Orientalism

Oriental and orientalism refer to Western images, conceptions and valuations of Asia.

Usage of "Oriental"

The adjective Oriental has a long and complex history. It originates in the Latin word oriens, the present participle of "orior": to rise, thus: the region of the rising sun, i.e. the "Far East." While the geographical term Orient is considered relatively neutral, the adjective and substantive forms are the subject of controversy, and potentially offensive. A number of reference works used in the United States describe Oriental as pejorative, antiquated or offensive "in some instances". However, the American Heritage Book of English Usage qualifies this charge by noting:

Oriental is not an ethnic slur to be avoided in all situations. It is most objectionable in contemporary contexts and when used as a noun, as in "the appointment of an Oriental to head the commission". In these cases Asian (or a more specific term such as Vietnamese, Korean, or Asian American, if appropriate) is the only acceptable term. But in certain historical contexts, or when its exotic connotations are integral to the topic, Oriental remains a useful term.

Random House's Guide to Sensitive Language states "Other words (e.g., Oriental, colored) are outdated or inaccurate." This Guide to Sensitive Language suggests the use of "Asian or more specific designation such as Pacific Islander, Chinese American, [or] Korean." Merriam-Webster describes the term as "sometimes offensive," Encarta states that when the term is used as a noun it is considered " a highly offensive term for somebody from East Asia" However, the same reference also defines the adjectival usage as "relating to East Asia (dated)" or "high quality".

While the term "Oriental" is clearly an example of Eurocentrism some conservatives endorse Eurocentrism.

Edward Said and Orientalism

Edward Said argued in his highly influential book Orientalism (1979) that western scholars were so contaminiated by their European ideas and preconcepions that they could not deal honestly and fairly with Asian topics. In particular he focused on how western scholars treated the Middle East, his own native region where he was a major political activist. Said concluded that they looked down upon their subjects as inferior to Westernerners, and in general backward and in need of European authority and guidance. Said focused on the discipline of Oriental Studies in Europe, including philology, linguistics, ethnography, and the interpretation of culture through the discovery and translation of Oriental texts.

Said did not comment on whether anyone could deal honestly and fairly with Asia, for he was taking a general postmodern view that complete analysis is never possible. His argument, however, was taken as an attack on western specialists who in turn tried to pick apart his examples, and challenged his basic postmodern epistemology. Said was not an expert on any aspect of Asian history of culture (he was a specialist in English literature from Britain and America), which weakened his arguments with specialists.

Said's critique of Orientalisms provoked a comprehensive review by postcolonial theorists of the bulk of Western knowledge regarding non-Western countries; this time the analysis was done by experts who did know Asian culture. The postcolonialists argued that Orientalist literature buttressed the colonial notion of a civilizing mission. Gender studies plays a major role, as postcolonial feminists such as Gayatri Spivak, Chandra Mohanty, and Rajeswari Rajan analyze and condemn Western feminism's ideological complicity with Orientalist and imperialist ventures.

Early modern Europe

The concept of Oriental despotism allowed early modern Europeans to distinguish themselves from the most powerful and impressive non-European civilizations of the Ottoman Middle East, Persia, India, and China on grounds that were neither fundamentally religious nor linked to sheer scientific and technological progress but were rather political and moral. The French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) situated India within a global context of history and cultural exchange. He helped create a recognizable entity, "India," in the Western imagination by studying selected texts and focusing on a romanticized ideal of India as an Oriental paradise. Voltaire's motivation was primarily the Enlightenment attack on the Catholic Church and more specifically Voltaire's claim that many of the most important Christian rituals had their origin in Hindu rituals.

German scholars

In 1808, Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829) published his Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier (1808). This work distilled his long study of Sanskrit and Indian literature and introduced evidence and hypotheses regarding the affinities between Sanskrit and the languages of Europe, especially Greek, Latin, and German. This kinship had earlier been suggested in the writings of Brisih Sanscrit expert Sir William Jones. Schlegel's work also explored Indian and Oriental philosophies and suggested that these, like the language, had been transmitted to Europe in the remote past. In fact, there was a growing interest in Indian civilization, symbolism, and religion in the Romantic era, and interest also visible in the ideas - often derived from etymological research - of Franz Bopp, Joseph Görres, and Friedrich Creuzer. These writers probed the area of comparative mythology with particular eagerness. Accurate or not in its speculations, German Orientalism was significant in part because it contributed to the ideological formation of a German identity in the l9th century, and not just where the emergence of the anti-Semitic notion of an "Aryan Race" is concerned. In this, the Germans' imaginative explorations were rather distinct from those of the British scholars whose views of India were often gained and conditioned by the colonizing experience. Schlegel modeled his studies on the humanistic project of the Renaissance but predicated on the assumption that all European cultures were united around a Germanic core originally influenced by the Asian East.

