Comic Orientalism

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Scholars use this term and the terms Orientalist Comedy, Comic Book Orientalism, Orientalist Humor, and extremely rarely, “comedic Orientalism,” to describe the ways in which Western entertainers use popular literature, particularly pulp and comic books, as well as popular media including films, plays, stand up comedy, video, and radio & television to imagine and construct the (Oriental) Other through humor. This humor usually trades in negative stereotypes that portray Asians as being essentially backward, violent, ignorant, sensuous, weak, strange, weird, and exotic, which makes them objects of ridicule and targets for patronizing humor. Orientalist humor and comedy is often risqué, trading on sexist stereotypes of rapacious Oriental tyrants and compliant, sensuous Oriental maidens. Scholars, however, also observe that at times Orientalist comedy is used in less blatant ways to poke fun not only at Asians but also at Western values and attitudes—especially in the case of Orientalist satire. Even then, comic Orientalism generally serves to reinforce the sense that Asians are so alien, so exotic as to be hilarious in the ways they talk, dress, and behave. Dominic Garzonio (2014) points to the standup comedian and ventriloquist, Jeff Dunham, and his puppet, “Achmed the Dead Terrorist,” as an example of contemporary comic Orientalism.  [revised 4/19]

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See also: Aesthetic Orientalism, Blatant Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Literary Orientalism, Orientalese, Orientalist Satire, Pop Orientalism, Popular Orientalism, Pulp Orientalism, Sexual Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Comic Orientalism: Essam Fawzi, “Comic Orientalism,” 2009. At Egypt Independent (www.egyptindependent.com), accessed 3/18; Ragnell, “Too Long for Comment,” 2006. At Written World (http://ragnell.blogspot.com), accessed 3/18; George Simmers, “Alf’s Button,” 2007. At Great War Fiction (https://greatwarfiction.wordpress.com), accessed 3/18; Huei-ju Wang, “Foreclosing Others in Cultural Representation” (Ph.D. diss., Florida, 2006); Marina Warner, “Report to the Memoir Club: Scenes from a Colonial Childhood.” In Contradictory Woolf: Selected Papers from the Twenty-First Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf (Clemson, 2012).  Orientalist Comedy: Dominic Garzonio, “Achmed the Dead Terrorist: The Orientalist Stand-Up Comedy of Jeff Dunham,” 2014. At allacademic convention (https://convention2.allacademic.com), accessed 4/19; Michael L. Ross, Race Riots: Comedy and Ethnicity in Modern British Fiction (McGill-Queen’s U., 2006). Comic Book Orientalism: Sheng-mei Ma, Sinophone-Anglophone Cultural Duet (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); Wen-Chin Ouyang, “Whose Story is It?  Sinbad the Sailor in Literature and Film.” In New Perspectives on Arabian Nights (Routledge, 2005); Den Valdron, “Otis Albert Kline’s Venus,” n.d. At Bill & Sue-On Hillman’s ERBzine (http://www.erbzine.com), accessed 3/18.  Orientalist Humor: Frank J. Korom, “Click Here for Enlightenment: On Tibet, Hollywood, Virtual Communities, Cyberspace Discourse, and Other Matters of Representational Practice.” In Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage: Negotiating Dispossession (Lexington Books, 2018).

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Commercial Orientalism

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Scholars use this term to describe the consumption of exotic cultural goods, services, and images by Westerners (notably in Britain and the United States) for the purpose of self-expression as well as pleasure. These consumables are most usually but not necessarily "Oriental" in origin; and in addition to the sale of goods and wares, they include especially the entertainment and fashion industries—again, with an emphasis on the exotic. Scholars have also described the ways in which such fields as commercial photography, dance, and music have been channels for commercial Orientalism. John Kuo-wei Tchen (1999) describes commercial Orientalism as emerging in mid-19th century New York City and as being an expression of popular, especially middle class, interest in things Chinese. Mica Nava (2007) describes urban English commercial Orientalism prior to World War II as being popular, cosmopolitan, and especially important as a form of women's self-expression, which could in some instances be liberating. Commercial Orientalism is thus generally understood to be less associated with ideological Orientalism or not related to it at all. As this term has generally been used by scholars, that is, it has to do more with the self-fulfillment and self-gratification of the Western consumer than Western self-aggrandizement at the expense of an Other, Asian or otherwise.  [revised 1/18]

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See also: Aesthetic Orientalism, Authentic Orientalism, Chinoiserie, Consumer Orientalism, Corporate Orientalism, Cultural Orientalism, Economic Orientalism, Exotic Orientalism, Fashion Orientalism, Franchised Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Linguistic Orientalism, Material Orientalism, Oriental Enthusiasm, Oriental Look, Orientalist Nostalgia, Orientalist Tourism, Patrician Orientalism, Pop Orientalism, Popular Orientalism, Positive Orientalism, Seaside Orientalism, Transorientalism, Virtual Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Carmen P. González, Local Portraiture: Through the Lens of the 19th-Century Iranian Photographers (Leiden, 2012); Nancy M. Mason, "The Ideology of American Home Economists in China between the 1920s and the 1940s: Interactions between Orientalism and Ideals of Domestic Science." Proceedings of the National Conference of Undergraduate Research 2015 (Eastern Washington, 2015); Mica Nava, “The Cosmopolitanism of Commerce and the Allure of Difference: Selfridges, the Russian Ballet and the Tango 1911-14,” 2012. At UEL: University of East London (http://roar.uel.ac.uk), accessed 1/18; Mica Nava, Visceral Cosmopolitanism: Gender, Culture, and the Normalisation of Difference (Oxford, 2007); Ljerka V. Rasmussen, Newly Composed Folk Music of Yugoslavia (Taylor & Francis, 2013); John Kuo Wei Tchen, New York before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture, 1776-1882 (Johns Hopkins, 1999); Timothy Tseng, “Beyond Orientalism and Assimilation: The Asian American as Historical Subject.” In Realizing the America of our Hearts: Theological Voices of Asian Americans (Chalice Press, 2003); Mari Yoshihara, Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism (Oxford, 2003).

