[KS] Does "the Orient" still exist?

Vladimir Tikhonov vladimir.tikhonov at east.uio.no
Wed May 7 09:57:12 EDT 2003


Dear Tobias,

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.

Yours,

Vladimir


At 09:44 07.05.2003 +0200, you wrote:
>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":
>
>Very strong divisions:
>- ethnic Asians against ethnic Westerners
>- PhD candidates and research assistants against associate professors and 
>professors
>- people born in the 1960s/1970s/1980s against those born in the 
>1930s/1940s/1950s
>
>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?
>
>
>Best,
>--
>
>
>Tobias Hübinette a.k.a. Lee Sam-dol
>
>Ph.D. candidate in Korean studies
>Department of Oriental languages
>Stockholm University
>SE-106 91 Stockholm
>Sweden
>
>Tel: 46-8-16 15 88
>Fax: 46-8-15 54 64
>E-mail: tobias at orient.su.se
>
>Presentations:
>Department of Oriental languages: www.orient.su.se/koreanskapersonal.html
>Info Portal Asia: www.sub.su.se:591/sidor/forskning/koreaforsk/tobias/
>

Vladimir Tikhonov,
Department of East European and Oriental Studies,
Faculty of Arts,
University of Oslo,
P.b. 1030, Blindern, 0315, Oslo, Norway.
Fax: 47-22854140; Tel: 47-22857118
Personal web page: 
http://www.geocities.com/volodyatikhonov/volodyatikhonov.html
Electronic classrooms: East Asian/Korean Society and Politics:
                        http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2002/main.html
                        East Asian/Korean Religion and Philosophy:
                        http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html

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