Wang - Orientalism Versus Occidentalism

Johns Hopkins University Press
Orientalism versus Occidentalism?

Author(s): Wang Ning
Source: New Literary History, Vol. 28, No. 1, Cultural Studies: China and the West (Winter, 1997
), pp. 57-67
Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
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Orientalism versus Occidentalism?
Wang Ning
Postcolonialism, an original theoretical concept in Western

critical discourse, actually contains two aspects: postcolonial lit
erature and postcolonial theory. But although generated in
Western cultural soil, it has come to have more and more appeal to
Third-World intellectuals both within and outside of the Western
empire. In recent years, it has been frequently discussed among Chinese
scholars and cultural critics in the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan as
well as in overseas Chinese critical circles. Writings counter to this
concept are called "Post-Orientalism" (hou dongfangzhuyi)} Inside China,
some scholars or critics attack film directors Zhang Yimou and Chen
Kaige whose successes in various international film festivals depend
largely upon their being recognized by Western scholars and critics
because their films are regarded as a version of Orientalism, or more
as made for aWestern audience.2 Meanwhile,
exactly, images exclusively
overseas scholars view this attack on Zhang and Chen as a kind
Chinese
of Occidentalism. But to advocate an opposition between Orientalism
and Occidentalism at the present time seems It is no easy
inappropriate.
job, however, to refute these ideas. I would like first of all to reexamine
the construction and interpretation of the concept of Orientalism
described by Edward Said, then question the so-called "Occidentalism,"
and finally, try to prove that in the current era, the main tendency is
cultural dialogue rather than cultural opposition.
Questioning Said's "Orientalism"
Obviously, postcolonialism as a theoretical concept is not monolithic,

but pluralistic. It takes at least three forms: the one constructed
by
Gayatri C. Spivak and characterized by Third-World feminism and
deconstructive thought and writing; the one practiced by Homi Bhabha
and marked by strong Third-Worldist cultural critique and postmodern
parody always producing ambiguity; and the one constructed and
theorized by Edward Said and characterized by his description and
construction of Orientalism. In the current debate on East-West cultural
relations, his writings are most influential and even most or

quoted
New Literary History, 1997, 28: 57-67
58 NEW LITERARY HISTORY
discussed in the Oriental or Third-World countries. Since the publica

tion of his Orientalism, the concept has been one of the major theoretical
issues attracting the attention of both Eastern and Western scholars.
to Said, "Orientalism is not a mere political subject matter or
According
field that is reflected passively by culture, scholarship, or institutions;
nor is it a large and diffuse collection of texts about the Orient; nor is it
representative and expressive of some nefarious 'Western' imperialist
to hold down the 'Oriental' world. . . . Indeed, my real is
plot argument
that Orientalism is?and does not simply represent?a considerable
dimension of modern political-intellectual culture, and as such has less
to do with the Orient than it does with 'our' world."3
Said here clearly illustrates that the logical theorizing perspective
from which to construct Orientalism is not that of the "Orient" but that
of its opposite side?the "Occident." That is, the "Orient" ismerely what
exists in the eyes of certain Western It is constructed as an
people.
"other" opposed to the Occident. If the Occident is both geographically
the Orient is
and culturally speaking at the very center of the world,
at its subject to the power of this center.
undoubtedly periphery,
to Said, Orientalism contains at least the following connota
According
tions: First, it refers to a mode of thinking based on the difference in
and between the Orient and the Occident. The
ontology epistemology
Orient and Occident are in separate hemispheres on earth, opposing
each other in many respects due to their striking differences, politically,
and even Second, it refers to a of
economically, linguistically. way
dominance of the powerful West over the weak East and its oppression of
the latter. On the basis of such an unequal relationship, "Orientalism"
has become a kind of "Oriental myth" invented and appreciated by
Westerners who have little actual knowledge of the Orient and the Third
World, but have some prejudice against and curiosity about the latter. As
far as the connotation of Orientalism is concerned, Said further points
out that it overlaps three fields: the history of cultural relations between
the East and the West which has lasted for over four thousand years; a
discipline in which one generation after another of scholars dealing
with Oriental and cultures are trained; and an image of the
languages
"other" created by generations of Westerners about the Orient. For a
of time, the Oriental in the eyes of Westerners has been
long period
both "stupid" and "lazy" on the one hand, but on the other hand, the
Orient itself is somewhat "mysterious" and attractive for its
certainly
far from the imperial center and the metropolitan countries (see
being
O 1-28). Since the Occident is already the "other" to the Oriental, the
"Orient" in the of Westerners is just an "other" of this "other." In
eyes
this way, Said argues, Orientalism, among its other connotations, is a
of Westerners about the Orient that has always
deep-rooted episteme
ORIENTALISM VERSUS OCCIDENTALISM? 59
functioned as part and parcel of Euro-American colonialist ideology.4