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Commodity Orientalism. See Commercial Orientalism.

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Common Sense Orientalism. See Orientalist Common Sense.

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Comparative Orientalism

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This term is not frequently used, but when scholars do use it they generally do so in one of two closely related ways.  First and more broadly, they use this term to point to the fact that Orientalist analysis is based on making comparisons between the (Western) Self and the (Oriental) Other in ways that often (although not always) imagine and construct the Orient as being superior to the West and thus a source of instruction for it. Timothy Marr, for example, points out that Antebellum American abolitionists romanticized Turkish slavery as being relatively benign and more humane than American slavery. Very rarely, scholars use this term to describe Orientalist comparisons between two facets or elements of the Orient with each other, such as Hinduism and Buddhism.  Second and more narrowly, other scholars use this term to describe a key 19th century movement in Oriental scholarship that reached is zenith in the later 19th century and is associated with the German Orientalist, Max Müller (1823-1900). This movement based its research methodology on comparing facets and elements of Oriental cultures with Western cultures in order to discern the relationships between them; and it is this movement, relying on comparative philology, that discerned the relationship between Sanskrit and European languages. Very rarely, Müller's Orientalist views are termed etymological Orientalism.  [revised 2/18]

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See also: Academic Orientalism, Comparativist Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Philological Orientalism, Positive Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Catrin Gersdorf, The Poetics and Politics of the Desert: Landscape and the Construction of America (Rodopi, 2009); Norman J. Girardot, “The Victorian Text of Chinese Religion: With Special Reference to the Protestant Paradigm of James Legge's Religions of China.” Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie 12 (2001); Anouar Majid, “Only Connect,” 2007. At Tingis (www.tingismagazine.com), accessed 2/18; Timothy Marr, The Cultural Roots of American Islamicism (Cambridge, 2006); Megan C. Thomas, “Orientalism and Comparative Political Theory.” The Review of Politics 72 (2010).

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Comparativist Orientalism

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A very few scholars use this term and the term Orientalist comparativism to propose an alternative, dialogical method for the study of Orientalism.  Their approach begins with the notion that ideological Orientalisms of all stripes are inherently based on dualistic comparisons (esp. East vs. West), most of which are based on ideologies that hold “Orientals” in disdain.  They reframe such comparisons into opportunities for new, mutual understandings of an “Other”.  Karim Mattar (2013), for example, proposes to bring English-language Middle Eastern novels (translated and original) into such a dialogue with the larger body of world literature.  By a comparativist approach, thus, the dualistic nature of Orientalism is transformed from being an obstacle to understanding into being an opportunity for reconciliation.  [2/21]

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See also: Binary Orientalism, Comparative Orientalism, Dialectical Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Positive Orientalism, Saidian Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Comparativist Orientalism: Akbar Rasulov, “Central Asia and the Globalisation of the Contemporary Legal Consciousness.” Law & Critique 25 (2014);  Silke Schmidt, (Re-)Framing the Arab/Muslim: Mediating Orientalism in Contemporary Arab American Life Writing (Transcript Verlag, 2017).  Orientalist Comparativism: Magadalena Horodecka, “Traavel Book as a Form of Intercultural Dialogue: Imperium by Ryszard Kapuściński” In Metamorphoses of Travel Writing: Across Theories, Genres, Centuries and Literary Tradition (Cambridge Scholars, 2010); Karim Mattar, “The Middle Eastern Novel in English: Literary Transnationalism after Orientalism.” (D.Phil. thesis, U. of Oxford, 2013)..

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Complicit Orientalism. See Self-Orientalism.

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Concealed Orientalism. See Hidden Orientalism.

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Constructive Orientalism

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Christopher A. Bayly is credited with having originated this term, which scholars use to describe an Orientalist movement and program in 19th century colonial India that involved certain British educators, officials, and missionaries who sought to communicate Western science and the Christian religion through an inter-cultural dialogue carried out in colonial educational institutions, such as the Benares Sanskrit College and Serampore College. In particular, they advocated the use of Indian languages in instruction and promoted major translation projects of European scientific and other texts into those languages. While these "constructive Orientalists" believed in the essential superiority of European learning and the Christian religion, they sought to communicate that superiority in positive, non-combative ("constructive") ways that would, they hoped, lead Indian scholars to re-align ("re-construct") their indigenous knowledge along Western scientific and Christian lines. They were opposed by the Anglicists who argued for the exclusive use of English in all Indian education. Scholars observe that the constructive Orientalist program influenced Indian nationalist movements and that Hindu and Moslem scholars sought to advance their own Orientalist-like agendas in their dialogues with British governmental and missionary educators. Mark Singleton (2008) traces the origins of the continued interest in yoga in the West to its fabrication by Indian pandit as part of the 19th century constructive Orientalist project.

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See also: Administrative Orientalism, Affirmative Orientalism, Colonial Orientalism, Flexible Orientalism, Humanistic Orientalism (second meaning), Learned Orientalism, Missionary Orientalism, Liberal Orientalism, Orientalist Education, Practical Orientalism (19th Century), Pragmatic Orientalism (1st Scholar), Reverse Orientalism, Sympathetic Orientalism, Textual Orientalism, Utilitarian Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Christopher Alan Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780-1870 (Cambridge, 1996); Hayden J. A. Bellenoit, Missionary Education and Empire in Late Colonial India, 1860-1920 (Routledge, 2007); Michael S. Dodson, Orientalism, Empire, and National Culture: India, 1770-1880 (Foundation Books, 2011); Halim Ikhleft, “Constructive Orientalism: Debates on Languages and Educational Policies in Colonial India, 1830-1880.” In Connecting Histories of Education: Transnational and Cross-Cultural Exchanges in (Post-) Colonial Education (Berghahn Books, 2014); Joydeep Sen, Astronomy in India, 1784–1876 (Routledge, 2014); Mark Singleton, "The Classical Reveries of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Constructive Orientalism." In Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge, 2008); Sujit Sivasundaram, "‘A Christian Benares’: Orientalism, Science and the Serampore Mission of Bengal." The Indian Economic & Social History Review 44 (2007).

