China and Orientalism

185 pages

English language

Published July 13, 2014 by Routledge.

ISBN:: 978-0-415-59220-8
OCLC Number:: 690084806

(1 review)

This book argues that there is a new, Sinological form of orientalism at work in the world. It has shifted from a logic of ‘essential difference’ to one of ‘sameness’ or general equivalence. "China" is now in a halting but inevitable process of becoming-the-same as the USA and the West. Orientalism is now closer to the cultural logic of capitalism, even as it shows the afterlives of colonial discourse. This shift reflects our era of increasing globalization; the migration of orientalism to area studies and the pax Americana; the liberal triumph at the "end" of history and the demonization of Maoism; an ever closer Sino-West relationship; and the overlapping of anti-communist and colonial discourses.

To make the case for this re-constitution of orientalism, this work offers an inter-disciplinary analysis of the China field broadly defined. Vukovich takes on specialist work on the politics, governance, and history of the Mao and …

This book argues that there is a new, Sinological form of orientalism at work in the world. It has shifted from a logic of ‘essential difference’ to one of ‘sameness’ or general equivalence. "China" is now in a halting but inevitable process of becoming-the-same as the USA and the West. Orientalism is now closer to the cultural logic of capitalism, even as it shows the afterlives of colonial discourse. This shift reflects our era of increasing globalization; the migration of orientalism to area studies and the pax Americana; the liberal triumph at the "end" of history and the demonization of Maoism; an ever closer Sino-West relationship; and the overlapping of anti-communist and colonial discourses.

To make the case for this re-constitution of orientalism, this work offers an inter-disciplinary analysis of the China field broadly defined. Vukovich takes on specialist work on the politics, governance, and history of the Mao and reform eras, from the Great Leap Forward to Tiananmen, 1989; the Western study of Chinese film; recent work in critical theory which turns on ‘the China-reference"; and other global texts about or from China. Through extensive analysis, the production of Sinological knowledge is shown to be of a piece with Western global intellectual political culture.

This work will be of great interest to scholars of Asian, postcolonial and cultural studies.

1 edition

possm reviewed China and Orientalism by Daniel F. Vukovich (Postcolonial politics -- 5)

Thought provoking

4 stars

Had a hard time for the first few chapters because I was on my guard on whether or not I was reading Mao apologia - but the more I got into the book, the more I understood the author's points and was able to follow his way of thinking. From then on, this felt like a necessary corrective approach to the field of sinology. The book is written for academics and that's fine. It's still fairly engaging, with exceptions. The last chapter is exceptionally hard to understand, it's too heavy with Marxist theory for my tiny brain. The chapter about the death count of the Great Leap Forward started off like something I would hate (it just feels like the "holocaust denier" kind of argument about numbers not adding up), but somehow managed to make an excellent point about the disregard for Chinese lives that Sinologists show in handling the …

Had a hard time for the first few chapters because I was on my guard on whether or not I was reading Mao apologia - but the more I got into the book, the more I understood the author's points and was able to follow his way of thinking. From then on, this felt like a necessary corrective approach to the field of sinology. The book is written for academics and that's fine. It's still fairly engaging, with exceptions. The last chapter is exceptionally hard to understand, it's too heavy with Marxist theory for my tiny brain. The chapter about the death count of the Great Leap Forward started off like something I would hate (it just feels like the "holocaust denier" kind of argument about numbers not adding up), but somehow managed to make an excellent point about the disregard for Chinese lives that Sinologists show in handling the history of the GLF. This book confronted me with my own unconscious racisms and essentialisms. It made me aware of some rotten things in sinology. I hope to reread the last chapter once I have a more solid grasp on Marxist concepts. I guess maybe I should read Said's Orientalism too, since it is the framework that this book is based on. Maybe someday. I also think it's interesting that the author isn't a Sinologist but actually considers his external perspective to be an epistemological strength. After all the book is mostly about epistemology (it does have "knowledge production" in the subtitle) and I find that very interesting.

Subjects

Politics and government
Orientalism
Civilization
Relations

Places

China
Western countries