A Service Trip, a Cartoon Character, or a Hollywood Blockbuster

A service trip that costs more than it gives, a history squeezed into a cartoon character, a Hollywood blockbuster that perpetuates the fetishization of one or more cultures- Orientalism in all forms is toxic and all too common. As a child I was attracted to the cartoon movies with female leads. I grew into this notion that the Disney classic, Mulan was a signal of the media becoming more progressive and inclusive.
One of the strongest reasons Orientalism is still heavily normalized in the Western world is the lack of motivation to change our ignorance surrounding the history, cultures, and countries of Asia. Ignorance is the very basis of Orientalism, moreover it’s the basis of discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes, and other disparaging social and institutional barriers. We as students know how the majority of public education (predominantly early education) treats the expansion of perspectives and cultures, as a tourist attraction worth a week of class. Something to skim through, memorizing specific names of warriors, rulers, religions, inevitably flowing back into the Eurocentric perspective. We notice classes such as Latin American History, Native American History, Women in History, African American History, are all elective classes. There are only 30 colleges and universities with an "Asian American Studies" as an elective, usually found in a minor curriculum. Even in the cases of elective classes trying to fit in an entire region’s history into a semester long class, vital pieces of our global puzzle are bound to be skipped over, left behind, and underrepresented.
I am not at all trying to say our public education is the sole reason Orientalism still exists. The root of the issue is an unmotivated majority. Westerns are so used to having this one single narrative of every Asian culture be retold over and over again that it becomes normal to be ignorant.
I have fed into Orientalism. I have thought, accepted, and assumed without research, without true knowledge or a larger grasp, and have thus fed into the acceptance of ignorance, stereotyping, and erasure of cultures. One person's decision to learn more can become a sea of self-expansion and open-mindedness when enough people stop to self-reflect. Asia is the largest continent on this planet. The idea that Western culture or Westerners can squeeze 48 countries and 100,000 years of history into a service trip, a cartoon character, or a Hollywood blockbuster is due to normalized passivity and ignorance.