Book Chapter Review: How the West Views the East: Orientalism

It has become a habit for me and my parents to spend the weekend watching movies in our living room. We usually don't choose a specific movie, we just accept it and watch whatever movies are showing on television. That afternoon we watched London Has Fallen (2016), a film that tells the story of a group of terrorists' mission to assassinate world leaders attending the funeral of the British Prime Minister in London and the actions of agents. secret service, Mike Banning (played by Gerrard Butler), to protect the President of the United States Benjamin Asher from the attack. Like most other western films, the attackers in this film are Middle Easterners, the villains are from Pakistan. Meanwhile, the attackers and the ones who end up as heroes are Westerners.

The film's composition consisting of western-heroes and eastern-villains reminds me of one of Edward W. Said's works, Orientalism. The book, first published in 1978, has now been printed and translated into 36 languages. The 396-page book consists of three main parts, namely the scope of orientalism, orientalist structures and restructures, orientalism now. This article will review the first chapter of the book Orientalism: the scope of orientalism. However, before that, it is better to first understand what is meant by orientalism.

Orientalism comes from the word 'Orient' which is French and has a meaning that refers to Eastern nations. This word is the opposite of the word 'Occident' which means Western nations. Oriental itself is an adjective that means 'things that are eastern'. While ism or ism refers to the understanding of a school of thought. So, it can be said that orientalism is a school of thought or school of thought that discusses things related to Eastern nations (in this case the Middle East) as its object.

More or less Edward Said has the same definition of orientalism; 'By 'Orientalism', I mean several things, and all of them interdependent: oriental studies or area studies, style of thought between the orient and occasion.' Studies or research related to orientalism are conducted by people other than Easterners on various Eastern disciplines, ranging from language, religion, history, to socio-cultural problems of Eastern nations. Those who teach, write, and research the East, whether the person concerned is an anthropologist, sociologist, or historian, are called orientalist. According to Edward, since ancient times the eastern world has been a region with exotic views, rich in natural resources, and unique and mystical traditions. This is what then gave rise to the desire of Westerners to study further the Eastern region.

It is not known for certain who exactly was the first Western orientalist to study orientalism. What is certain is that almost all orientalists describe the occident or Western nations are superior and the orient or the Eastern nations become inferior nations. Most orientalists divide the West and the East into two different worlds, different civilizations, and different cultures. In the eyes of the West, those who live in the East are incapable of taking care of themselves, lazy, lustful, irrational, rude, but also exotic and mysterious.

Such construction of the West and the East was later criticized by Edward Said in his book Orientalism. Edward Said questioned why there was a kind of negative stereotype of Easterners from Westerners. Why until now Easterners have always been identified with something bad and why Westerners are always considered a thousand steps ahead of Easterners.

According to Edward, the negative stereotype emerged because orientalist researchers have taken a very Eurocentric approach. Chapter 1 Orientalism essentially says that Western knowledge of the East is never neutral, they are biased in understanding the West and the East. All notes related to orientalism are generalizations. In its development, the study of the East has also turned into a hegemony that gives rise to the perspective that the West views the East not as it is (objective) but how it should be according to the West (subjective) and of course using Western standards. The West applies terms that are unknown to their subjects. This is how the concept of the East was developed by the West for the East.

It can be said that orientalism is basically a self-projection system. The Eastern nations serve as a mirror for the West who wants to see themselves much higher and stronger by depicting the East as an uncivilized society. Orientalism is also a way for the West to show the public that the West has a more advanced and better civilization and culture than other nations. Thus, the East is also required to have the same thing.

Orientalist dogmas are not only conveyed through writing or research results. Orientalist perspectives are conveyed in various ways, one of which is through the film industry. Some Indonesian people may be familiar with Hollywood television series that are broadcast on pay TV channels such as Fox, Foxcrime, AXN, and so on. Most of the series on these pay channels tell stories about police or detective investigations to investigate criminal cases. For example, the series NCIS, CSI, Castle, Criminal Minds, Bones, The Mentalist, The X-Files, and others. In the series, in several episodes related to acts of terrorism in the United States, the perpetrators are almost always depicted as coming from the Middle East and being Muslims. Not infrequently, in several episodes, Arabic sentences are shown such as Greetings or Allah is the Greatest which further confirms the identity of the terrorist in the TV series. Meanwhile, the position of the police who became the hero in the series is an American citizen.

Without us realizing it, the impact of orientalism not only affects our perspective on Eastern society, but also our lifestyle. For example, in international trade, some of us – or at least myself – consider products produced by Western countries to be of better quality than products produced by Eastern countries. A significant example that is happening right now, even though they have the same quality, Indonesian consumers tend to buy gadgets worth 8 million rupiah produced by the West rather than gadgets produced by China. Using products produced by Western countries also often makes users feel cooler, more 'expensive', and more sophisticated.

Chapter 1 Orientalism essentially speaks that Western knowledge of the East is never neutral. This book was born from the personal experience of Edward Said, who is of American and Palestinian descent. Living and growing up in Cairo, Egypt, made Said's teenage years colored by the nuances and culture of the eastern nations. When he became an adult, Said moved to America and began his studies at Princeton University. Said experienced for himself how it was to live as an easterner in the midst of westerners. In short, he felt 'colonized'. Through this book, Edward encourages eastern nations to immediately gain freedom and independence from the negative dogmas that are attached to them. Eastern nations must immediately realize their identity which is free from western hegemony.

Reference

Said, Edward W. 1978. Orientalism. London: Penguin Books