. I am going to apply for MEXT Scholarship (Research student) next year. Please give me some advice of my research plan... how to make it more engaging and convincing.. I have contacted my lecturers in my previous uni to proofread it but theyre so busy so i need another person to proofread it... No worries if you are not coming from design/art field. Feel free to comment and give opinion about my idea in this research plan. Thank you in advance!!! Have a nice day everyone!!

Research theme :

Adapting Kawaii Culture to Introduce Traditional Indonesian Art to Children.

Research in the art & culture field aims to increase children's interest in traditional Indonesian art with a Japanese twist: kawaii culture.

1.Background
Globalization makes us know that Japan has been distinguished by its culture. One of them is Japan's kawaii culture. Kawaii culture is a Japanese pop culture that has some significant traits: small, round, big beaming eyes, bright colors, and simply said: cute/adorable (Shiri Lieber Milo, 2019). There are many forms of kawaii. It can be fashion, character, music, or anything else. Sanrio, a Japanese company that creates Hello Kitty, is a good example of the successful kawaii culture in character and Yuru-chara (mascots) field (Oe, 2020). Kawaii characters are being liked by children and commonly used for many purposes over the world.

On the other side, Indonesia, which consists of over 1300 tribes spread widely in the archipelago, is also rich in art & cultural heritage (Indonesia.go.id, 2017). We also have a lot of characters appear in traditional art: Ondel-ondel (a traditional giant puppet show from Jakarta (Callula, Nolani, & Ramadhan, 2022)), Wayang (traditional Javanese puppet show), Kuda Lumping, Barong, Leak and many more. Yes, we are rich. But the real problem, while globalization brings a lot of new things, at the same time it decreases younger generations' interest in traditional Indonesian art (Nendi, 2020).

A hypothesis of reasons why they don't feel attracted are because mostly, they don't catch children's eyes, some things are considered frightening for them (a lot of people are afraid of Ondel-ondel, Barong, Leak, etc due to their eerie appearance), they seem old fashioned, too mature, and outdated. The reasons are in contrast with the kawaii culture which is liked for its cute, colorful, childish, and trendy images. Those things intrigued me to change their mindset andI believe kawaii culture can help us to introduce traditional Indonesian art to younger generations by adapting their traits in the execution of the character redesign.

One at a time please.

Start with Indonesia and then move into the commonality of the art with Japan. The backgrounder must focus on your country and open with your country because that is the focal point of the research plan. If you open with Japan, you lose the reader in terms of why they should care about Indonesia in the same sense. Since this is a backgrounder, use less cited information and sell the reviewer more on your point of view, observations, and opinions as to why Japan is more successful in this line than Indonesia even as you cater to the same demographics. Work more on the hypothesis. The presentation is weak and not really important sounding so it could lessen the impact of your research plan and lower the possibility of your admission into the program.

@holt Thank you so much for your advice! It makes sense how i should open it with Indonesia first then followed by the Japan. I also feel it is weak so i need to improve the engagement and the delivery of the essay.