Janice Leung BA ILLUSTRATION STUDIO BRIEF 1 OUIL 501 What role does commodity fetishism play in the appropriation and exploitation of Asian culture? Commodity fetishism is the fixation one has on physical and social goods, and disregarding the exploitation that happens simultaneously during the production of the commodity (Marx, 1993, p2). The commodification of a culture occurs when an aspect of the culture becomes a selling point, in this case, the mystical and exotic stereotype of the East. The appropriation of East Asian culture has changed with time: from visually exploring the unknown culture within the fine arts due to the lack of exposure to the world, to exploiting for monetary purposes within Western pop culture. The West’s perpetuation of appropriating and exploiting East Asian culture for financial gain has led to the diminishing of its cultural identity. The commodification of East Asian culture stemmed from Orientalism, a concept which promoted a binary representation of the East and West; the West being superior over the “irrational, depraved, and childlike” Orientals (Said, 1977, p40). Categorizing Orientals as the “Other” and viewing their way of living as strange could be understandable (Said, 1977, p24), as it is instinctive for one to initially be intimidated by the foreign and the unknown. However, the stereotype stayed even as the West started to familiarize themselves with the East; they now used the stereotypes to their advantage. As Said opinionizes (1977), “There are Westerners, and there are Orientals. The former dominate; the latter must be dominated, which usually means having their land occupied, their internal affairs rigidly controlled, their blood and treasure put at the disposal of one or another Western power”. By depicting the East being inferior to them, the West justified their acts of colonialism in the East. This was the beginning of the commodification of East Asian culture; the West did not view Orientals and their cultures as equals, but something inferior hence formulating the assumption that it would be acceptable to treat their culture as a commodity. The West’s fetishistic fascination towards the East led to the birth of the Willow Pattern (Fig.1). Produced by British engravers in the 18th century, the Willow Pattern was a poor derivative of models of Chinese pottery. The Willow Pattern was an imitation of “shanshui” a style of traditional Chinese landscape painting (Portanova, [no date], p6). The pattern usually depicts a tranquil area in the countryside, complete with a river, buildings with ornate roofs, pavilions, Orientals wearing traditional clothing, and a willow tree in the middle of the composition. The pattern was accompanied by a “traditional Chinese” legend, claimed to be passed on by generations about the characters and objects within the pattern (Fig.1): An affluent mandarin lived in the house (center of the plate) with his bookkeeper, Chang. Chang fell in love with the mandarin’s daughter, Koong-See, who meets him at the orange trees (located next to the house) every night. The mandarin found out about their forbidden love, confined his daughter in a smaller house (on the upper left corner of the plate), then betrothed her daughter to a duke. Chang and Koong-See decided to elope; fleeing the house and running across the bridge. They successfully escaped on a fisherman’s boat (depicted in the background of the plate) to an island, which the duke later found and killed Chang. Koong-See, afraid of having to be with the duke again, set the house on fire and committed suicide. In the end, the gods transformed the lovers into immortal doves, uniting them forever (on the top center of pattern) (O’Hara, 1993, p424, Portanova, [no date], p7-8).