Since the concept of Orientalism is created byWesterners as a "myth" or
a false image, it is problematic and illusive. What then is Said's own
attitude? This is the starting point for the present essay that attempts to
his "Orientalism." It is a question that I, as a scholar from the
question
Orient, find provocative.
We should first of all recognize that Said's book has indeed opened up
for scholars of literature and cultural studies a new theo
comparative
retic horizon, which enables us to explore a "marginalized" sphere
which has long been neglected and even deliberately overlooked by
mainstream Western academic circles. The Orient geographically exists
separately from the Western world, but the "Orient" does not merely
refer to a geographical location. It also has a very profound political and
cultural connotation. This "Orient" has become the "other" of the West,
from which perspective Western people reflect its world. Thus it is
for them to have such an "other." as Said writes
absolutely necessary Just
in his "Introduction," "The Orient was almost a European invention,
and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings,
memories and remarkable Now it was
haunting landscapes, experiences.
disappearing; in a sense it had happened, its time was over" (01). Said
expresses here his somewhat implicit and ambivalent attitude: on the
one hand, as an Oriental descendent, he has all the time been
recollecting the once-powerful Orient in history, feeling sad about its
disappearance; on the other hand, as a high-ranking scholar in the West,
he cannot help feeling proud of himself, especially qualified to deal with
the "Orient" as an "other" which is unfamiliar to mainstream Western
scholarship he has countless

but with which ties. Due to his dislike for
Western imperialist hegemony, Said starts with his critique of the
Western empires by pointing out the axiomatic historical fact of Western
dominance over the Orient. "From the beginning of the nineteenth
century until the end of World War II France and Britain dominated the
Orient and Orientalism; since World War IIAmerica has dominated the
Orient, and approaches it as France and Britain once did" (04). Not
only should
the Eastern political system model itself on the American
one, its economy
and keep up with the Western developed countries,
with the United States as their center, but Oriental culture should be
reframed inWestern discourse in order to become significant. In such
Oriental countries as China, India, and Japan, to be modernized simply
means to be Westernized. Especially in current China, to realize mod
ernization in an all-around way is almost equal to being Westernized in
an all-around way. Thousands of Oriental students have tried their best
to obtain a degree in the department of Oriental languages and cultures
in aWestern university and then redoubled their efforts to get a green
card in the West. All this cannot but imply the natural
superiority of the
West to the East. In contrast, the Orient is nothing but an "other" far
from the imperial center, which could be used to reflect on its culture
only when the West has begun to be on the decline. If we refer to the
unequal East-West cultural relations, I think Said is absolutely correct. In
this respect, Said's book is significant because it encourages mainstream
Western scholarship to shift its attention to the Orient with a stress on
the "anticolonialist" factor.
What Said has attempted is a certain

sense of "decentralization" and
"deconstruction," actually anticipating the "demarginalizing" and
"recentralizing" tendency after the decline of the international post
modernism debate. We probably notice that one of the important
reading strategies of deconstructive criticism is to undermine from
within Western culture the so-called "logocentrism." As one of the
important members of American deconstructive circles in the 1960s and
1970s, Said's special contribution lies in his Oriental extraction which
offers him a unique perspective of observation and critique: from the
perspective of the "other" (Orient) to criticize the long-standing politi
cal and cultural "Eurocentrism" or "West-centrism," or more
specifically,
moving from the periphery to the center and finally deconstructing the
sense of the "center." It is where the positive significance of his
construction of "Orientalism" lies. His "Oriental" however,
perspective,
ismerely a provisional strategy for deconstructing the center. In discuss
ing the "otherness" of Orientalism, Said points out: "Thus all of
Orientalism stands forth and away from the Orient: that Orientalism
makes sense at all more on the West than on the Orient, and
depends
this sense is directly indebted to various Western techniques of represen
tation that make the Orient visible, clear, 'there' in discourse about it"
(0 21-22).
This profound insight into and strong critique of the unequal
relationship between the East and the West certainly anticipates his later
attack on and criticism of and cultural
comprehensive imperialism
But just as the plurality-oriented tendency is one of the
hegemony.5
important strategies of deconstructive criticism, "Orientalism" con
structed byWesterners is to Said not at all a totality, but rather a series of
multiple connotations and orientations. He concludes that there is a
a Freudian Orient, a Orient, a Darwinian
linguistic Orient, Spenglerian
Orient, a racist Orient, and so forth. But there is no Orient or
Orientalism constructed to a "pure" Oriental
according understanding
of it without preconditions. So "West-centrism" still haunts him in
with this problem. The so-called Orient or Orientalism is
dealing
nothing but an empty shell on which "West-centrism" functions. Thus
Said's critique again shows his "anticolonialism" to some extent.
As a few Eastern and Western scholars have noticed,