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Consumer Orientalism

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Scholars use this term to describe the intimate historical relationship between the Western notions of consumerism and Orientalism, by which the West has long consumed a great variety of “Oriental” material and immaterial goods and services including such things as literature, art, architecture, fashion, spiritualties, photography, cuisine, the cinema and other performing arts, music, video games, animation, pornography, furnishings, interior decorations, and even tableware, among many, many other things.  Scholars argue that the consumption of these Oriental goods and services and the rise of modern consumerism from at least the 17th century have mutually reinforced each other.  Gwendolyn Collaco (2011), for example, describes how later 17th century Europeans developed a taste for Turkish coffee and coffee houses out of a romantic desire to experience the exotic.  She argues, however, that these European consumers of the Orient continued to imagine the Turks as being essentially and irredeemably barbaric as well, a heathen people to be feared.  Consumer Orientalism, thus, expresses the ways in which Western consumers imagine the Orient to be, at once, dangerous and alluring—violent, mysterious, sensual, decadent, immoral, exotic, and romantic.  There has long been something desirable about consuming things of the exotic East and scholars report that among these desirable “commodities” are Asian women who have been imagined and constructed as being alluring, sensual, desirable, and downtrodden.  In more recent decades, “exotic” Asian singing groups, often composed of sexy young women performers, and music from nations such as Japan and Korea have been “objects” of Western consumption.  The Western academic study of the Orient has also both spurred and benefitted from the rise of consumer capitalism, as it provided information and ideas about the East that were turned into commodities for consumption.  While scholars use this term and the term commercial Orientalism in very similar ways, they use this term generally in more negative ways, associating it with crass “consumerism” and concomitant, dehumanizing forms of ideological Orientalism. [8/19]

 

See also: Academic Orientalism, Chinoiserie, Commercial Orientalism, Economic Orientalism, Exotic Orientalism, Fashion Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Material Orientalism, Oriental Fad, Orientalist Fad, Orientalist Tourism, Pop Orientalism, Romantic Orientalism, Sexist Orientalism, Zen Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Sophia R. Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination (Oxford, 2015); Gwedolyn Collaco, "The Ottoman Coffeehouse: all the Charms and Dangers of Cmmonality in the 16th-17th century." Lights: The MESSA Journal 1 (2011); Dave, “True Grit and Rough Justice: Wild West as Arcades Project,” 2011.  At Madame Pickwick Art Blog (www.madamepickwickartblog.com), accessed 8/19; Billi Mirella, “Oriental Fantasies in Beckford and Byron: The Language(s) of Romance,” [2002]. At Centro Interuniversitario Perso Studio del Romanticismo (www.lilec.it/romanticismo/), accessed 8/19; Jane Park, "Cibo Matto's Stereotype A: Articulating Asian American Hip Pop." In East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture (New York U., 2005); Umar Shahid, “Consumer Orientalism in the Corporate Media,” [2016]. At Crescent International (https://crescent.icit-digital.org), accessed 8/19; Nat Zappiah, "Coffeehouses and Culture." Huntington Library Quarterly 70 (2007).

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Contemplative Orientalism. See Intellectual Orientalism.

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Contemporary Orientalism

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This term is very frequently used by scholars and others to describe the Orientalisms of a particular era that are either: (a) chronologically simultaneous with a subject or period under study (such as "contemporary Orientalisms of the 19th century"): or, (b) found in the present world today. The latter focus on the present very much predominates and most scholars use this term to describe the Orientalisms of our own time. While they differ as to when "our own time" begins, most often they point to the publication of Edward W. Said's book, Orientalism (1978), as the beginning point of contemporary Orientalism. Others see it as beginning with the events of 9/11 and the War on Terror. At times, scholars contrast contemporary Orientalism with past eras, most commonly dividing the history of ideological Orientalism into two periods: classical and contemporary.  Like Said himself, many scholars see contemporary Orientalism as being heavily influenced by the past and in most ways a continuation of it. Said claims that classical Orientalism remains concealed (latent) within contemporary Orientalisms, which means that there was little chance for them to change. Contemporary Orientalism thus continues to be an ideology by which Orientalists imagine and construct the (Oriental) Other as having an essential, timeless nature that is irredeemably exotic, backward, sensuous, violent, ignorant, and so forth. Still, most scholars acknowledge that contemporary Orientalisms differ in some ways from those of the past—the differences depending on the particular scholar. Some, for example, argue that today Orientalism is dominated by the United States rather than Western Europe. Or again, some contend that contemporary Orientalisms often tend to be less obvious and more disguised or hidden than in the past. Today, for example, Orientalists sometimes avow that there are "good" Arabs and "good things" about their culture(s) while still seeing all Arabs as sharing an essential nature that is absolutely different from and inferior to the West. Orientalists are, furthermore, thought to be responding to a new global context marked by rapid communications that is bringing East and West into closer and more intense proximity, which requires more agile and subtle Orientalist strategies of response. While in the main, then, Orientalism remains Orientalism, Said and others have voiced the hope that contemporary scholarship is learning how to identify, critique, and counter even the most subtle of Orientalisms so that there is hope for the future. In art, finally, scholars and others often use this term in a more positive sense arguing that contemporary Western Orientalist artists, especially painters, frequently portray Asian realities as they are, rather than ideologically. They point, for example, to the work of the Spanish Orientalist artist, José González Bueno (1957- ) including his painting, "Grand Mosque of Damascus." Other scholars and critics, however, note that many Orientalist artists still treat their subjects in more negative and stereotypical ways.  [4/18]

