Definitions
Historical Definition
The term Orientalism was first explored in depth by Edward Saïd, a Palestinian-American professor of literature, in his book titled Orientalism, which was published in 1978. In Orientalism, he defined the term as “a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between the ‘Orient’ and […] the ‘Occident’” [1]. Epistemology is the study of knowledge and knowledge production, and this is an important concept to understanding orientalism and its impact on the perception of Asia and Asian peoples. The words ‘Orient’ and ‘Occident’ refer to the East (the Middle East and Asia) and the West (Europe and the United States).
More Widely-Known Definition
Merriam-Webster defines Orientalism as the “the scholarship, learning, or study in Asian subjects or languages, now often used with negative connotations of a colonialist bias underlying and reinforced by such scholarship” [2].
Orientalism speaks to how the West was able to group the many different countries and cultures throughout Asia into one, allowing for the creation of a binary of East and West [3]. This distinction between Asia and Europe / United States caused a power dynamic to emerge: “Orientalism [operates as] a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient” [4]. This prompted negative stereotypes about Asia and its people to gain traction, which only reinforced the power dynamic and widened the divide between the East and the West by emphasizing the differences between the two. The West also sought to assert its superiority over the East, and while that was done through the reinforcing of negative stereotypes, it was also done by exotifying Asian culture and people. For example, medieval travel writers were fascinated by China as “on one hand it was a mirror of many things late medieval Europe liked best about itself; on the other hand it was a fantasy land of abundant foodstuffs, beautiful women, and sex on demand” [5].
“Orientalism [operates as] a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient”
Phillips, Kim M. Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing, 1245-1510. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014, p. 3. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hjknr. Accessed 28 Oct. 2022.
History of the Term
Even before the term orientalism entered mainstream vocabulary, its ideas were still present in depictions of Asia and its people through medieval travel writings and historical artwork. Medieval travel writers from Europe had many reasons to record information about their experiences in Asia, the main reason being to educate and share information about the East with those in the West. But, to make this information interesting to their audiences, travel writers tended to “emphasize the strange and create marvels out of the bodies of eastern peoples” [6].
Medieval writers focused on women in their travel writings, finding the ways to categorize women from various regions of Asia: “Mongolian women were portrayed as hardworking, unattractive, and powerful. Chinese women, on the other hand, were typically said to be attractive and sexually alluring. Indian women were noteworthy primarily for their exotic qualities, particularly when portrayed as satis” [7]. The women of Asia begin to represent the countries and cultures they come from, leading to overgeneralizations of how women act or look, as “ordinary mothers, working women, and the elderly” are rarely included in these narratives [8]. When discussing the appearance of Asian bodies generally, medieval travel writers “understood all bodily diversity to arise from the dictates of climate”, so bodies were not deemed strange because of their skin color or eye shape in these writings [9]. The “sparse beards of Chinese men and attractive appearance of both men and women are featured more often”; these writers tended to pay more attention to the cultural practices and social organization of Asian peoples [10].
The Orientalist art movement during the nineteenth century only reinforced stereotypes about the exotic and uncivilized nature of Asian peoples and their cultures. Orientalist paintings like Grande Odalisque and Snake Charmer are regarded as some of the best paintings because of their technique, but one cannot overlook how the portrayal of the East in these works are actively perpetuating stereotypes. In both works, figures are surrounded by a rich turquoise color and assorted seemingly ‘exotic’ items like a colorful turban, a peacock feather, ornate Arabic text, and a nude boy holding a snake [11].
Medieval travel writers emphasized and exaggerated certain aspects of Asian culture and Asian people in their writings, and those who read their writings took their words as truth and built opinions and beliefs about the East. Through the colonization of the East by the West, a type of “intellectual imperialism” emerged, leading to an epistemological shift by “making statements about [the East], authorizing views of [the East], describing [the East], by teaching [the East], settling it, ruling over” Asia and its people [12]. In Saïd’s original work on Orientalism, he shed light on the connection between knowledge production and power, and how the West is the dominant power in knowledge dissemination, therefore impacting how Asian people view themselves and their culture [13]. Europe was able to control the narrative by depicting Asian cultures and peoples in the way they perceived them, which was as uncivilized, but fascinating individuals with strange customs. This control of knowledge production inevitably leads to a power imbalance.
