Week 3 (Seminar) - Returning to Japan

Question 1

Why was Said’s ‘Orientalism’ more popular in Japan compared with the West (three reasons)?

Answer 1

1. Japanese intellectuals have always been aware of the prejudiced representation of the Orient by the Occident and ‘Orientalism’ endorsed what Japanese felt since first encounter with the West
2. The manner in which Said’s work was received emerged out of the feelings of guilt associated with the fact that Japan itself had been a coloniser.
3. Said’s theory ironically contributed to the hegemony of English and American academicism even though his work was criticising Orientalism

Question 2

How does Japan have characteristics of both the Orient and the Occident?

Answer 2

Geographically in the Orient but politically has tried to become a ‘Western’ nation.

Question 3

Why was the strategy that Japan adopted contradictory?

Answer 3

Japan stressed spirit of Orient when insisting on uniqueness of Japan, behaved like a fully Westernised state when it came to the matter of civilisation. Adopted ‘we-are-Asian’ policy when it needed cooperation from other Asian countries but practised Western-style imperialism when it ruled neighbouring countries.

Question 4

What are two examples of Japan as an Oriental country?

Answer 4

1. Violence

Western discourse on Japan is characterised by dictatorship, fanaticism, and cruelty. Representation of samurai, hara-kiri, and kamikaze as evidence of Japanese barbarism.

2. Sensuality

‘Geisha girl’ - Orient associated with gratification of sexual pleasures by Western men. Examples include Madame Butterfly and Memoirs of a Geisha of geisha appearing in Western art and literature.

Question 5

How does Tanizaki use Japan as the object/subject of Orientalism?

Answer 5

In ‘The Makioka Sisters’ and ‘The Key’.

Object: orientalises Japan when he expresses beauty and charm of country from Westerner’s perspective (‘Self-Orientalism’).
Subject: adopts coloniser’s viewpoint when representing China and India.

Question 6

How does Tanizaki treat China in his earlier works?

Answer 6

• Uses it (and India) to develop exotic stories
• Takes Orientalist approach to China to stress stagnancy, antiquity, and unchangeability of old nation, denying possibility of development
• Also admirer of Chinese beauty and Chinese women, and works on China can be characterised by a fascination with beautiful scenery and sexual pleasure.

Question 7

Which countries (aside from Japan) are examples of the question of changeability between the subject and object of Orientalism and why?

Answer 7

• Russia and Turkey: are they in the East or West?
• China, Korea, and Vietnam: all exercised hegemony over neighbouring countries - not just innocent victims of imperialism
• China: can be subject of Orientalism. Indigenous tradition of anti-Western sentiment not just result of communism but also deeply-rooted Sino-Centrism. Also impose Orientalist discourse on TIbet, Uyghur, and other ethnic groups but unwilling to admit that they are the colonisers.
• Korea: Anti-Japan sentiment derived from not only colonisation by Japan but tradition of contempt for neighbouring countries, expecting ‘younger brother’ Japan to obey it as ‘elder brother’

Question 8

According to Jacqueline Pidgeot, what do Tanizaki’s versions of ‘East’ and ‘West’ represent?

Answer 8

Two poles of his psychological tendencies: brightness against darkness, clarity against mystery, transparency against muddiness.