Janice Leung BA ILLUSTRATION STUDIO BRIEF 1 OUIL 501 This tale was merely a marketing tool used to reinforce the exotic stereotype of the East to increase its popularity and sales (O’Hara, 1993, p421; Portanova, [no date], p8). The Willow Pattern expressed the West’s reaction on their initial encounter with Oriental culture: full of warped perceptions and misconceptions (O’Hara, 1993, p.423). It also depicted their lack of incentive to depict the East accurately because they felt like there was no need to do so, due to the money they earned off the illusion created (Portanova, [no date], p8). The “traditional Chinese” story the West made up also highlights the exploitation of East Asian culture. By treating East Asian culture as marketing tool, again monetizing on the “mysterious and exotic” stereotype they imposed upon the East, the West had successfully commodified East Asian culture, subsequently reducing the Orientals’ cultural identities into a commodity. Re-orientalism, a term coined by academic Lisa Lau (2009), is the idea of how diasporic Asian communities or individuals, usually authors or artists, reinforce the oriental stereotype upon themselves to appease to a Western audience, further reducing Asian culture as a whole into a commodity to be marveled at by the West. Though Lau mainly focused on how the phenomenon affects South Asian culture, re-orientalism’s affects could also be seen within East Asian communities. Lau expresses that South Asian authors have become “pawns of the publishing industry” due to their writing style which promotes a distorted image of Southeast Asia, and exoticising their ethnicity to increase sales (2009, p573). Amy Tan, a diasporic Asian and the author of Joy Luck Club, is exemplary of re-orientalism happening in East Asian communities. Tan starts Joy Luck Club off with “Feathers from a Thousand Li Away”: a fairytale about a duck that became a swan due to its determination to exceed its own expectations, and a mother-to-be emigrating to America in hopes that her daughter will grow up speaking perfect English, so her worth won’t be “measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch” (1990, p8). Although the tale sounds extremely oriental, it is not Chinese at all and is pure fiction (Chin, 1974, p134). Ducks do not symbolize anything but food in Chinese culture, and contrary to the Western interpretation of swans, they represent familial bliss in Chinese culture, not physical female beauty and promiscuity. Furthermore, there are no Chinese fairytales that depict the Chinese measuring a woman’s worth “by the loudness of her husband’s belch” (Chin, 1974, p135). Tan argued that diasporic Asians who lived abroad have lost touch with their Asian roots, and their warped vision of what Asia is to them combined with their experience in the West allowed them to create new versions of traditional tales (Chin, 1974, p135), but this does not rule out the fact that they helped contribute to the Oriental stereotype to appease a Western audience, again reducing East Asian culture into a marketing tool. Though re-orientalism isn’t as common of a phenomenon, it significantly perpetuates the commodification, exploitation, and appropriation of East Asian culture. Since diasporic Asian communities are, as Lau claims “pawns of the publishing industry” (2009, p573), it directly affects the amount of authentic East Asian literature the Western audience could be exposed to. It could be argued that the West is encouraging Orientals authors, diasporic or not, to exaggerate and exoticize what they write in order to increase sales. Yellowface is another commodity derived from the appropriation and exploitation of East Asian culture. This form of theatrical makeup again reduces the East into an accessory, and in this case, laughing stock too. Used in theatrical production to make white actors look Asian, yellowface usually consists of the actor doing a funny walk, and adopting an “oriental” accent (Padgett, [no date]). It also describes the racist, inaccurate portrayal of Orientals in Hollywood, and the blatant racial bias Hollywood has against casting actual Asians to play Asian roles in films (Padgett, [no date]). Yellowface first appeared in
Janice Leung BA ILLUSTRATION STUDIO BRIEF 1 OUIL 501 Voltaire’s Orphan in China back in 1767 (Bright Lights Film Journal, 2014); in such an early time it could be considered acceptable for white actors to play the role of an Asian person, since the West wasn’t exposed to the East yet. They can only rely on what they know back then, which were the stereotypes they have heard about about the East. However, yellowface was a trend which continued for the next 200 years. As referenced by Esther Kim Lee in A History of Asian American Theatre, film and theatre professor James S. Moy states, “The notion of Chineseness . . . became familiar to the American spectator long before sightings of the actual Chinese” (Lee, 2006, p8). The Oriental stereotype is so deeply ingrained into media and culture that it is impossible for Orientals to fight it; it could be argued that the East had no option but to allow the West to appropriate and exploit