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Dear Tobias,<br>
<br>
Perhaps, it would be helpful to remind you that - as E.Said himself
stressed several times - "Orientalism" could mean not only the
assertion of the "Oriental Other"'s inferiority, but also a
very strong tendency to romanticize the "Oriental Other", to
seek for "wisdom" or "truth" - presumably lost by the
"West" - in the "Orient". In Russian 20th C.
tradition, a typical romantic "Orientalist" was great artist
and Buddhist thinker, Nikolai Rerikh (a person of Scandinavian ancestry,
by the way), who spent the last half of his life in India, painting
Tibetan landscapes and befriending the personages like J.Nehru. A kind of
"Sinolatry" was a feature of Russian Chinese studies -
Academician V.Alekseev spent lots of inks proving that Taoism was
superior to any Western philosophy, and not only him. To simply reject
the word "oriental" as "imperialist vestige" feels
like the notorious "class battles" against "bourgeois
reactionaries" in 1920s Soviet academia. The faculty I graduated
from in St-Petersbourg, remains "Oriental" - and, I guess, will
not change the name.<br>
<br>
Yours,<br>
<br>
Vladimir <br>
<br>
<br>
At 09:44 07.05.2003 +0200, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>I need help to find strong
arguments for a change of name of Sweden's main Asian studies department,
the Department of Oriental languages at Stockholm University, where many
faculty members proudly and gladly use academic terms like
"oriental", "the Orient" and "orientals".
After having proposed a change to the Department of Asian languages a
discussion has started with the faculty members being divided according
to the following more or less expected lines where the former group
influenced by postcolonial thinking wants a change in the name of
antiracism, while the latter sees themselves as defenders of the Western
academic tradition of "Orientalism":<br>
<br>
Very strong divisions:<br>
- ethnic Asians against ethnic Westerners<br>
- PhD candidates and research assistants against associate professors and
professors<br>
- people born in the 1960s/1970s/1980s against those born in the
1930s/1940s/1950s<br>
<br>
As so many of the defenders refer to the countries of England and France
where "Oriental Studies" and "Orientalism" still is
the accepted scientific term, could someone help me with the background
on how Oriental Studies was transformed into Asian Studies in a North
American setting (including a possible parallel to how "Negro
Studies" was transformed into African Studies already some 30 years
ago) as well as some information on how the term is perceived outside the
West among the Asians themselves? Or is it that I am wrong - that terms
like "oriental", "the Orient" and
"orientals" aren't that contested and controversial as I
presume?<br>
<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
-- <br>
<br>
<br>
Tobias Hübinette a.k.a. Lee Sam-dol<br>
<br>
Ph.D. candidate in Korean studies<br>
Department of Oriental languages<br>
Stockholm University<br>
SE-106 91 Stockholm<br>
Sweden<br>
<br>
Tel: 46-8-16 15 88<br>
Fax: 46-8-15 54 64<br>
E-mail: tobias@orient.su.se<br>
<br>
Presentations:<br>
Department of Oriental languages:
<a href="http://www.orient.su.se/koreanskapersonal.html" eudora="autourl">www.orient.su.se/koreanskapersonal.html</a><br>
Info Portal Asia:
<a href="http://www.sub.su.se:591/sidor/forskning/koreaforsk/tobias/" eudora="autourl">www.sub.su.se:591/sidor/forskning/koreaforsk/tobias/</a><br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Vladimir Tikhonov,<br>
Department of East European and Oriental Studies,<br>
Faculty of Arts,<br>
University of Oslo,<br>
P.b. 1030, Blindern, 0315, Oslo, Norway.<br>
Fax: 47-22854140; Tel: 47-22857118<br>
Personal web page:
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/volodyatikhonov/volodyatikhonov.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.geocities.com/volodyatikhonov/volodyatikhonov.html</a><br>
Electronic classrooms: East Asian/Korean Society and Politics:<br>
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2002/main.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2002/main.</a><a href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2002/main.html" eudora="autourl">html<br>
</a>
East Asian/Korean Religion and Philosophy:<br>
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html" eudora="autourl">http://</a>www.geocities.com<a href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html" eudora="autourl">/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html</a><br>
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