The Word "Orient"

U P D A T E

As of May 2016, the word "oriental" has been removed from all US Federal law.

Rep. Grace Meng, who proposed the removal, said:

“I thank my colleagues in the House and Senate for understanding that the time has come for our government to no longer refer to Asian Americans – or any ethnicity – in such an insulting manner."

What follows is an explanation I wrote in 2012 regarding the intersection of this blog, and by extension my study abroad experience, with that word.

x x x

D I D   Y O U   K N O W  

... that the concept of "the Orient" is offensive, problematic, and outdated? Because it is!

You may also notice that it is the title of this blog, and wonder why I chose a term that is offensive, problematic, and outdated. I chose it not to offend or rile up, but instead to illustrate and discuss. More importantly, I chose the term for its alternate meaning, which involves aligning oneself in relation to something. In many ways, my entire trip was an orientation towards Orientalism, so the name was an obvious double-entendre.

The adventures that this blog recounts involved an important orientation towards myself, towards that which is not me, and towards the rest of the ideological and geographical world in general, yet this orientation does not erase the negative connotations of "Orientalism." Allow me to elaborate!

A c a d e m i c   O r i g i n s .

In 1978, Edward Said published a revolutionary book by the name of Orientalism. Borne from the post-colonial school of thought, Said revealed the rotten foundations of many "Western" anthropological, historical, and area studies scholastic works involving the "Middle East" and "Asia". For Said, these works fabricated and exaggerated differences that lead to exploitative relationships between these regions and the "West".

And, if you think about it, he has a wonderful point. Consider the distinction between "east" and "west," for example. Where does one end and the other begin? Why are they such distinct entities? Why should we care? What Said points a finger at is a documented tradition of "grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side" thinking, or a fundamental misunderstanding of the Self, whether it's Western or Eastern, and the Other, it's converse.

The biggest difference I personally noticed between the two regions is the language, and in my opinion that is a trifling source of distinction (especially in 2013, with our advances in linguistics and translation!). If language is sufficient to distinguish one world (the Western one) from another (the Eastern one), then why don't we do the same for the Northern world, such as the United States, the MORE-Northern world, such as French Canadia, and the Southern world, such as the linguistically diverse continent of South America?

I read everything about Orientalism that I could get my hands on during my flight to Korea and have come to the opinion that there is no Orient, except in old and outdated history books. Of course there's a Korea, a China, and a Japan; each is extremely distinct and independent, and any conflagration of the three is a terrible intellectual injustice to all.

O r i e n t a l i s m   a n d   Y o u .

Although I tried my damnedest to read my way out of the problematic discourse of Orientalism, and although I say things like "there is no Orient," I realized during my trip that I was still falling for that same old trap-- even though I could see it and had studied it!

You should care about Orientalism because you are not from the Orient, and neither am I. We both have to remember these things, and remember that anything I write is tempered by this ignorant lens. I will get things wrong. I will exaggerate and understate and create an inaccurate representation. This is not a distinct aim of mine, but is something I've accepted as true of any writing (I've accepted as true that there is no truth in writing, and I've written it? Oy, what a mess).

I ask as you read this blog that you a) call me out when I'm being inaccurate, whether that's a positive or negative bias, and b) remember that you have your own biases at play in your reading of this blog!

This is not at all the limit of what I have to say on the subject, but it is for now. Thank you for your time and understanding.