quite already
however, the "Orient" and "Orientalism" constructed by Said have their
inevitable limitations, which lie chiefly in their geographical, cultural,
and literary aspects. It is these limitations that provide us Third World
scholars and critics with a theoretical basis on which to question and
reconsider his Orientalism.
First, we should point out its geographical limitation, which is
restricted by his family background, as well as his scope of knowledge
and learning. As is well known, the "Orient," geographically speaking,
covers at least the wide areas of Asia, Africa, and Australia, but in Said's
book, the boundary line stops at the Near East and Middle East. Such
as Southeast Asia and such important Oriental countries as
regions
China, India, and Japan are seldom touched upon; they pose a serious
limitation to his theory although he has added certain corrective
analyses in his new book Culture and Imperialism.
Second, his "Orient" or "Orientalism" also has its ideological and
cultural limitations. As far as its ideological and cultural significance is
concerned, the "Western" idea or culture that we usually deal with in
effect refers to the ideology or cultural concepts based on the bourgeois
value standard prevailing inWestern Europe and North America, while
those to them are as the "Oriental" con
contrary normally regarded
cepts. It is on the basis of this striking difference in ideology and culture
that the East and the West were in a state of opposition during the cold
war period after World War II; with the end of the cold war, East-West
relations have entered a post-cold war
period, during which, according
to Samuel Huntington, "The great divisions among humankind and the
dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain
the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of
occur between nations and groups
global politics will of different
civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics."6
Among Oriental cultures, the "most prominent form of this cooperation
is the Confucian-Islamic connection that has emerged to challenge
Western interests, values and power" (45). Huntington has here cor
rectly grasped the two origins of Oriental cultures, the Arab countries
and China, which have, especially the latter, been overlooked by Said.
Moreover, due to the limitations of other geographical and ideologi
cal factors, Said's Orientalism, in the sense of Oriental studies, naturally
leads to his limitation in comparative literature studies: the texts he
discusses are mostly from the English or world rather
english-speaking
than from the non-English-speaking or other Third-World countries,
while comparative literature is not only cross-national and interdiscipli
nary but also cross-cultural and In this way, the limita
cross-linguistic.
tions of his research as well as that of all the postcolonial academic
studiesare obviously discernible. It is true that to conduct comparative

literaturestudies from the postcolonial perspective could break through
the boundary line of geography and disciplines, but cannot break
through the boundary line of languages, which is the very problem that
we Oriental scholars of comparative literature and cultural studies must
solve in our research.
"Occidentalism":
A Unique Postcolonial Strategy
of the Third World
As I have discussed above, the concept of Orientalism constructed by

Said is in the final analysis an indeterminate or problematic one
although it has indeed been theoretically discussed and academically
observed by both Western and Eastern scholars. In contrast, "Occiden
talism" as its assumed counterpart is an all the more indeterminate and
problematic "quasi-theoretical" concept; I have not yet read a special

ized work on it, although the concept has already permeated some
consciousness and even subconscious.7 But it has not
people's yet
become an independent discipline like that of Oriental studies in the
West. Said concludes his Orientalism with the statement, "I hope to have
shown my reader that the answer to Orientalism is not Occidentalism"
(0 328). He is certainly quite right in pointing out the indeterminacy of
the proposed "Occidentalism" in the Oriental or Third-World countries.
But unfortunately, Occidentalism, like a ghost, has already been haunt
ing such Oriental countries as the Arab countries, India, and China,
which all have long cultural traditions, spreading its seeds in each
soil, climate, and environment. These countries or
appropriate regions
have gradually developed oppositional forms to Orientalism in the eyes
of Westerners. Undoubtedly, the rise of Occidentalism has more or less
formed a challenge to those Western hegemonists who have always had
a bias against the Orient. This must call forth the attention of every one
of us who is engaged in dealing with the cultural relations between the
East and the West and who sincerely advocates academic exchange and
theoretical dialogue between the East and the West.
Like its counterpart, Occidentalism in different places manifests itself
in different forms: In the Middle East and the Arab countries where
Islamic culture is dominant, Occidentalism manifests itself as an
antago
nistic form that strongly opposes Western hegemonism represented by
the United States, and sometimes even evolves into armed
large-scale
clashes. For the several years
example, Libyan-American antagonism
ago, the blood-shedding conflict between the Iraqi and the Allied Army
and the Iranian-American conflict are the most evident cases. In these
cases, "Occident" is also constructed as an "other," and the Occidentalism

