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CULTURAL INTERACTIONS: JAPAN
COLD WAR ORIENTALISM: ASIA IN THE MIDDLEBROW IMAGINATION, 1945 - 1961
GROUP DISCUSSION TWO
JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT SIX
In the aftermath of the Second World War, “Orientalism”, no longer “implying old-fashioned and prejudiced outsider interpretations of Eastern cultures and peoples”, becomes instead associated with an educational campaign designed to enhance the appeal of “the American Way” in the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union. Images of Japan and China and other Oriental cultures are still being created by Westerners but now towards a different end entirely.
Yet Edward Said’s emphasis on “the relationship between power and knowledge in scholarly and popular thinking” characteristic of Orientalist thinking appears still to be an important ingredient in the manner in which the East is treated in popular American entertainment media. Once again it appears that Orient and Occident work as oppositional terms, so that the "Orient" was constructed as an inversion of Western culture, only now American fascination with Things Oriental and American direct interaction with Asian peoples and cultures was used to enlighten theatergoers and book readers. Through such popular works as The King and I, South Pacific, and Flower Drum Song, for instance, Broadway musicals sought not only to instill more favorable images of Asians in the American imagination but also thereby to win over “the hearts and minds” of those in Asia who might otherwise be attracted to the Communist world view espoused by the USSR.
QUESTIONS, THEMES AND TOPICS TO CONSIDER in your series of dated journal entries or in preparation for the in-class large group discussion:
In your analysis of Christina Klein’s Cold War Orientalism: Asia in the Middlebrow Imagination, 1945 - 1961, examine the impact of the various imagined “cultural interactions” taking place during this time period through discussion of one or more of the following:
- The tie between
the “liberal agenda” of men like Norman Cousins, Thomas
Dooley, James Michener, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein (seeking
to avoid a return to prewar isolationism) and their elitist efforts
to influence “middlebrow” American public opinion through
novel, films and musical plays. What were these men trying to accomplish?
Why turn to Orientalist means to accomplish that end? How were their
objectives incorporated into their works?
- How successful
were these efforts to influence American public opinion? You might undertake
an informal survey of older relatives alive during this era to ascertain
their attitudes towards Asians in general as a result of having seen
or read some of these plays, films and books.
- How do Christina
Klein’s insights support Edward Said’s claim that Orientalism
supports the “distribution of geopolitical awareness into aesthetic,
scholarly, economic, sociological, historical, and philological texts"?
- How is Post War
Orientalism linked to Japonisme and the Orientalism of the 18th, 19th
and early 20th centuries? What’s changed? What’s remained
the same? Have Westerners become more sophisticated and knowledgeable
about the East since 1700?
- What, in your opinion, has Post War Orientalism contributed to the growing awareness of the globalized and economically interdependent world in which we live today?
FEEL FREE TO TAKE UP OTHER RELATED TOPICS AND THEMES IN YOUR JOURNAL ENTRIES OR IN PREPARATION FOR OUR IN-CLASS DISCUSSION