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See also: Hidden Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Late Orientalism, Latent Orientalism, Mainstream Orientalism, Modern Orientalism, Modernist Orientalism, New Orientalism, Postmodern Orientalism, Saidian Orientalism, Techno-Orientalism, Virtual Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Selda Dagistanli & Kiran Grewal, “Perverse Muslim Masculinities in Contemporary Orientalist Discourse: The Vagaries of Muslim Immigration in the West.” In Global Islamophobia: Muslims and Moral Panic in the West (Taylor & Francis, 2016); Till Dehrmann, “A Critical Look at Said’s Theses on Orientalism in Fine Arts and Their Impact on the Evaluation of Orientalist Paintings, 2012.” At ArtsCad (http://en.artscad.com), accessed 4/18; Daniel P. S. Goh, “Oriental Purity: Postcolonial Discomfort and Asian Values.” positions 20 (2012); Mahmmoud M. Al-Jbarat, “The Contemporary Orientalism Crisis.”  Journal of Literature, Language & Culture 1 (2015); Mojgan Khosravi, “Shirin Neshat: A Contemporary Orientalist” (M.A. thesis, Georgia State, 2011); Nigel Lendon, “A Tournament of Shadows: Alighiero Boetti, the Myth of Influence, and a Contemporary Orientalism,” 2011-2012. At emaj (emajartjournal.com), accessed 4/18; Mayuko Maekawa, “Reconsidering Orientalism/Occidentalism: Representations of a Japanese Martial Art in Melbourne” (Ph.D. diss,, Melbourne, 2013); Stephen Morton, “The Unhappy Marriage of ‘Third World’ Women’s Movements and Orientalism.” In After Orientalism: Critical Entanglements, Productive Looks (Rodopi, 2003); Edward W. Said, Orientalism (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978); Sanjay Sharma & Ashwani Sharma, “White Paranoia: Orientalism in the Age of Empire.” Fashion Theory 7 (2003); Lynn Spigel, “Entertainment Wars: Television Culture after 9/11.” American Quarterly 56 (2004); Bryan S. Turner, Orientalism, Postmodernism, and Globalism (Routledge, 1994).

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Conventional Orientalism

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Scholars use this term to describe Orientalisms that are taken to be generally and widely accepted as representative of the notion of “Orientalism”.  Going back into the 19th century, scholars and critics used it to describe a particular “Oriental” aesthetic style of music, art, and literature that was exotic, sensuous, and mysterious in supposedly typically Oriental ways.  Critics, at times, continue to use this term in this way down to the present.  Since the publication of Edward W. Said’s Orientalism (1978), scholars by-and-large use this term to refer to his pejorative description of Orientalism as being a long-held set of Western ideological stereotypes that imagine and create Asians, especially Arabs and Muslims, as being culturally, intellectually, socially, politically, economically, and morally inferior to the West.  Peoples of European descent thus have feared “Orientals” as being dangerous to Western civilization and pitied them for their degraded condition—their fear and pity as well as economic greed fueling European colonialism and Western imperialism.  Such conventional Orientalisms evolve somewhat over time so that some scholars, for example, consider modern Orientalism to be a latter-day form of conventional Orientalism.  Conventional Orientalisms are also by definition sexist and racist in their portrayals of Asian women, men, and peoples more generally.  This term is, thus, a cognate for such widely used terms as classical Orientalism, ideological Orientalism, Saidian Orientalism, and traditional Orientalism; and scholars also use other synonyms of this term, including ordinary Orientalism, regular Orientalism, standard Orientalism, typical Orientalism, and usual Orientalism.  “Conventional Orientalism” seems to be the most commonly used of this family of terms, although “typical Orientalism” is also somewhat frequently used. [2/21]

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See also: Aesthetic Orientalism, Classical Orientalism, European Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Modern Orientalism, Musical Orientalism, Neo-Orientalism, Saidian Orientalism, Sexual Orientalism, Traditional Orientalism, Victorian Orientalism.   Note: virtually all of the cross-references in the entry for Saidian Orientalism are also cross-references for "conventional Orientalism."

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Sources & Examples: Conventional Orientalism:  Michael Bourdaghs, The Dawn that Never Comes: Shimazaki Tōson and Japanese Nationalism (Columbia U., 2003); Lovett F. Edwards, “Fitting the Film: Some Points of Criticism.” Music News and Herald 62 (1922); Ruben Flores, Backroads Pragmatists: Mexico's Melting Pot and Civil Rights in the United States (U. of Pennsylvania, 2014); Laura Frost, The Problem with Pleasure: Modernism and Its Discontents (Columbia U., 2013); Jagvinder Gill, “Re-Oriented Britain – How British Asian Travellers and Settlers have Utilised and Reversed Orientalist Discourse 1770-2010.” (Ph.D. diss., U. of Warwick, 2010); Oumaimah A. G. Joholee, “Representations of Bearded Muslim Men and Hijab-wearing Muslim Women in Post-9/11 Fiction.” (MHS, International Islamic U. of Malaysia, 2016); M. Kufferath, “Rhythm, Melody and Harmony (Concluded).” Music: A Monthly Magazine 17 (1899);  Duncan Lien, “Tearing Down the Bridge between East and West:  The (Re-)Writing of Albanian Identity in the Millosh Kopiliq Epic and Ismail Kadare’s The Siege.” Journal of Literature, Culture and Literary Translation 6 (2016); Daniel Milne, “
Discourses on Japan in Anglophone Tourist Guidebooks: Lonely Planet in the 1980s.” Tourism Studies Review 1 (2013); Eva Piatek, “Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit,” 2012. At title (www.title-magazine.com), accessed 2/21; Paul Richard, “In Baltimore, Faulty Impressionism: Disjointed Timeline Nearly Masks Portrait Exhibit's Finest Faces,” 14 November 1999. At The Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com), accessed 2/21; Jules Siran, “The Paradox of the Exotic Avant-Garde Theater in the 1920s: Archaism and Modernity in the Baty-Lenormand Collaboration.” In Sociétés & Représentations 31 (2011); Mark Swed, “Review: Ballet Preljocaj’s ‘Les Nuits’ Seduces but is Problematic,” 2014. At Los Angeles Times (www.latimes.com), accessed 2/21; Huei-Ju Wang, “Foreclosing Others in Cultural Representation.” (Ph.D.  diss., U. of Florida, 2006); Xing Wang, “Rethinking Material Religion in the East: Orientalism and Religious Material Culture in Contemporary Western Academia.” Religions 9 (2018).  Other: Edward W. Said, Orientalism (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978).