Turning Points
Asian peoples began to immigrate to the Americans in larger numbers during the mid-1800s, prompting the perception of Asians by the West to adjust. Notably, the influx of Chinese immigrants during the 19th century and the prevalent role they held in constructing the Central Pacific Railroad contributed to the reiteration of previous negative stereotypes. White Americans viewed Chinese immigrants as submissive and inferior due to their distinct customs and religious beliefs, while simultaneously resenting them for their nimble, small-bodied, robot-like work ethic [14]. This hostility stemmed from the highly held belief that Chinese settlers were “stealing” jobs that were indisputably meant for “Americans”. This xenophobia was later translated through political means as seen through the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers. Another example is the Page Act of 1875, which sought to ban Chinese women from emigrating to the U.S. under the claim that they (Chinese women) were mainly prostitutes that came to corrupt the minds of American men [14]. This view explicitly connects to how Chinese women were viewed in historical medieval travel writings back in the early 1300s-1500s. This reasoning is ironic, given that the western world was responsible for perpetuating notions that over-sexualized and dehumanized Asian women from as early as the 18th century.
Likewise, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, an executive order mandated 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry to leave their lives behind (including their homes, businesses, etc) and move into internment camps where they were met with maximum security, food shortages, poor sanitary conditions, etc. Even those with 1/16 Japanese blood were viewed as threats and thus treated as aliens and criminals in their own country [14]. Unlike other ethnic groups whose home nations were also at war with the U.S., Japanese Americans were unjustly forced to prove their loyalty once again demonstrating that they were the “other” of American society.
In modern times, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 have given rise to a new wave of xenophobia towards Arabs/Muslims. Following the event, the number of hate crimes committed both physically and verbally towards Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans skyrocketed and two decades later they are still bearing the consequences from these stereotypes [15]. Like Japanese Americans, Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans were perceived as traitors and blamed for events that they had virtually no control over further stimulating the good vs evil and civilized vs barbaric narrative already existent between the West and East.
Orientalism in the Modern Day
As orientalism has evolved and grown, its current manifestations differ from its “original” meaning. Perhaps the most insidious part of orientalism is how deeply ingrained it is into all aspects of modern society, interacting with other pervasive systems such as the patriarchy, militarism, and capitalism. As a result, culture that has been deemed oriental is exploited for its “exotic nature”, often reducing real cultures and people to commodities.
Orientalism and Chinatowns
One example in which “oriental culture” has been commodified in a way that is often overlooked is the “Chinatown aesthetic” that is found in the architecture, style, and merchandise found in Asian enclaves in the states and abroad. As talked about in Vox’s The surprising reason behind Chinatown’s aesthetic, the exaggerated features of Asian culture often found in Chinatowns such as pagodas and curved eaves were not adopted to pay homage to Chinese culture, but instead for their exotic aesthetic. For example, pagodas were usually used in places of worship in China and a reserved architectural style for religious buildings. However, the white architects who designed the first Chinatown in San Francisco included these architectural motifs as a way to market to exotic and oriental nature of Chinatown and its Asian residents. [16] As such, orientalism in modern society has been commodified in such ways that oriental motifs are capitalized on. In other words, it is both economically and socially beneficial to continue to exotify those who are non-western and specifically of Asian origin. Not only do Western countries see Chinatowns, and other commodifications of Asian culture, as highly desirable and almost spectacle-like, but the capital incentive to upkeep these images keep the residents of Chinatowns complacent in this oversimplified reduction of Asian culture.
