Orient In Orientalism Analysis

I must confess that I am guilty of harboring unconscious stereotypes of Asian women. Kathleen Uno’s article “Unlearning Orientalism: Locating Asian and Asian American Women in Family History” brought this to light. She makes a very strong argument that Orientalism has exaggerated Asian patriarchy and the subordination of women; therefore, influencing research to highlight only the oppressive aspects of the Asian family. Uno states that once we can free ourselves from the “Orientalist blinders”, it will allow us to shed the stereotypes by revaluating the role of Asian and Asian American women and acknowledging their contributions. (Uno, 2003)

In order to better understand the criticism against these Chinese writers, we must first understand what is meant by orientalist thinking or orientalism for that matter. One of the authorities on the subject, Edward Said explains the term "Orientalism" and tackles the question of East and

Moreover, this construction as the foreign eastern country as feminine is the typical western view of the orient. This view of the Orient is connected to Edward Said's concept of

“Representation is an essential part of the process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members of a culture. It does involve the use of language, of signs and images which stand for or represent things “(Hall 2013). Moscovici, one of the founders of the social representations theory explained that, “Our reactions to

One of the things that also affect the development of literary work is Orientalism. Orientalism is one of colonial ideologies which can be found in literary work which can show author’s colonial

The European’s mindset by the latter of the third of the 18th century saw that inside each Asian burned the effervescent ember of savagery. Without controlling governance over the people, Europeans believed anarchy would chaotically erupt in Asia. It was believed Asians truly did not have self-control without a supreme leader. Oriental despotism is the idea that the societies in Asia have a single totalitarian-formed government and without this leadership there would be no order to their society. According to Montesquieu, Asian power is absolutist and held in the hands of one. Everything that could possibly happen is in the merciless hands of the despotism. In Montesquieu’s epistolary novel The Persian Letters, he argues for oriental despotism through his two main characters in the story Usbec and Rico. He talks about the economic, political, social and cultural aspects of Persian society that he parallels with oriental despotism. Montesquieu also shows makes his story of the characters into a metaphor of the destruction of oriental despotism. Marx believed in the superiority of the west and the lack of growth in political and economic realms of Asiatic society contributing to the concept of Asian despotism. Finally, Hegel touches on the white man’s burden where he uses oriental despotism to explain the child like relationship Europeans had with the savage orients.

Orientalism has led to a false representation of Asia and the people who come from and live there. Due to these false assumptions of how Asians are portrayed as, many Asian-Americans have struggled with their lives. These struggles ranged from some being persecuted for being a certain race and others for finding it hard to see themselves being represented fairly in media. Asian-Americans have been largely misrepresented and are seen as the “Others”. However, many Asian-American artist, all with different backgrounds, have found ways to bring Orientalist views into questioning and tried to better represent themselves and the Asian-American community. Dumbfounded, Mary Im, and the trio Iijima, Miyamoto, and Chin have all challenged Orientalist

Imperialism is a policy used by political leaders to extend their authority over foreign entities as a means of acquiring and maintaining empires. The extension of authority would create an opportunity for the imperialists to exercise political and economic control on other countries. George Orwell argues against the taste of imperialism and its abuse of power in his narrative “Shooting an Elephant”. It is essential to show concern in resolving racial discrimination because of the integrity and viability of individuals. Imperialism involves exploitation of the natives, the oppressed and squeezing them to from different angles for example restricting the freedom of the oppressed. George Orwell expresses anger and disgust against any kind of oppression and tyranny to the less advantaged individuals (Alam and Sarwar, 55). The imperialists burdened the poor natives by inflicting on them hatred and torment. The imperialists considered the Asians as culturally inferior as they humiliate and subjugate them as racially inferior individuals. George Orwell desired to rescue the poor natives from the exploitations by the imperialists (Doyle and James, 15). The Orwell’s narrative “Shooting an elephant” is a demonstration of George Orwell’s argument against the taste of empire-building and its abuse on the poor natives.

He frames the sketch of this imagined community of ‘civilization’ through Orientalism concept, where the superior ‘civilized world’ is being threatened by ‘enemies’. As he puts it, this ‘Civilization’ will be defended by ‘We’ who are waging a war to save it. Therefore, the two actors are the traditional components of ‘us’ and ‘them’, as can be deduced from the following statements by him:

Ricci was born in 1552 and has written accounts of his immersion during his mission in Ming dynasty China. Historian Nigel Cameron, had documented thirteen centuries of European travels to China, which included Matteo Ricci’s travels as well. According to Cameron, Matteo Ricci was “the only one to whom the Chinese accorded unreservedly their respect as a scholar in their own language and literature.” So It seems that there is a more effective way of grasping a full if not some understanding of the cultural dynamics of China. Now especially with regards to the comprehension of different cultures it may be hard to do so through the Euro-lense or through a European methodological way of interpretation. Explaining and comprehending the Chinese culture through the English language may result in failure. Even Matteo Ricci, admitted that the Chinese language “is totally different from Greek or German.” Western historians have misinterpreted non-West histories, in fact it is common. But, to what extent does this misinterpretation lie? It lies with the teleological

The quote that stuck out most to me from the preface is actually a question on page xxi, “Twenty-five years after its publication, Orientalism once again raises the question of whether modern imperialism

Stuart Hall’s work introduces readers to the discourse of “the West and the Rest”, and outlines how the “system of representation” it provides serves to validate the power of the Western world (186). He highlights how the dissemination of discourse about Western superiority and the comparative “otherness” of the non-Western world work to maintain power hierarchies. Hall pinpoints several historical events, from the Crusades to colonisation, as instrumental in forming a Western identity through opposition to “the

Orientalism is a study of language and traditions of the people and their culture in the Middle East. These studies are mostly done by people outside of the culture that is being looked at, and mostly the studies are being performed by white western men. Edward Said believed that there was a problem with the way in which other people were studying and writing about his culture. He was upset and spoke up when he wrote a booked called “Orientalism,” in his book he points out many reasons why the study of orientalism is hurting the cultures in which they are studying. The study of other cultures and countries better known as the Orient has become a popular discussion since Said’s book on orientalism was published. This paper will take a look

In his Introduction to Orientalism, Edward Said asserts that the “Orient has helped to define Europe as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience,” (71). Therefore, in Season of Migration to the

The ground breaking text Orientalism written by Edward Said widened the arena for the post-colonial thinkers to consider the text with a new mechanism in Third World context. Orientalism has developed a purported approach of binary opposition to dismantling the East/West dualism in relation to Eurocentric edifice. The focal point of Said’s study is the ‘West’ and its observation of the ‘East’. The former having all positive traits: white, brave, dynamic, civilized, cultured, educated, rich of the ‘Empire’ identifies the ‘Eastern countries’ as the ‘Other’ with all the negative attributes: black, coward, static, barbaric, natural, uneducated poor people of the ‘Colony’-subjected to their contempt. The post –colonial