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Cooperative Orientalism

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A handful of scholars use this term to describe a form of self-Orientalism most often associated with Chinese cinematic developments dating from roughly 1990 by which Chinese directors have drawn on Western Orientalist themes, particularly erotic fantasies, to attract both international and local Chinese audiences. The films of Zhang Yimou (1951- ), such as Raise the Red Lantern (1991), are cited as a notable example of this trend.  This usage of Western ideological Orientalisms is “cooperative” in the sense that “Oriental” scenes, stories, and personalities are re-imagined and constructed to appeal to both Western and Asian audiences.  Valesi (2010) argues that cooperative Orientalism is, thus, a form of Asian Occidentalism by which Chinese directors imagine what will capture the Orientalist gaze of Western viewers as well as Chinese audiences, who purportedly see themselves through what they take to be a Western lens.  [2/21]

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See also: Aesthetic Orientalism, Cinematic Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Occidentalism, Oriental Orientalism, Orientalist Gaze, Self-Orientalism, Sexual Orientalism..

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Sources & Examples: Ashley Counts, “Raise the Red Lantern: The Cinematic Orient and Female Conflict,” 2019. At It’s 3 a.m. Again (https://my3amdotblog.files.wordpress.com), accessed 2/21; Shuqin Cui, “The Return of the Repressed: Masculinity and Sexuality Reconsidered.” In A Companion to Chinese Cinema (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012); Shuqin Cui, Women Through the Lens: Gender and Nation in a Century of Chinese Cinema (U. of Hawai’I, 2003); Patrick D. McGuire, "Unveiling Identities: A Cultural Study of the Portrayal of Leading Women in Zhang Yimou Films.” (Ph.D. diss., U. of Southern Mississippi, 2019); Marco Valesi, “The Western Exoticism of Twelve Girls Band.” In One World Periphery Reads the Other: Knowing the “Oriental” in the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula (Cambridge Scholars, 2010).

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Corporate Orientalism

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Scholars use this term usually in at least two distinct ways.  First and most commonly, the use of this term originates with Edward W. Said (1978) although he does not use it as such himself. Rather, he summarizes three basic meanings of the term Orientalism, the third of which is its "corporate meaning" (see Orientalism, p. 3), which encompasses all of the ways that Western Orientalists institutionalize their stereotypes of "Orientals". Said also argues that Orientalism has a "corporate identity" embodied in scholarly fields of study, academic societies and institutions, political and governmental institutions, commercial enterprises, and various forms of literature (p. 202). Said, that is, uses the idea of a corporate meaning and identity for Orientalism to describe Orientalism as one corporate body that employs a wide variety of activities using a wide range of institutions to impose its stereotypes of the Orient on Orientals. When other scholars use this term, they most often use it in this Saidian sense and usually cite him as their reference. Scholars use this term only infrequently.  Second, very rarely a few scholars use this term to describe business corporations as agents of Orientalist ideologies.  [revised 9/18]

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See also: Commercial Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Manifest Orientalism, Saidian Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Tarek Cherkaoui, “Orientalism, Pan-Arabism, and Military-Media Warfare: a Comparison between CNN and Aljazeera Coverage of the Iraq War” (Ph.D. diss., Auckland U. of Technology, 2010); Jukka Jouhki, "Orientalism and India." J@rgonia 4 (2006); Roberta E. Pearson, Reading Lost: Perspectives on a Hit Television Show (I. B. Tauris, 2009); Edward W. Said, Orientalism (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978).

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Cosmopolitan Orientalism

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Scholars use of this term and the term Orientalist cosmopolitanism to examine the relationship between two notions that appear to be contradictory.  “Cosmopolitanism” suggests an open, receptive attitude toward other cultures and peoples, seeing them as being part of a larger, universal whole, while “Orientalism,” as explicated by Edward W. Said (1978), imagines and constructs (Oriental) Others as having essential, unchanging, and inferior identities.  Scholars have collectively come to two key conclusions concerning the relationship between the two: first, there is some consensus that Orientalist stereotypes often undermine cosmopolitanism because of the widely held, unspoken assumption that the West is the measure of that which is universal and thus of all that is good.  In this sense, scholars see Orientalist cosmopolitanism as being similar to Said’s notion of a semi-conscious latent Orientalism that uses (supposedly universal) ideological stereotypes to categorize the Other, and they cite neoliberal Orientalism as an example of a corrupted cosmopolitanism.  Second, some scholars argue, however, that cosmopolitan attitudes can transform Said’s version of Orientalism into positive Orientalisms that are receptive to the essential goodness and value of the Other.  Drawing on their studies of Orientalist tourism, for example, Haldrup (2009) and Peelen & Smallegoor (2018-2019) suggest that there can be a dialogical interaction between Orientalist and cosmopolitan values tending toward a more inclusive attitude toward other peoples and cultures.  In sum, the relationship between Orientalism and cosmopolitanism is complex and very much a matter of individual experience and inclination—although scholars seem to feel that the subterranean, corruptive power of Saidian Orientalisms must always be taken into account.  It should be noted that very occasionally scholars and critics use the term, “cosmopolitan Orientalism,” to describe an eclectic infusion of “exotic” Oriental styles into such things as ballet performances. [revised 2/21]