Orientalism and Gender
Oriental women continue to be exotified and fetishized in a way such that they are hyper-sexualized and either categorized as mysterious and exotic, or docile and complicit. Terms such as “yellow fever”, or the sexual attraction to Asian women simply because they are Asian, illustrate this phenomenon. [17] Contextualizing orientalism through a gendered lens informs events such as the U.S. involvement in the Middle East post-9/11. This subjugation of the Middle East was justified through the stereotype that Middle-Eastern women are docile and subservient, and thus need to be saved by the West. Consequently, the stereotype that Middle-Eastern men are incapable of protecting their women, thus emasculating them. [18] As seen in Dominique Fung’s painting Exotic Fruits Haul, the oriental female body is an object, meant to be served just as fruit is. It is meant to be consumed like other material goods, and that consumption is catered to Western audiences under the presumption that they are doing good for “orientals”. They are being civilized and saved. [19]
Fung, Dominique, Exotic Fruit Haul, Oil on Canvas, 2018, (Nicodim Gallery), https://dominiquefung.com/project/exotic-fruits-haul/ .
Conclusion
The insidious nature of oriental ideology continues to persist in our modern society. Recent events such as the Atlanta Spa Shootings in 2021 are explicit depictions of just that. Not only did the shooter target spas, where the overwhelming majority of workers are of Asian descent, the self-admitted motivation for carrying out these acts was his sex addiction. In other words, the hypersexualization of Asian women drove the killer to such violence that compelled him to commit murder. Orientalism is also implicit in the workplace, even in workplaces of highly educated individuals. As Rachel Endo recalls on her experience in her predominantly white institution of higher education, microagressions, assumptions, and the emotional labor that is imparted on those personally affected by events such as the Atlanta shooting shows great disrespect and accepted ignorance of these issues. [20] It is the teachings and messages about Asian women that have normalized and integrated into society that teach those with privilege, specifically cis-het men, that they are rightfully entitled to these actions. As such, the urge to continuously categorize people as oriental or not, manifests in ways that are dangerous to us all. This violence is not limited to the military sphere, nor is it limited to those overseas, but domestic violence towards Asian bodies is increasingly tolerated. As orientalism works to weave itself into the fabric of our society, it becomes more and more difficult to recognize, paving its way to blend itself into our way of life.
Footnotes
1 Dirlik, Arif. “Chinese History and the Question of Orientalism.” History and Theory, vol. 35, no. 4, 1996, pp. 97. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2505446. Accessed 28 Oct. 2022.
2 “Orientalism”. Merriam-Webster. 2022. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Orientalism.
3 Phillips, Kim M. Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing, 1245-1510. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014, p. 15. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hjknr. Accessed 28 Oct. 2022.
4 Phillips, Before Orientalism, p. 15.
5 Phillips, Before Orientalism, p. 118.
6 Phillips, Before Orientalism, p. 197.
7 Phillips, Before Orientalism, pp. 101-106.
8 Phillips, Before Orientalism, p. 113.
9 Phillips, Before Orientalism, p. 177.
10 Phillips, Before Orientalism, p. 188.
11 Gérôme, Jean-Léon. Snake Charmer. 1879, The Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts. https://www.clarkart.edu/artpiece/detail/snake-charmer, Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique. Grande Odalisque. 1814, The Louvre, France. https://joyofmuseums.com/museums/europe/france-museums/paris-museums/the-louvre/highlights-of-the-louvre/grande-odalisque-by-by-jean-auguste-dominique-ingres/.
12 Dirlik, Arif. “Chinese History”, p. 98.
13 Dabashi, Hamid. “Orientalism Today: A Conversation between Hamid Dabashi and Mahmoud Mohamedou.” Geneva Graduate Institute, YouTube, 9 October 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heyuHiGqmu0. Accessed 28 Oct. 2022.
14. Sabharwal, Meghna, et al. “From the Chinese Exclusion Act to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Historical Analysis of ‘Otherness’ Experienced by Asian Americans in the United States.” Taylor & Francis, 2 Nov. 2022, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10999922.2022.2120292?scroll=top&needAccess=true.
