Thursday, March 23, 2017

Movies and Orientalism

Edward Said states that because Western world was in power and dominated the East the myth they created about East influenced their judgment of culture and people from those regions which Said calls an Orientalism.
Movies in our society are mostly dominated by western cultures therefore Orientalism can be seen almost in every movie produced. For example The Great Wall(2017), The Mummy(1999), Kung Fu Panda(2008), Doctor Strange(2016) to list few.
In The Great Wall movie Chinese people are perceived as mysterious and incredible fighters in warrior armor. As well as Kung Fu Panda and The Great Wall idealise Chinese women to be very elegant, beautiful, good fighters and violent as well.
The Mummy is stereotyping Egyptians as if all of them have a camel and machete.
In the Doctor Strange he visits the Kamar-Taj city which depicts Asian country specifically can be inferred to be India. It proves this stereotypical idea of what they wear and how they talk did not change in the past fifty years.
Orientalism is still in our everyday lives because we are so used to seeing it we do not realise how wrong it is until someone points it out.

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