Occidentalism
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The term Occidentalism usually refers to stereotyped and sometimes dehumanizing views on the so-called Western world, including Europe, the United States, and Australia. The term was popularized by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit in their book Occidentalism: the West in the Eyes of its Enemies (2004). The term is an inversion of Orientalism, Edward Said’s label for stereotyped Western views of the East. A number of earlier books had also used the term, sometimes with different meanings, such as Chen Xiaomei's Occidentalism: A Theory of Counter-Discourse in Post-Mao China (New York: Oxford, 1995).
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[edit] Eastern views of the West
Negative views of Western culture in the East can be traced back as far as Persian attitudes to Greek and Roman culture, or to later clashes between Islam and Christendom. However, the very definition of an East/West opposition has been fluid and uncertain. For example, in China the "Eastern" Han Dynasty (25–221 CE) portrayed a negative image of the "west" China in the "Chapter on the Western Regions in China" in the Hou Hanshu. This is the official history of the dynasty. The book was compiled by Fan Ye, (died 445 CE), and it succinctly expresses the Han opinion of the Western Hu culture (Hu is today's western China and central Asia.):
- The Western Hu are far away.
- They live in an outer zone.
- Their countries' products are beautiful and precious,
- But their character is debauched and frivolous.
- They do not follow the rites of China.
- Han has the canonical books.
- They do not obey the Way of the Gods.
- How pitiful!
- How obstinate!
Clearly the "west" here does not correspond to the modern meaning of the term, but it indicates that the Othering of geographically and culturally alien peoples has a long history.
With the spread of European trade and imperialism during the 18th and 19th centuries the modern concept of an East/West distinction came to be more clearly articulated. Derogatory or stereotyped portrayals of Westerners appear in many works of Indian, Chinese and Japanese artists during this period.[citation needed] At the same time Western influence in politics, culture, economics and science came to be more strongly felt, and often resented. In the late 20th century many Western cultural themes and images began appearing in Asian art and culture, especially in Japan. English words and phrases are prominent in Japanese advertising and popular culture, and many Japanese anime are written around characters, settings, themes, and mythological figures derived from various Western cultural traditions. In contrast, some other cultures have sought to distance themselves from western influences and to emphasise native cultural traditions. In some cases this resistance extends to western economic and political models.
[edit] Occidentalism to Western eyes
Buruma and Margalit argue that this nationalist and nativist resistance to the "West" actually replicates responses to forces of modernisation that have their roots in Western culture itself, among both utopian radicals and nationalist conservatives who saw capitalism, liberalism and secularism as destructive forces. They argue that while early responses to the West represent a genuine encounter between alien cultures, many of the later manifestations of Occidentalism betray the influence on Eastern intellectuals of Western ideas, such as the supremacy of the Nation-State, the Romantic rejection of rationality and the alleged spiritual impoverishment of the citizens of liberal democracies. They trace this to German Romanticism and to the debates between the "Westernisers" and "Slavophiles" in 19th century Russia, asserting that similar arguments appear under differing guises in Maoism, Islamism, wartime Japanese nationalism and other movements. However, Bonnett rejects this analysis as Eurocentric and makes a case for occidentalism emerging from the interconnection of non-Western and Western intellectual traditions.
In a departure from Buruma and Margalit's negative use of the term, Bonnett argues in The Idea of the West (2004) that both occidentalism and 'the West' are, in large part, non-Western inventions. They are employed and deployed, sometimes with very positive connotations, to develop distinct, non-Western, traditions of modernity.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Bonnett, Alastair. The Idea of the West: Culture, Politics and History. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. ISBN 1403900345, ISBN 1403900353.
- Xiaomei Chen. Occidentalism: A Theory Of Counter-Discourse in Post-Mao China, second ed., rev. and expanded. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. ISBN 0847698750.
