East meets West
A show about European views of Asia as realised in the Americas
CULTURAL appropriation has become unfashionable. Since the publication of Edward Said’s “Orientalism” in 1978, using Western visions of the “mysterious East” is frowned on as a way to spice up the familiar with a hint of the exotic. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, argued that a romanticised account of Asia as the alluring “other” facilitated exploitation, domination and conquest.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “East meets West”
From the September 5th 2015 edition
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