in the eyes of the Oriental is obviously characterized by the Third
World's anticolonialist and In those countries
antihegemonic tendency.
or regions characterized by evident "postcoloniality," such as India, the
English which refers to the language used in Britain has varied into the
english which ismarked with indigenous dialects and pronunciation, and
english cultures and literatures have thus been marked with "post
Occidentalism as to Orientalism has at
coloniality." Therefore, opposed
one time been regarded as a "decolonizing" and even anti-colonialist
strategy of discourse getting along with the local decolonizing move
ment. Even in such a developed Oriental country as Japan which
apparently belongs among the developed group in its economic sense,
Occidentalism has its own unique manifestation: on the one hand,
Japan always views Europe and America as its economic rivals; therefore
the West actually refers to the geographically Western countries. On the
other hand, Japan has gradually realized its double cultural coloniality,
namely, it was influenced by China before the nineteenth century and
penetrated and influenced by the West after the latter part of the
nineteenth century, and itwas actually colonized after World War II. So
it is not surprising that Occidentalism in Japanese culture manifests
itself as a "decolonizing" tendency and a drive to reconstruct Japanese
culture, which found particular embodiment in the organizing of the
thirteenth International Comparative Literature Congress in 1991.8
As a postcolonialist strategy of discourse in the Oriental and Third
World countries,9 Occidentalism has indeed been in the minds of many
people although it has not yet become a theoretical topic. It every now
and then our research on East-West cultural relations,
manipulates
sometimes playing a role of intensifying the East-West opposition rather
than establishing communication and dialogue. Undoubtedly, in some
sense it lends to our Western cultural
support struggle against hege
even help to give full
mony. It could sometimes play to a certain national
spirit and national pride to more or less contain Western But
hegemony.
meanwhile, we must confront the fact that, in the current character
age
ized by cultural pluralism and different forces coexisting with and
complementing each other, cultural relativism has once again attracted
people's attention. It has revealed an attitude different from the old
cultural relativism?that is, any culture, be it Eastern or Western, simply
exists in relation to another culture with its superiority and inferiority
varying. No one culture can replace another even if it were extremely
powerful. Since national coexistence and cultural dialogue have become
irresistible historical trends, any overemphasis on the of a
superiority
national or regional culture might well lead to new cultural
oppositions
or clashes. Thus, in my view, advocating Occidentalism and looking

upon it as a counterpart to Orientalism is undesirable at present.
It should be admitted, however, that the presence of Occidentalism in
China is not strange at all. It has been in the collective unconscious of
modern Chinese
people ever since the and penetration
aggression
made byWestern powers in China during the Opium War in 1840. When
Chinese people drove these powers out of China and founded our
People's Republic in 1949, it was pushed to an extreme, manipulating
the thinking of the Chinese people and their political, economic, and
cultural strategies during the cold-war period. Undoubtedly, in the
struggle against imperialism and hegemonism immediately after the
founding of the People's Republic, Occidentalism did play a certain
positive role in establishing China's position in the world and breaking
through its isolation and economic sanction issued by the Western
as
clique. But if we still go to that extreme practiced forty years ago, it
would put China into a new state of isolation, which would repeat the
bitter lesson of the past. In those years before China's openness to the
outside world and economic reform, Occidentalism manifested itself in
different forms during different periods, but its fundamental tone was
hostile to the West, especially the U.S. imperialists, and sometimes even
the Soviet social imperialists. In China today, due to the flood of various
Western theories, trends, and values into China since the beginning of
the 1980s, the Chinese people's original protective mechanism has
collapsed,10 and their view of the West has changed dramatically. To
some people, the plentiful and prosperous Western material civilization
and its culture are considered superior to Oriental culture; to them the
Western a
world is heaven. They seek an opportunity to pay respects to
it or enjoy themselves there. But to other people, at least in their
subconscious, because of the education have received, the West,
they
and the U.S. in has been our us,
particular, always enemy, oppressing
invading our motherland, and even killing our countrymen. To these
people, the West is in decline, its outward prosperity merely a false mask
through which we can see its implied crisis; to them the twenty-first
century will surely be the century of China or the Orient, and Oriental
culture is superior to Western culture and is bound to dominate the
world.11 In short, the West to these people is nothing but a hell and even
an evil spirit. Obviously, the two attitudes show that if we could have
dialogue with the West, this kind of dialogue is by no means equal:
either Chinese culture dominates or is dominated. Will there be no
other way out of these simple modes of thinking characterized by binary
opposition?
In literature and artwork in current China, Occidentalism chiefly
manifests itself as a will to success in overseas Chinese competition with
Westerners: in the West, the Chinese usually work hard to succeed in