British thought: Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), a popular novelist and politician (later prime minister), was outspokenly philo-Semitic. He was a romantic who embraced his own Jewishness (although he had become a member of the Church of England as a young teenager) and in culture, habit, and political policy followed a pattern of Orientalist (spiritual, intuitive, and emotional rather than rational and practical) behavior. He clearly believed that Orientalism, rooted in Turkish and Semitic - both Arabian and Jewish - tradition, if supported and protected by the colonial powers, could offer much of value to the Christian West. Fueled by contemporary ethnology and race theories, Disraeli argued that Jews were a superior, "aristocratic" race destined to become the spiritual and intellectual guides for modern Europe. Enabling such claims was Disraeli's skillful manipulation of Orientalist discourse, whereby he routinely reversed its stereotypical privileging of West over East. Following the example of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847 satiric response to Disraeli in the story "Codlingsby," however, Schweller (2006) argues that Disraeli's "strategy of reversals" ultimately failed because it did not adequately comprehend traditional Western associations and meanings of "aristocracy," a fundamental misunderstanding that, for Disraeli's political enemies and critics, exposed him yet again as a foreigner, an Oriental, and a Jew.

Proudman (2005) presents a detailed critique of Palestinian American literary theorist Edward Said's representation of 19th-century British politician Benjamin Disraeli as the archetypal Orientalist. Far from functioning as a producer of knowledge about the East that undergirded imperialism, Disraeli remained consistently sympathetic to Islam, both in his 1847 novel Tancred and in his political involvement with the Balkan crises of the 1870's. The novel, published one year after the division of the Tory party, was primarily a critique of British liberalism, in which Disraeli used a romanticized vision of the Orient to attack the values of post-Enlightenment Europe. Said, in failing to take into account Disraeli's political environment, committed factual errors that included erroneously holding him responsible for the occupation of Egypt in 1882.

Alternative terminology

Those who consider the term derogatory or archaic prefer to employ geographical terms for people and places typically described by oriental, e.g., South Asia, East Asia, and South-East Asia. Although the Far Eastern is considered more politically correct than Oriental, East Asian is preferred because this term is significantly less Eurocentric. Other alternative terms include Asia and the Pacific or the Pacific Rim or the Pacific Basin. Terms such as these may also be preferred because they do not collapse East and South-east Asian peoples into the same group.

Controversial and non-controversial usage

Terms in common, non-controversial usage include such as species names ("oriental fuit fly") and cuisines ("oriental rice"), However "oriental medicine" is somewhat more controversial. It is a violation of Federal Fair Housing laws to use the word "Oriental" in housing advertisements. The Washington State legislature held that

the use of the term "Oriental" when used to refer to persons of Asian descent is outdated and pejorative. There is a need to make clear that the term "Asian" is preferred terminology, and that this more modern and nonpejorative term must be used to replace outdated terminology.

Other uses

Numerous organizations have a legacy use of "oriental" dating back many years and have not changed. The most prominent include the Oreintal Institute at the University of Chicago, since 1919. Others include the Oriental Food Association , Oriental Bellydancer Association , The Association of Oriental Arts , the Shriners and other social groups continue to use the term. The American Association of Oriental Medicine and state associations of oriental medicine still use the term. The Oriental Martial Arts College and other martial arts organizations employ the term regularly.

The pornographic world uses "oriental" regularly to describe models.

European usage

"Oriental" is not controversial in Europe, where the word is considered neutral and in widespread usage as evidenced by its usage on the online British Monarchy Media Centre. In France the terms "l'Occident" and "l'Orient" are used without any negative associations in academic contexts. In Europe the term is often used to describe cuisine, trade goods, ancient culture, and religions, at times to denote an exotic quality with upmarket or mildly positive connotations. In the UK the term "Asian" has become almost exclusively tied to the Indian subcontinent, as evidenced through BBC Asian Network, a radio station of the BBC devoted to the British Asian community - though the term South Asian is becoming more widely-used.

Bibliography

• Bisaha, Nancy. Creating East and West: Renaissance Humanists and the Ottoman Turks (2004)
• Hamilton, Alistair, and Francis Richard. André Du Ryer and Oriental Studies in Seventeenth-Century France (2004)
• Irwin, Robert. Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and Its Discontents. Overlook, 2006. 416 pp.
• Klein, Christina. Cold War Orientalism: Asia in the Middlebrow Imagination, 1945-1961 (2003), re American perceptions online edition
• Kontje, Todd. German Orientalisms. U. of Michigan Press, 2004. 316 pp.
• Lennon, Joseph. Irish Orientalism: A Literary and Intellectual History. Syracuse U. Press, 2004. 478 pp.
• Lewis, Reina. Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel and the Ottoman Harem. Rutgers U. Press, 2004. 297 pp.
• Little, Douglas. American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East since 1945. U. of North Carolina Press, 2002. 407 pp.
• Lockman, Zachary. Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism. Cambridge U. Press, 2004. 308 pp.
• Matar, Nabil ed. , In the Lands of Christians: Arabic Travel Writing in the Seventeenth Century (2003)
• Said, Edward. Orientalism (1979)
• Yoshihara, Mari. Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism. Oxford U. Press, 2003. 242 pp.

Further reading

• On Asian and Oriental Model Minority posting by Alan Hu
• The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn Explains how "Oriental" and other terms were "banned" from textbooks