In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or “Orient”) by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle East,[1] was one of the many specialties of 19th-century academic art, and Western literature was influenced by a similar interest in Oriental themes.
Critical studies
Edward Said
In his book Orientalism (1978), cultural critic Edward Said redefines the term Orientalism to describe a pervasive Western tradition—academic and artistic—of prejudiced outsider-interpretations of the Eastern world, which was shaped by the cultural attitudes of European imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries.[20] The thesis of Orientalism develops Antonio Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony, and Michel Foucault’s theorisation of discourse (the knowledge-power relation) to criticise the scholarly tradition of Oriental studies. Said criticised contemporary scholars who perpetuated the tradition of outsider-interpretation of Arabo-Islamic cultures, especially Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami.[21][22] Furthermore, Said said that “The idea of representation is a theatrical one: the Orient is the stage on which the whole East is confined”,[23] and that the subject of learned Orientalists “is not so much the East itself as the East made known, and therefore less fearsome, to the Western reading public”.[24]
In the academy, the book Orientalism (1978) became a foundational text of post-colonial cultural studies.[22] The analyses in Said’s works are of Orientalism in European literature, especially French literature, and do not analyse visual art and Orientalist painting. In that vein, the art historian Linda Nochlin applied Said’s methods of critical analysis to art, “with uneven results”.[25] Other scholars see Orientalist paintings as depicting a myth and a fantasy that did not often correlate with reality.
Yeah i dont think that people saying “China is kinda based” are trying to appropriate chinese culture from the perspective of a culturally and racially superior western hegemonial empire. Quite to the contrary actually.
I swear some people think Westerners expressing any interest in anything Asian at all ever, or thinking an Asian country does something better than their own, is orientalism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism
Yeah i dont think that people saying “China is kinda based” are trying to appropriate chinese culture from the perspective of a culturally and racially superior western hegemonial empire. Quite to the contrary actually.
I swear some people think Westerners expressing any interest in anything Asian at all ever, or thinking an Asian country does something better than their own, is orientalism.
Culturally and racially superior?