Depiction of Imperialism and Cultural Appropriation in Asian Literature
Imperialism and cultural appropriation are among the common themes in Asian literature. As a region where colonialism shapes some of the most significant aspects of the recent history, writers drawn from different orientations seek to portray how aspects of Asian culture have been depicted from the perspective of the West. Among the texts that focus on aspects of Asian culture as portrayed from the perspective of western imperialism are Edward Said’s Orientalism, Ho Soleil’s Craving the Other, and Jose F. Sionil’s The God-Stealer. In these texts, the authors set out to depict how the westerners appropriate Asian cultures without regard as to how their taking away of these cultural elements impacts the Asian culture. As such, by seeking to infiltrate the culture of the other and depict it using western ideals, the West ends up enhancing its cultural dominance over Asians and sustaining them through racism, stereotypes, and prejudices.
In Edward Said’s Orientalism, the western’s tendency of patronizing representations of other cultures and specifically the East is depicted to reveal the nuances of these cultures. As such, orientalism is a concept that originates from the imperialism tendencies of the west and one that ends up with the cultural appropriation of the East, whereby the Asians are depicted as an exotic other. As such, based on the sentiments highlighted in Said’s Orientalism, the aim of cultural appropriation is to portray Asians as servile to the power of the imperialists and justifying their being dominated culturally by the imperialists. As such, the depiction of the relationship between cultural appropriation and imperialist power is a common perspective that is highlighted in the three texts.
Among the notable depictions of how cultural appropriation work is Ho Soleil’s Craving the Other. In this article, the cultural appropriation of food is highlighted with a motive of depicting how it enhances the shift of power between westerners and other cultures, and especially the eastern cultures. This cultural appropriation of aspects of culture such as food is considered, in this article, to be among the approaches that the dominant western culture employs in subjugating the “other” and depriving the power that exists through the authenticity of these cultural elements. As such, in this culture, the running of Asian restaurants by westerners is portrayed as a deliberate attempt at diluting the authenticity of the Asian culture with the aim of making the Asian culture inferior as compared to the western culture.
The relationship that exists between imperialist tendencies and the need to appropriate other cultures is depicted in glaring details in this text. While the appropriation of food cultures in this text is carried out in the pretext of embracing other cultures, Soleil hints that the end effect is the dilution of Asian cultures as a way of ensuring that they are not comparable to the western culture and hence allow for their subjugation. A similar attempt at appropriating the elements of a culture to enhance imperialist motives is described in Jose F. Sionil’s The God-Stealer.
The God Stealer is an intriguing tale of cultural appropriation and how it is sustained through western interactions with the East. Philip Latak, an Ifugao from the Mountain Province working in Manila slowly loses his cultural sentimentalism. As such, Philip’s relationship with Sam, an American also working and living in Manila, summarizes the relationship between the imperial and the colonized and how the later are also mentally influenced and used to facilitate the appropriation of their cultural artifacts. The fact that Philip contributes to the stealing of a cultural artifact for Sam means that his interaction with the imperialists has altered his ability to value his heritage. While Sam pretends to be less concerned about where the artifact comes from, he facilitates its stealing, which is an indication of the proprietary role that some of the imperialists play in the appropriation of the cultural artifacts from the Asian people. Therefore, similar to Orientalism and Ho Soleil’s Craving the other, the motivation of the West to appropriate the other cultures originates from an imperialist motivation and the need to establish a dominance and justify it without necessarily having to use force, as it was the case with colonialism.
Cultural appropriation is loosely tied to racial dominance and efforts made by imperialists to dominate the world cultures. Cultural appropriation challenges identity politics as revealed in the case of Philip in The Gold-Stealer. As a result of interacting with the imperialists, the cultural identities of the minority groups are also eroded to the extent that they participate in their own appropriation and their domination by other cultures. Philip, whose name denotes the Philippines heritage, is so affected by the impact of cultural imperialism to the extent that stealing a god idol belonging to his people does not bother him in any way.
Similarly, Soleil’s Craving the Other depicts a situation whereby a person impacted by cultural appropriation seems so unable to challenge the situation and affirm his identity inform of those who appropriate his culture. For instance, Soleil Ho in the last paragraph of her article writes that, “over time, you grow to associate nationalities with the quaint little restaurants that you used to frequent, before they were demolished and replaced with soulless, Americanized joints. You look at a map of the world and point a finger to Mongolia. ‘Really good barbecue.’ El Salvador. ‘Mmm, pupusas.’ Vietnam. ‘I love pho!’”. In this passage, Soleil Ho illustrates the manner in which the appropriation of Asian cuisines by Americans happens in a hopeless background where people such as herself are not in a position to challenge the practice and instead observe it with some level of indifference or disillusionment. This aspect depicts what Said considers to be the effects of orientalism on the people on which it is directed—they are unable to challenge it and at times they view the prejudices and stereotypes that are used to justify cultural appropriation or their deprivations of an identity as normality. This also explains why Philip, an individual who is expected to be at the fore of supporting the preservation of his cultural heritage ends up being the individual who encourages an outsider to plunder the treasures of his people and even help them directly in carrying out the activity.
Moreover, an article by a student from University of Cambridge that explains a controversial incident in the school further depicts the effects of orientalism on people. In a school event that happened to have picked the Japanese culture as its theme, some Asian students find it offensive because for UK being Japan’s former colonizer, using the Japanese culture as form of entertainment enhances the insensitivity towards Asian cultures. Some others, however, argue that the use of the theme is just a chance for people to enjoy the culture and perhaps people can learn more about it. Thins the line between appropriation and appreciation, this is another demonstration of how people impacted by cultural appropriation react in those types of situations.
To conclude, imperialism and cultural appropriation are proven to be among the ways in which imperialists, under the influence of orientalism, use to culturally dominate the cultures and identities of Asians. As evidenced in the text by Edward Said titled Orientalism, Ho Soleil’s Craving the other, The God-Stealer by Jose F. Sionil, along with the writing on the Cambridge event theme incident, the western imperialists use cultural appropriation as a process of not only dominating the Asians culturally but also as a way of influencing them to be somewhat indifferent to the dilution of their heritage. As such, these texts reveal the complex relationship that exists between these concepts of imperialism, cultural appropriation, and other notable aspects of cultural domination of the East by the West. Ideally, they manage to prove that cultural appropriation is an imperialist ploy aimed at enhancing and sustaining this cultural domination.
Works Cited
- Ho, Soleil. 'Craving the Other.' (2016). Bitch Media. www.bitchmedia.org/article/craving-the-other-0 Accessed 21 October, 2019.
- José, Francisco Sionil. The God Stealer and Other Stories. RP Garcia, 1968.
- Rogers, Richard A. 'From Cultural Exchange to Transculturation: A Review and Reconceptualization of Cultural Appropriation.' Communication Theory, vol.16, no.4, 2006, pp. 474-503.
- Said, Edward W., and Sut Jhally. Edward Said on Orientalism. Vol. 40. Northampton, Massachusetts: Media Education Foundation, 2002.
- Scott, Matthew. 'Edward Said's Orientalism.' Essays in Criticism, vol.58, no.1, 2008, pp. 64-81.
- Wai, MiaoXi. “Cultures Should Never Be Themes.” University of Cambridge, University of Cambridge, 29 Mar. 2018, https://thetab.com/uk/cambridge/2016/05/19/cultures-never-themes-76918.
