An Exploration of Orientalism & Asian Cultural Appropriation as Found in American Music (And Why Being a Non-Asian POC Doesn't Excuse You)

thisisnotjapan:

“*EDIT 06/14/15: Somehow the popularity of this post grew exponentially while I was away on vacation, making this post by far the most visited one on this tiny blog. And with that traffic came several criticisms, particularly about the fact that I failed to mention that henna is also used in the Middle Eastern and North African regions, and that I failed to mention that Nicki Minaj is in fact a quarter Indian, meaning I unwittingly erased her identity as a multiracial Asian POC. I apologize to everyone I have hurt or angered by my lack of sufficient research. I have done my best to incorporate the criticisms and fix my errors — in particular, I have added additional research, clarified some points, and shifted things around so both Minaj and Hudgens are properly labeled as being multiracial Asians. In the future I will try harder to not make such awful mistakes. Thank you all for reading!

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage month, so it’s time to talk about Orientalism and the appropriation of Asian cultures and Asian bodies, as specifically done by celebrities in American (mostly mainstream) music — because really, if I didn’t narrow it down we’d be here for days. Additionally, please note that this is not at all meant to be an exhaustive list, nor a very in-depth look at this topic. This is simply a brief foray into just one way that American media often uses Asians and Asian culture as props and trendy accessories.

Define the Terms

The key is to first define these terms. Law professor Susan Scafidi states that while it’s hard to fully define cultural appropriation, she sees it as thus (emphasis is my own):

“Cultural appropriation is taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission. This can include the unauthorized use of another culture’s dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc. It’s most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways, or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred objects.”

So the key aspects to remember are permission and oppression. Did you ask someone from that culture if what you’re doing is stereotyping or harming them? Are you a member of a group that holds societal, economic, and/or political power over the group you’re “borrowing” from? And does the group that you’re sourcing from have a history of being portrayed poorly, or not at all, in media? (That last question is important to remember later in this post when I talk about what happens when the person appropriating Asian cultures happens to also be a non-Asian person of color [POC], or even an Asian POC using another Asian culture they are not a part of).

Orientalism often goes hand-in-hand with cultural appropriation, and is defined by the blog Reappropriate as:

The West’s imagined construct of the East: strange religions and martial arts, bright colours and barbaric practices, unusual foods and incomprehensible languages, mysticism and magic, ninjas and kung fu. Asia becomes innately unusual, alien, and beastly. In Orientalism, Asia is not defined by what Asia is; rather, Asia becomes an “Otherized” fiction of everything the West is not, and one that primarily serves to reinforce the West’s own moral conception of itself.

I.e. if a musician is mashing up a variety of Asian cultures in order to make their video feel mystical, otherworldly or edgy, (while at the same time claiming they’re honoring that culture, where “that” just vaguely means all of Asia), and if they’re essentially wearing a costume that’s heavily coded as hailing from the Orient, then they’re probably participating in Orientalism.

Orientalism is harmful because it contributes to the Othering of Asians, meaning even when we’re born in the US (or have lived here for decades) we’re still viewed as perpetually foreign: it’s assumed we can’t speak English well, that we eat rice with everything, that we smell weird and cook dogs. It’s harmful because when non-Asian people adopt Asian cultures they’re seen as “well-traveled” and hipstery and innovative; when Asians accept and perform their own cultures, they’re often mocked for not being able to assimilate.

Common Methods of Appropriation & Props for Orientalism

We should also go over the kinds of Asian traditions that most often get appropriated and/or used to create an Oriental atmosphere in videos and performances:

Kimono: according to blogger Kahori, kimonos are now often only worn at very specific and significant events. For example, kimonos are worn on a baby when they’re first taken to a Shinto shrine, and again when they’re a little older (the Shichi-Go-San Festival) to thank the gods for letting their children grow healthy and strong. Kimonos are also worn during coming of age ceremonies, weddings, and funerals. So generally speaking, kimonos are typically used for important rites of passage that are often religiously based, similar to a first Confirmation dress or wedding dress for Christians. (It should be noted that some Japanese women or men may wear the kimono on a daily basis, but generally it’s often just used for special events.) There are various types of kimonos, such as odori kimonos for traditional dance, or the light weight yukata for summer festivals. Kimonos are also often expensive, difficult to put on, and reflect a woman’s age, marital status, and the level of formality, so it’s important thing to note that kimonos are not meant to be fetishized, as they often are in the West. They’re not meant to be extremely form-fitting, and/or cut short, as they often are in Western society.