15. Khalid, Maryam. 2011. “Gender, orientalism and representations of the ‘Other’ in the War on Terror.” 21, 1 (February): 15-29, DOI: 10.1080/14781158.2011.540092
16 Vox. “The surprising reason behind Chinatown’s aesthetic”. May 10, 2021. Youtube, 13:09
17 Zheng, Robin. 2016. “Why Yellow Fever Isn’t Flattering: A Case Against Racial Fetishes.” 2, 3 (October): 400-419. https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2016.25
18 Khalid, Maryam. 2011. “Gender, orientalism and representations of the ‘Other’ in the War on Terror.” 21, 1 (February): 15-29, DOI: 10.1080/14781158.2011.540092
19 Dominique, Fung. Exotic Fruits Haul, 2018, Nicodim Gallery, dominiquefung.com, oil on canvas, https://dominiquefung.com/.
20 Endo, Rachel. 2021. “Asian/American Women Scholars, Gendered Orientalism, and Racialized Violence: Before, During, and After the 2021 Atlanta Massacre.” 21, 4 (May): 344-350. https://doi.org/10.1177/15327086211014632
References
Brownell, Susan, and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom. Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities : a Reader. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
C, Maia. “‘Techno-Orientalism’ and Hollywood’s Fear of Asia | Video Essay.” Youtube, 14 September 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8e8xtvElpQ.
Dabashi, Hamid. “Orientalism Today: A Conversation between Hamid Dabashi and Mahmoud Mohamedou.” Geneva Graduate Institute, YouTube, 9 October 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heyuHiGqmu0. Accessed 28 Oct. 2022.
Dirlik, Arif. “Chinese History and the Question of Orientalism.” History and Theory, vol. 35, no. 4, 1996, pp. 96–118. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2505446. Accessed 28 Oct. 2022.
Endo, Rachel. 2021. “Asian/American Women Scholars, Gendered Orientalism, and Racialized Violence: Before, During, and After the 2021 Atlanta Massacre.” Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies 21 (4): 344–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/15327086211014632.
Fung, Dominique, Exotic Fruit Haul, Oil on Canvas, 2018, (Nicodim Gallery), https://dominiquefung.com/project/exotic-fruits-haul/ .
Gérôme, Jean-Léon. Snake Charmer. 1879, The Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts. https://www.clarkart.edu/artpiece/detail/snake-charmer.
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique. Grande Odalisque. 1814, The Louvre, France. https://joyofmuseums.com/museums/europe/france-museums/paris-museums/the-louvre/highlights-of-the-louvre/grande-odalisque-by-by-jean-auguste-dominique-ingres/.
Khalid, Maryam. 2011. “Gender, Orientalism and Representations of the ‘Other’ in the War on Terror.” Global Change, Peace & Security 23 (1): 15–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/14781158.2011.540092.
Missing Chapter. “The surprising reason behind Chinatown’s aesthetic” YouTube video. 13:09, May 10, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiX3hTPGoCg&ab_channel=Vox.
Phillips, Kim M. Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing, 1245-1510. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hjknr. Accessed 28 Oct. 2022.
Sabharwal, Meghna, et al. “From the Chinese Exclusion Act to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Historical Analysis of ‘Otherness’ Experienced by Asian Americans in the United States.” Taylor & Francis, 2 Nov. 2022, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10999922.2022.2120292?scroll=top&needAccess=true.
Tan, Adri. “I Objectify Myself to Subvert Your Gaze, Issue 1”. Queens. November 2022. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bpew5XXuTw_4uQvwtGpivokoFoX_nyL6ojoH_NKw1eU/edit.
Zheng, Robin. 2016. “Why Yellow Fever Isn’t Flattering: A Case Against Racial Fetishes.” Journal of the American Philosophical Association 2 (3): 400–419. https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2016.25.
Contributors
Maya Garg, Emily Amendano, and Weiwei Chan