entering the mainstream Western world of culture. This view finds
embodiment in the protagonists of such nonfiction as Manhadun de
Zhongguo n?ren (A Chinese Woman inManhattan, 1993) by Zhou Li and
such a novelette as Bolin de tiaozao (Fleas in Berlin, 1993) by Yu Heizi, or
they plunge themselves into a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown seeking

by hard work to have a plentiful and quiet life far from the homeland,
which is reflected in Beijingren zai niuyue (ANative of Beijing inNew York,
1994) by Cao Guilin,12 or to defeat their rivals in a drastic
competition
and fix their position in a Western venture, such as in the TV series
Yanghang li de Zhongguo xiaojie (Chinese Girls in Foreign Firms, 1995), and
so on. In all these texts and art, an old theme frequently appears: to
succeed in the West, a non-Westerner should first of all identify himself/
herself as a Westerner at the expense of his/her own national and
cultural identity. But after success, one cannot but think of seeking his/
her native country and cultural identity. This is vividly represented in
many narratives of Chinese Americans who have achieved success
through hard work and bitter struggle. In literary study or criticism,
some scholars try to resist Western influence by giving full play to the
essence of Chinese culture, which finds particular embodiment in the
so-called uhou (Post-Chinese-Studies). These aim to
guoxue" prevent
Western critical concepts and discourses from entering Chinese critical
circles, or try to trace the possible influence of Chinese literature on
Western literature in comparative literature studies, and so forth.
In short, Occidentalism has indeed entered our discourse of compara
tive culture, literature studies, and criticism few have
literary although
realized some occasions Occidentalism
it. On has been pushed to an
extreme, hindering us from on an with Western
carrying equal dialogue
and international scholarship. Although it has not been institutionalized
as a discipline, its social influence should not be neglected. In today's
context of East-West cultural and academic dialogue, this phenomenon
should call forth our vigilance. So Iwill anatomize its inadequacy and try
to deconstruct the artificial opposition between the East and the West.
A Tentative Conclusion: Dialogue and the

Deconstruction of the Binary Opposition
People might well be puzzled as to why the Huntington essay "The

Clash of Civilizations?" roused such strong response and reaction from
the overseas Chinese circles. One vital reason is that the essay overem
phasizes the future tendency of culture; it places Muslim culture and
Confucian culture among the most dangerous enemies of the West and
anticipates that the clash of civilizations or cultures will dominate the

future development of mankind. It seems somewhat threatening al
though the threat has not yet been realized by most In contrast,
people.
those who advocate cultural relativism or do not share this view maintain
a cultural the relative significance and unique
dialogue by emphasizing
value of each culture so that each culture its own value and
possesses
space of function. I think
this view actually represents the greatest
interests and basic requirements of the majority of people in the world
today. Moreover their idea is reasonable and possible.
The Orientalism described by Said has undergone a long period of
a mature
development and become relatively body of theory and a
critical discourse apart from its existence as an academic in
discipline
many Western universities. Its existence is still possible although the
concept itself is becoming problematic and indeterminate along with
the rediscovery of the real Orient by more and more Western people in
this age of information. But compared with Orientalism, the so-called
"Occidentalism" is all the more illusive and problematic. Apart from its
immaturity, its connotation can hardly form a kind of binary opposition
with the former. Occidentalism only manifests itself, at least in the
current as a social and cultural trend and a state of
stage, prevailing
mind of certain people, or a strategy of discourse toWestern
opposed
cultural hegemonism, or an ideological force challenging the Western
power, and so forth. It is far from a full-fledged episteme covering such a
wide of and as Orientalism, nor has it
range learning representation
become a discipline. As far as the learning dealing with Western
languages and cultures in China is concerned, I would rather call it
"Western studies" in order to differentiate it from Occidentalism and the
research field of "non-Western studies" in the West. In view of its striking
critique, "Occidentalism" obviously runs counter to the
ideological
current historical trend. It may well do harm to our cultural communi
cation and academic exchange with Western and international scholar
than
rather vice versa. But on the other hand, since it is still
ship
prevalent in present-day China and some other Oriental countries, it
deserves study and analysis. In this respect, the present essay is just a
beginning.
Peking University
notes
1 The "Post-Orientalism" Imention here refers to some overseas Chinese scholars' ideas
contrary to those of Orientalism. They includeZhang Longxi, Henry Y. H. Zhao, Xiaomei