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See also: Aesthetic Orientalism, Alternative Orientalism, Global Orientalism, Hidden Orientalism, International Orientalism, Levantine Orientalism, Neoliberal Orientalism, Orientalist Tourism, Positive Orientalism, Saidian Orientalism, Sarmatian Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Cosmopolitan Orientalism: Giuditta Cianfanelli, “Arabism and Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism in the Writer Valle-Inclán.” Quaderns de la Mediterrània 18-19 (2013); Ewa Domanska, “The Orientalization of a European Orient: Turkquerie and Chinoiserie in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Poland.” Twaiwan Journal of East Asian Studies 1 (2004); David Neil Geraghty, “Old Stories, New Authors: Orientalism, Cosmopolitanism and India” (Ph.D. diss., Monash U., 2014); Paul Hayes, “Asian Restaurant/Bar,” 2001. At Men’s Folio (https://www.mens-folio.com/), accessed 2/21; Joanna Neilly, “The Image of the Orient in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Writing” (Ph.D. diss., Edinburgh, 2013); Shazia Rahman, “Rachna Mara’s Cosmopolitan (Yet Partial) Feminisms.”  Ariel 38 (2007); Roxana Verona, "A Cosmopolitan Orientalism: Paul Morand Goes East." Sites 51 (2001); James Watt, British Orientalisms, 1759–1835 (Cambridge, 2019); Takayuki Yokota-Murakami, “The Future in the Margin: The National and the International in the Russian Émigré Poetry from the Far East.”Primerjalna književnost 2 (2009).  Orientalist Cosmopolitanism: Michael Haldrup, “Banal Tourism? Between Cosmopolitanism and Orientalism.” In Cultures of Mass Tourism: Doing the Mediterranean in the Age of Banal Mobilities (Ashgate, 2009); Bijender Kumar. “Cosmopolitanism in Bharati Mukherjee's Fiction.” The Criterion 8 (2017); Sujata Moorti & Lisa Cuklanz, All-American TV Crime Drama: Feminism and Identity Politics in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” (I.B. Tauris, 2017); Melanie Peelen & Joanne Smallegoor, “Mutual Imaginaries: Perceptions of Otherness and the Performance of a Cosmopolitan Identity in Arambol.” (Bachelor Project, Utrecht U., 2018-2019);  Shazia Rahman, "Cosmopolitanism, Internationalization and Orientalism: Bharati Mukherjee’s Peritexts." Journal of Postcolonial Writing 49 (2013).  Other: Edward W. Said, Orientalism (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978).

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Counter-Orientalism

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Scholars use this term usually in one of two ways.  First, they use it to describe those discourses and practices that seek to resist Orientalist prejudices. Most generally, counter-Orientalists attempt to question and undermine Orientalist ideologies, institutions, and behaviors by seeking to understand the Other in ways that do not duplicate Orientalist thinking. Counter-strategies include discovering new interpretations, listening to a variety of voices, avoiding dualistic categories, and engaging in intercultural dialogue. The goal of counter-Orientalism is to restore the humanity of Orientalized subjects. Edward W. Said is sometimes considered to be an example of a counter-Orientalist voice. A possibility inherent in counter-Orientalisms is that counter-Orientalist discourses may themselves covertly rely on Orientalist ways of thinking and acting. Second, in a few instances scholars use this term to describe a class of scholars, such as Bernard Lewis, who reject Said's analysis of the notion of Orientalism or want to revise it to one degree or another.

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See also: Affirmative Orientalism, Dissident Orientalism, Jewish Orientalism, Orientalist Projection, Radical Orientalism (2nd Usage), Reverse Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Reed W. Dasenbrock, "Saladin, Confucius, and the Status of the Other in Dante and Pound.” In Dante e Pound: Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi «Dante e Pound», Ravenna, 8–10 Settembre 1995 (Longo Editore, 1998); Mariana Ferrarelli, “Children’s Literature and Gender: A Critical Approach.” Critical Literacy 1 (2007); Malreddy P. Kumar, "Introduction: Orientalism(s) after 9/11." Journal of Postcolonial Writing 48 (2012); Karla Mallette, European Modernity and the Arab Mediterranean: Toward a New Philology and a Counter-Orientalism (U. of Pennsylvania, 2010); Stefano Rapisarda, “Orientalism, Counter-Orientlaisms and the History of Philology.” Archivio Storico per la Scilia Orientale 105 (2009).

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Covert Orientalism. See Hidden Orientalism.

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Creeping Orientalism

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Scholars generally use this term in one of two ways: first, most scholars who use this term, as well as some motion picture and literary critics, use it to describe the slow, cumulative infiltration of the type of Western Orientalist stereotypes and prejudices described in Edward W. Said’s seminal text, Orientalism (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978)—stereotypes that brand Asians as having an essentially unchanging and inferior identity.  Thus, Thomas Angotti (2013) argues that post-Revolutionary China has pursued urban planning and other policies severed from its original emphasis on rural and peasant life, which policies have over time amounted to a Westernizing “creeping Orientalism”.   Second, much less frequently a few scholars use this term to describe Western Orientalists fears of the subterranean spread of “Oriental” thinking or themes.  While not rare, this term is also not widely used, esp. in its second usage.  [2/21]

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See also: Cinematic Orientalism, Hidden Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Implicit Orientalism, Latent Orientalism, Literary Orientalism, Saidian Orientalism, Self-Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Thomas Angotti, The New Century of the Metropolis: Urban Enclaves and Orientalism (Routledge, 2013); Morgan Baxter, “Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson,” 2014. At Somorgasbok (http://smorgasbook.blogspot.com), accessed 2/21; Antoinette Burton, The Postcolonial Careers of Santha Rama Rau (Duke U., 2007); Joshua Foust, “Spilling Over in Central Asia,” 2010. At Intellibriefs (https://intellibriefs.blogspot.com), accessed 2/21; Devyani Gupta, Book Review: “The Testimonies of Indian Soldiers and the Two World Wars: Gajendra Singh
.” In The Round Table 2015 (Routledge, 2015);  Ellen E. Jones, “’There are No Black People on Game of Thrones’: Why is Fantasy TV so White?,” 2019. At The Guardian (www.theguardian.com), accessed 2/21; Kathryn Lasky, “To Stingo with Love: An Author’s Perpsective on Writing outside One’s Culture.” New Advocate 9 (1996); James Najarian, “The ‘Problem’ of Buddhism for Western Literature.” In The Routledge Companion to Literature and Religion (Routledge, 2016).