their culture to fit it into the mold that the West created. The Good Earth, a film about struggling farmers in China, was another famous film for using yellowface. White actress Luise Rainer won an Academy Award for her role as O-Lan, the wife of a Chinese farmer in the film. The West has again, benefitted from the appropriation of East Asian culture. When a critic asked the producer why no Asians were cast in the movie, he simply responded, “I’m in the business of creating illusions” (Bright Lights Film Journal, 2014). His statement highlights the severity of the appropriation and exploitation of East Asian culture; Hollywood sees Orientals as nothing but costumes for white actors. Yellowface was also beneficial to white actors as it limited Hollywood’s talent pool. It enabled white actors to play both Western and Oriental characters, giving them more job opportunities. Kung Fu, a 1970s television show, is an infamous example of yellowface and racism within Hollywood; David Carradine, a white actor, was chosen over Bruce Lee to play the role of a Chinese martial artist (Bright Lights Film Jounral, 2014). Not only did Hollywood appropriate East Asian culture on the silver screen, it also prevented the casting of Orientals in Asian-themed movies. Even now, in a society where diversity is encouraged, only 4.4% of the actors in the top-grossing films in 2013 were Asian (Smith, Choueiti, Pieper, 2014, p1). Yellowface is also prominent within Western pop culture; with the rising popularity of Asian pop culture, a lot of Western Youtubers are flocking towards makeup trends that make themselves look “Asian”. Youtuber Venus Isabelle Palermo, a Swiss native, posted a video tutorial in 2014 titled “How to Look Like A Korean Girl” which garnered over 6 million views (Venus Angelic, 2014). The effect of Yellowface has spread from the silver screen to pop culture which highlights the severity of the fetishization and commodification of East Asian culture, and has created the assumption that it is acceptable to do so, creating a trend of cultural ignorance through the influence of pop culture. Western pop celebrities have also been appropriating East Asian culture. Their hasty objectification of the culture for monetary purposes harms the culture, as it tells the Western audience that it is acceptable to use East Asian culture as an obsolete costume or accessory. In 2004, singer Gwen Stefani wrote a song dedicated to her fetishistic obsession with Harajuku, an area in Japan known for their Lolita-esque way of dressing. According to TIME, she called their culture “a Ping-Pong match between Eastern and Western”, and hired four Asian backup dancers which she named, “Love”, “Angel”, “Music”, and “Baby” (2014); they were featured her music videos and silently followed her around throughout her tour. During interviews, the four dancers would silently pose behind Stefani, and bow down to her during performances as if she were their master. Stefani treated her four backup dancers as if they were pets, and usually pretended they were part of her imagination (Salon, 2005). The slave-like treatment the backup dancers received and her act of reducing them into props which one could buy for decorative purposes again speaks volumes about the exploitation of East Asian Women in the West. Furthermore,
Janice Leung BA ILLUSTRATION STUDIO BRIEF 1 OUIL 501 treating people as if they were a figment of their imagination implies that they aren’t seen as “real people”, which perpetuates the stereotype of Orientals being the “Other”, and also dismisses their personal and cultural identity as something that could be ignored. In 2013, singer Katy Perry donned a dress at the AMAs that resembled a fusion of the Japanese Kimono and Chinese Cheongsam, modified so that she could reveal her breasts, with an additional side slit so it wouldn’t restrain movement (Kotaku, 2013). The performance, according to a statement the Japanese American Citizens League released after her performance, “appropriated cultural traditions and served them up in a splashy performance replete with worn stereotypes” (2013). It could be argued that wearing a foreign dress isn’t appropriating or harming a culture but appreciating it (O’Dwyer, 2015). However, Perry’s dress sexualized a traditional garment which reinforced the exotic Oriental stereotype, proving she showed no understanding of the cultures or appreciation of it. What we see is an obvious exploitation of East Asian culture; it undermines their culture into a prop or accessory. Katy Perry is another example that subjects people from foreign “exotic” cultures to demeaning treatment, something very similar the Western film industry have done on multiple occasions. It encourages fans of celebrities to assume that one’s cultural identity as a plaything or trend. A culture, however is none of those things. In 2012, Perry stated on Jimmy Kimmel’s show that she was “obsessed with Japanese people” and that she wanted to “skin them and wear them like Versace” (Colorlines, 2012). This distasteful statement sheds light onto the objectified and commodified perspective the West has on the East. Not only