I. Clothing and Identity

A. Clothing can be means of self-expression, creativity: punks, salaula
B. Clothing can be constraining, express identities: Bharwads and Brahmans
C. 1980s "Japanese invasion" - Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo (Comme des Garcons), Yohji Yamamoto

1. Seen as "Japanese designers" by international fashion press
2. Role of Orientalism

 

II. Orientalism

A. Edward Said, Orientalism (1978)
B. Definition: "...[A] way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient's special place in European and Western experience. The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe's greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other" (1)
C. East as opposite of West which defines what West is
D. Islam today as mysterious other, inscrutable
E. Three forms of Orientalism

1. Academic specialty, regional studies: anthropologists, sociologists, historians, art historians, literary scholars, economists, political scientists, demographers, etc.
2. Mode of thought in literature and philosophy, Oriental/Occidental
3. Combination of two as practical strategy for colonial rule: "the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient -- dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over it" (3).

a. British rule in India: civilizing mission
b. French Indochina

i. Colonies formed from 1860s-1880s
ii. Vietnam divided into 3 territories: Cochinchina (colony), Annam and Tonkin (protectorates)
iii. French Indochina also includes Laos and Cambodia
iv. Differences between regions of Vietnam supported through ethnography, linguistics, history, economics, cartography
v. Differences between Vietnamese and Laos, Khmer downplayed
vi. Census, map, museum

F. West "understands" Orient, has knowledge to rule it
G. Orientalism as means for "dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient" (3).
H. To know is to classify, and to classify is to control

 

III. 20th-21st Century Orientalisms

A. Japanese kamikaze and WWII

1. They "don't value human life like we do"
2. They can't be stopped, need atomic bomb

B. September 11th aftermath

1. Islamic martyrdom
2. Stanley Fish: "They're insane" as barrier to understanding their acts and using that knowledge to analyze critically US position in the world and to protect ourselves

C. Miss Saigon

1. Engineer: Eurasian, wily, inscrutable
2. Kim: self-sacrificing victimized Asian woman
3. American GI: falls in love with Kim, but leaves her and soon marries white American woman. Did he love Kim or idea of downtrodden, weak Asian woman who needs to be rescued?
4. Asian woman as not an object of "real" love

D. Relation to Said: all knowledge is political

1. Examples above have been in war or conflict
2. Even in peaceful times, claims about other people and cultures often aren't truth, but representations of supposed truths
3. Reflect the position of the observer
4. All scholarly knowledge of culture is subjective: reflects and reconfigures power relations

 

IV. Gender and Orientalism

A. Orientalism involved feminization of Orient

1. Weak, submissive, effete
2. Seductive, alluring
3. Penetrated by Westernization

B. Discourses of Indian dress: uncivilized and graceful
C. Oriental men = lazy, women = hard-working and victimized, need to be rescued
D. Sarongs in Malaysia and Indonesia
E. Wednesday: How Orientalism and gender shaped response to "Japanese fashion invasion" in 1980s