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Critical Orientalism

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Scholars use this term to describe analytical, scholarly (i.e. "critical") treatments of the subject of Orientalism and Orientalist discourses, which treatments fall into two large categories. First, scholars more often apply this term to Edward W. Said's analysis of Saidian Orientalism in his book, Orientalism (1978) and other writings as well as all of the critical, analytical scholarly work that has been done on Saidian Orientalism and ideological Orientalism, since 1978. Said in this case is credited with founding critical Orientalism. A very few scholars have called Saidian and ideological Orientalism unself-critical Orientalism or pre-critical Orientalism. More broadly, the term critical Orientalism is used occasionally to refer to scholarly, analytical evaluations of Orientalism without any reference to Said.  Second, a few scholars have used this term more precisely to describe European Orientalist intellectual currents that imagined the "Orient" as having an essential, verifiable reality but were self-critically aware of the limitations of the knowledge of its reality including specifically certain Enlightenment writers and a larger number of nineteenth-century European scholars who were both Orientalists and critical of ideological Orientalism.

 

See also: Academic Orientalism, Conformist Orientalism, Enlightenment Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Post-Orientalism, Post-Saidian Orientalism, Saidian Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Hasan Baktir, “Representation of the Ottoman Orient in Eighteenth Century English Literature” (Ph.D. diss., Middle East Technical U., 2007); William I. Cohen, Reflections on Orientalism: Edward Said, Roger Besnahan, Surjit Dulai, Edward Graham, and Donald Lammers (Michigan State, [1983]); Peter Heehs, “Shades of Orientalism: Paradoxes and Problems in Indian Historiography.” History and Theory 42 (2003); Jeffrey S. Librett, Orientalism and the Figure of the Jew (Fordham, 2015); Sherry Vint, “Joanna Russ’s The Two of Them in an Age of Third-wave Feminism.” In On Joanna Russ (Wesleyan, 2009); Jennifer Yee, The Colonial Comedy: Imperialism in the French Realist Novel (Oxford, 2016).

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Crony Orientalism

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Scholars use this term to describe an economic system, supposedly prevalent in parts of Asia, in which politically connected family members and/or friends and associates receive preferential financial treatment from those in power. In the wake of the Asian financial crisis of 1997, a number of economists and other commentators used this notion to argue that the crisis was caused by deficiencies and instabilities associated with crony capitalism and that Asian, especially Southeast Asian, nations are culturally susceptible to crony capitalism because they are patron-client societies. Scholars also sought to prove their point by showing that Asian nations predominated in “indexes of crony capitalism.” While Andrew Latham (1999) considers these arguments to be a resurrection of 19th century economic Orientalism, scholars generally have not framed the debate over crony capitalism in terms of Orientalism. They have, however, argued that blaming the 1997 crisis on Asian crony capitalism: (1) inserts irrelevant ideological concerns into that debate; (2) ignores the fact that cronyism is a worldwide phenomenon and is not intrinsically tied to patron-client societies; (3) introduces a moralistic, demeaning attitude concerning Asian values and cultural forms; (4) ignores the fact that the 1997 crisis had differing causes in different nations; and, (5) says more about those who make this claim than about Asian economies themselves. Several of these points recall scholarly critiques of the idea of Orientalism; and the notion of crony capitalism as it is applied to Asian nations is, in fact, a covert form of ideological Orientalism.  [1/19]

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See also: Covert Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Economic Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Andrew Latham, "Response to Woo-Cumings," Macalester International 7 (1999); Eddy Lee, "The Debate on the Causes of the Asian Crisis: Crony Capitalism Versus International System Failure." Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft (1999); Andrew MacIntyre, “Crony Capitalism in East Asia: Has Anything Changed?,” 2006.  At Crawford.anu.edu.au (https://crawford.anu.edu.au), accessed 1/19; Pia Muzaffar, “To What Extent is ‘Crony Capitalism’ a Reasonable Explanation for Recent Experiences of the East Asian ‘Developmental State’?,” 2008. At E-International Relations Students (www.e-ir.info), accessed 1/19; Robert Wade,“From ‘Miracle’ to ‘Cronyism’: Explaining the Great Asian Slump.” In Financial Liberalization and the Asian Crisis (Palgrave, 2001).

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Crude Orientalism

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Scholars use this term, almost invariably in passing and without defining it, to refer directly or by implication to Saidian Orientalism. In usage, it is similar to hard Orientalism. To the degree that there is a distinction, it would be that hard Orientalism is more intentional, a choice, and could be well thought out; crude Orientalism is ideological Orientalism in its most basic, raw, and unrefined state. Rarely, there is an implication that crude Orientalism is an earlier stage in the development of Orientalism.

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See also: Hard Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Saidian Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Heribert Adam & Kogila Moodley, Seeking Mandela: Peacemaking Between Israelis and Palestinians (UCL Press, 2005); Ron Geaves, Islam Today: An Introduction (Continuum International, 2010); John Maier, Desert Songs: Western Images of Morocco and Moroccan Images of the Wes t(State U. of New York, 1996); Arne J. Vetlesen, Evil and Human Agency: Understanding Collective Evildoing (Cambridge, 2005).

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Crypto Orientalism. See Hidden Orientalism.

