Orientalism? More like NOrientalism!

Edward Said defines the classic European idea of the Oriental as mysterious, conniving, and religiously fanatic. Orientalism is the fascination with an inaccurate stereotype that Westerners have created concerning Easterners. The stereotypes involved reduce complicated societies to "heathen worshipers," strange magicians, and exotic simplifications of Eastern cultures.

I think that in some ways we still do have an Orientalist mindset, although I think it looks pretty different now. In the late 1800s, several European countries (particularly England) started becoming obsessed with Japanese "culture," even though their version of Japanese culture was highly westernized. They wore kimonos and held Japanese fans and hung their walls with Japanese-styled art. Today, a lot of people in America do the same thing, except that now we have a name for it: Weeaboos. American and English people who watch lots of anime and say "konichiwa" a lot without actually knowing any real Japanese. It might not be exactly the same thing, but the central problem is still there: the romanticization of a culture we view to be "different" from our own.