are Orientals declared to be inferior, but are dehumanized and seen as animals which could be skinned, their culture and appearance treated like a cloak they could put on anytime they wanted to. There have been instances where it could be seen that the West appropriated East Asian culture, but did not commodify it. Chinoiserie and Japonaiserie is an art style inspired by East Asian culture. Unlike modern pop culture, it could be debate that the two art styles aren’t exploitive. Derived from the French terms “Chinois” and “Japonais”, they were both extremely influential art styles during the 18th to 19th centuries and could be seen in a lot of Western furniture, paintings, and decorative items produced during that period of time. (Victoria and Albert Museum, [no date]) Famous artists such as Monet and Van Gogh have been greatly influenced by the East, which is shown in their paintings. Being an avid admirer of Japanese prints, Van Gogh created replicas of the prints he collected on canvas. Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) (1887) (Fig.2) is one of Van Gough’s copies based on Hiroshige’s Plum Park in Kameido. Though he retained the composition of the blossoms and trees, he altered the colours and attempted to add a border of Japanese characters he took from Hiroshige’s other prints. In this case, Van Gogh’s replica of Hiroshige’s print is categorized as stylistic appropriation, meaning he took the style of Hiroshige’s prints and applied them into his own practice (Young, Brunk, 2009, p302). Also an admirer of Japanese art, Monet painted La Japonaise (Fig. 3), a life sized portrait featuring his wife Camille, who wore a blond wig and a kimono, posing in front of a wall of “uchiwa” (paper fans). Unlike Van Gogh, Monet’s painting of his wife was a satirical comment about the obsession Parisians had with Japanese products (Pahnation, 2015). The two paintings are examples of how East Asian culture could be appropriated but not exploited. As James O. Young expresses in “The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation”, artists explore issues they encounter through their work, in this case, painting, and that “artistic creation and expression is often a form of inquiry” (2005, p140). Although they are
Janice Leung BA ILLUSTRATION STUDIO BRIEF 1 OUIL 501 somewhat appropriating the culture, Van Gogh and Monet were merely exploring expressing their curiosity and opinions about East Asian culture. The artists weren’t using the culture as an accessory but rather painting it out of admiration and curiosity. These paintings offer us an understanding of how the West viewed the East when they first started to trade with the West. Van Gogh also acknowledged Hiroshige when he appropriated his prints; by giving credit to the artist, the appropriation would cause minimal harm to the culture as it provides the audience with information about the origins of his inspiration, and does not try to diminish the cultural identity of the East (Young, Brunk, 2009). The appropriation seen within paintings inspired by Chinoiserie and Japonaiserie are acceptable; as Young debates that without cultural appropriation, “audiences would only hear monologues instead of a conversation between cultures” (2009, p315). Without Van Gogh’s copied prints and Monet’s La Japonaise, the West would not be able to express the artistic influence the East had on them; similarly, the audience would not be able to look at the East through different artists’ visual explorations, which somewhat defeats the purpose of art. However, if monetary motives were included during the appropriation of the culture it would again commodify it. Hence Yellowface, Katy Perry’s fusion of several Oriental outfits, and Gwen Stefani’s attempt at acting Japanese still isn’t acceptable, as what they have done is reducing the culture into an accessory, which harms the cultural identity of the East, and isn’t a “conversation between cultures” (Young, Brunk, 2009, p315). The West’s act of reducing culture into a marketing tool or accessory is thought to be creative, it is however nothing but offensive and harmful to the culture affected. The increasing commodification of East Asian culture may mean that more people would be exposed to the culture, but it would also mean that the audience may approach it with a warped perspective, causing the Oriental stereotype to be reinforced. The perpetuation of using the “mystic and exotic “stereotype as a marketing fad diminishes the East’s cultural identity within the world; as Lau states, reducing the Orientals into pawns within the Western market (2009), and continuing to reienforce Orientals as the ‘Other’ (Said, 1977, p24). As diversity is slowly getting ingrained within modern society, it is time for the West to put an end to the appropriation and exploitation of East Asian culture.
Janice Leung BA ILLUSTRATION STUDIO BRIEF 1 OUIL 501 Images
Figure 1: Willow pattern plate (Hampton Vintage & Antiques Emporium, 2013)
Figure 2: Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) (Van Gough V., 1887)
Figure 3: La Japonaise (Monet, C., 1876)
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