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Culinary Orientalism

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Scholars use this infrequently used term usually to describe situations where an (Oriental) Other is imagined and defined by the supposedly "exotic" foods they eat and the ways in which they eat. In some cases, these eating habits are seen to be crude and repulsive; in other cases, they may be enticing and even promote spiritual healing. A very few scholars use the term Gastronomical Orientalism to describe a form of culinary Orientalism in which Western consumers of "exotic Oriental" cuisine imagine, control, and thus determine what they consider to be authentic Asian cuisine, which removes Asian food from its own context.  [8/16]

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See also: Economic Orientalism, Practical Orientalism (Post-Said), Cultural Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Jon Fasman, “Culinary Orientalism,” 2007. At New York Times (www.nytimes.com), accessed 8/16; Jeremy Strong, “A Short Poetics of Cruel Food.” In Educated Tastes: Food, Drink, and Connoisseur Culture (U. of Nebraska, 2011); Merrianne Timko, “Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet:A Culinary Perspective.” In Durrell and the City: Collected Essays on Place  (Fairleigh Dickinson, 2012).

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Cultural Orientalism

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Scholars use this widely-used term usually in one of two ways, both of which reflect the two basic meanings of the word "culture" itself.  First, they use it broadly to describe all of the many ways in which Orientalists imagine and construct an (Oriental) Other's social behavior and relationships, ways of life, values, beliefs, customs and practices, ideas, language, and anything else that is generally and broadly considered to be "cultural". In this sense, it can be argued that Orientalism in its many forms is first-and-foremost about culture. Orientalists invent imaginary pseudo-cultures, which they impose on the Other.  Second, scholars more narrowly use this term to describe "culture" as one medium of Orientalist expression, which includes such things as literature, the arts, and music—what collectively is often termed "high" culture. In this usage, scholars sometimes include it in lists of types of Orientalism, which might also include, for example, academic Orientalism or ideological Orientalism. Only occasionally do scholars consciously include popular culture in the use of this particular term although some do observe that the Asian tourist industry imagines and constructs its own "Oriental" cultures (including merchandise and attractions) to sell to tourists. While Edward W. Said (1978) does not use this term as such, he does treat the relationship of Orientalism to culture in both these ways and argues that Western Orientalists have long used their ideological constructions of the East to dominate it culturally by constructing the East as being essentially inferior to the West. Most scholars follow Said's usage and argue that Western Orientalists have long stereotyped the cultures of "the Orient" as being degenerate, more or less corrupt, decadent, sensual, and effeminate. Historically, the notion of cultural Orientalism is linked to European colonialism, and some scholars argue that in effect classical academic Orientalism as a field of study focused on Asian cultures.  Oriental cultures, in this case, are specifically the object of the Western Orientalist gaze.  [revised 9/18]

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See also: Academic Orientalism, Aesthetic Orientalism, Bloomsbury Orientalism, Cinematic Orientalism, Commercial Orientalism, Culinary Orientalism, Cultural Orientalism (Post-Said), Exotic Orientalism, False Orientalism, Fashion Orientalism, Governmental Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism, Linguistic Orientalism, Orientalese, Orientalist Gaze, Orientalist Tourism, Philosophical Orientalism, Pop Orientalism, Popular Orientalism, Practical Orientalism (Post-Said), Pulp Orientalism, Postmodern Orientalism, Saidian Orientalism, Sartorial Orientalism, Social Orientalism, Techno-Orientalism, Transorientalism, Vernacular Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Fouad Bougetta & Sally Bould, “Oil Revenues and Problematic Development: The Case of Algeria.” Discourse of Sociological Practice 7 (2005); Madeleine Dobie, Foreign Bodies: Gender, Language, and Culture in French Orientalism (Stanford, 2001); Allen Douglas & Fedwa Malti-Douglas, “Orientalism – Bibliography,” n.d. At Science Encyclopedia (http://science.jrank.org), accessed 8/18; Vasant Kaiwar & Sucheta Mazumdar, “The Coordinates of Orientalism: Reflections on the Universal and the Particular.” In From Orientalism to Postcolonialism: Asia, Europe and the Lineages of Difference (Routledge, 2009); Kim M. Phillips, Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing, 1245-1510 (U. of Pennsylvania, 2014); David Prochaska, “Art of Colonialism, Colonialism of Art: The Description de l’Égypte (1809–1828). L'Esprit Créateur 34 (1994); Edward W. Said, Orientalism (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978); Adel Samara, “Terrorist Orientalism in a State Form: Using Marxism, Christianity and Islam to Dismantle Arab Homeland (Part 1),” 2015.  At Kanaanonline (https://kanaanonline.org), accessed 8/18; Joshua Teitelbaum & Meir Litvak, “Students, Teachers, and Edward Said: Taking Stock of Orientalism.” Middle East Review of International Affairs 10 (2006).

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Cybernetic Orientalism

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This term is seldom used and frequently used in passing in various contexts. There does not seem to be a clear, concise meaning that is generally agreed upon. It appears to be still less used after roughly 2000. The scholars who use this term seem to be making at least two assertions about the nature of ideological Orientalism and its relationship to information and decision-making systems.  First, Orientalism itself may be viewed as a closed informational system designed by Orientalists over time to manage their perceptions of "Oriental" Others.  Second, scholars also use this term to suggest that designers and users of cybernetic informational problem solving systems tend to introduce, perhaps unwittingly, Orientalist stereotypes and prejudices into those systems.  [7/17]

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See also: Electronic Orientalism, Techno-Orientalism, Ideological Orientalism.

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Sources & Examples: Kathleen Biddick, The Shock of Medievalism (Duke, 1998); Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, “Sexuality in the Age of Fiber Optics” (Ph. D. diss., Princeton, 1999); C. Greig Crysler, “Introduction: Time’s Arrows: Spaces of the Past.” In The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory (SAGE, 2013); Ashley Dawson, “The Visual Economy of Urban Empire,” 2011; At Ashley Dawson (https://ashleydawson.info), accessed 7/17.

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