Chen, and Rey Chow, although there are some differences and debates among them.
2 In this respect, one of the earlier essays was written by Wang Gan, an avant-garde critic,
entitled "Da hong denglong wei shui gua?" (For Whom is the Red Lantern Raised?),
Wenhui bao (WenhuiDaily), October 14, 1992. Since its first appearance, it has been quoted
and discussed and even criticized
by many other critics in China.
3 Edward Said, Orientalism
(New York, 1978), p. 12; hereafter cited in text as O.
4 In this respect, see my essay in Chinese, he wenhua
"Dongfangzhuyi, houzhiminzhuyi
baquanzhuyi pipan: saiyide de houzhiminzhuyi lilun pouxi" (Orientalism, Postcolonialism
and the Critique of Cultural Hegemonism: A Theoretical of Edward Said's
Anatomy
Postcolonial Theory), Beijingdaxue xuebao {Journal of Peking University), 2 (1995), 57.
5 Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (London, 1993), p. 292.
6 See Samuel Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs, 72, no. 3 (1993),
p. 22; hereafter cited in text.
7 Although I am informed that Xiaomei Chen has written a book about Occidentalism
which has already been published in English, I have not yet read it.
8 As far as its scale is concerned, Japan invited quite a few Oriental or Third-World
scholars, including over Chinese (mainland) scholars, to in the Congress
thirty participate
out of its powerful economic strength. Thus scholars from the East and those from the
West are close in number, which is obviously marked with an Oriental tendency with the
Japanese language used as the third working language during the ICLA Congress. This
sharply contrasts with the 14th ICLA Congress held in Edmonton where few scholars were
from the East.
9 In view of the duplicity and ambiguous significance of postcolonialism, I adopt its
only
anticolonialist aspect and leave aside its neocolonialist one.
10 See Wang Ning, "Confronting Western Influence: Chinese Literature of
Rethinking
the New Period," New Literary History, 24 (1993), 905.
11 One of the typical examples is the Orientalist Ji Xianlin, whose recent essays and
speeches in Chinese always affirm this idea: "Sanshi nian he dong, sanshi nian he xi"
(meaning "In the past, the West is strong, but now vice versa").
12 A TV series with the same title was extremely popular in 1994 in (mainland) China,
and some Chinese could not help making calls to their children
parents long distance
urging them to come back home as early as possible. Others just say that they will never let
their children go abroad.

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Johns Hopkins University Press

Orientalism versus Occidentalism?

Postcolonialism, an original theoretical concept in Western

Questioning Said's "Orientalism"

Obviously, postcolonialism as a theoretical concept is not monolithic,

relations, his writings are most influential and even most or

New Literary History, 1997, 28: 57-67

discussed in the Oriental or Third-World countries. Since the publica

functioned as part and parcel of Euro-American colonialist ideology.4

scholarship he has countless

What Said has attempted is a certain

As a few Eastern and Western scholars have noticed,

studiesare obviously discernible. It is true that to conduct comparative

As I have discussed above, the concept of Orientalism constructed by

problematic "quasi-theoretical" concept; I have not yet read a special

cases, "Occident" is also constructed as an "other," and the Occidentalism

or clashes. Thus, in my view, advocating Occidentalism and looking

invading our motherland, and even killing our countrymen. To these

Westerners: in the West, the Chinese usually work hard to succeed in

they plunge themselves into a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown seeking

A Tentative Conclusion: Dialogue and the

People might well be puzzled as to why the Huntington essay "The

anticipates that the clash of civilizations or cultures will dominate the

contrary to those of Orientalism. They includeZhang Longxi, Henry Y. H. Zhao, Xiaomei

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