Geisha: Geishas have long been sexualized in the West. Kimiko Akita wrote an amazing essay about Orientalism and the sexualization of geishas by Westerners, particularly as seen in Memoirs of a Geisha (written by a white man who only did two weeks worth of research, which he then mostly ignored in order to add in more drama and sex). In Japan, a geisha is respected as the ultimate artistic performer & hostess: she spends many, many years learning to play various musical instruments, sing, dance, tell stories, and carry on conversations about art, politics, etc. A geisha is the illusion of female perfection; she’s absolutely untouchable (as well as expensive and generally not easy to get in touch with), so sex has nothing at all to do with it. When male Westerners first came to Japan many assumed that geishas, being the ultimate hostesses, were also supposed to sleep with the patrons.

Bindi: An important forehead decoration commonly found in Hinduism and in South Asian cultures, but also in South East Asia. It first started as a mark made with a red/vermillion powder, but modern times has seen it sometimes marked with an ornament. It has several important meanings, with links to religion, spirituality, and marital status. The bindi is used to traditionally signify a woman’s marital status, but is also the physical manifestation and location of theajna chakra, the third eye. In meditation it’s thought of a point of focus, and is also the physical symbol of the concept of respecting wisdom and spiritual growth.  As it has both religious and far-flung cultural roots, many find it’s appropriation for fashion offensive, as Isha Aran points out in a Jezebel article:

The issue that so many people have with the recent bindi summer festival trend is that it doesn’t take from Hindu culture on Hindu culture’s terms. It takes from Hindu culture on American terms and negates the Hindu aspect through ignorance and exoticism of an “alluring foreign culture.”

And as blogger Fatimah Farha points out, when Hindu and South Asian women wear the bindi, they’re often mocked for not being able to assimilate:

When Hindu women in the United States wear the bindi, people love to make fun of them. I have heard countless number of jokes about the bindi. If you watch “Family Guy,” you’ve probably seen the scene where Peter Griffin asks his neighbor whether he uses the “red button” on his wife’s forehead as a remote control to shut her up. When people in the Western countries, such as America, see an actual Indian woman wearing the bindi, she is coined as a fob, a backwards and old-fashioned person who does not know how to embrace American culture.

Henna and Mehndi: Henna is the use of the dye from the henna plant to create temporary tattoos. Henna stretches back thousands of years, and is culturally significant all along the Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian, and South East Asian regions. Mehndi is Hindu in origin, and specifically refers to henna applied in Indian culture. The design of the henna art typically varies slightly across regions, but is often used by many cultures and religions as an important symbol of marriage. As one blogger mentions, henna is an important aspect of Hindu weddings, not something fashionable you wear when you go to an amusement park or music festival:

Henna is a very auspicious part of Hindu weddings. There are huge henna parties held for the bride and the girls in her family in which a henna artist adorns the bride in symbolic and historical designs on her arms and feet. A Hindu bride wearing henna symbolizes the love and strength she has in the marriage. So yeah, you are completely erasing the cultural significance of henna…I, an Indian girl, feel oppressed by you appropriating henna.

And outside of Hinduism, henna parties are also popular traditions for Muslim and Sikh weddings, as well as for many cultures found within in that region. For example, bridal henna nights are popular in North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Israel, and Somalia, to name a few.

Just to note, there appears to be a lot of debate online within the aforementioned communities about whether the use of henna outside of those regions is considered cultural appropriation — some feel that the use of henna is a way for others to appreciate their culture, and some feel strongly the opposite. I have included instances where artists (white artists, in particular) have appropriated henna because some people who hail from those regions have spoken up about being offended by it, and it’s worth mentioning here.

Qipao/Cheongsam: While this dress is a relatively new creation (you can see a progression of the dress by artist lilsuika here), the cheongsam has long been associated in Western culture with Asian submissiveness and sexuality. The cheongsam is a symbol of wealth, respectability, and high fashion in China, but in the West it’s now practically synonymous with the fetishization of Asian women, largely thanks to Suzie Wong’s films in the 1960s, which is supposedly when the cheongsam was first cut short with a large slit up the thigh, and where Wong often played a happily submissive and domestic Asian woman with a secretly kinky side. While it may not be considered appropriative since it’s relatively modern and common, the cheongsam is often used as a sexualized costume for any time non Chinese people want to look even vaguely Oriental, which often makes its presence at Halloween, “Asian themed” parties, and lingerie stores (as seen below) problematic, as it’s use often further contributes to the sexualization of Asian women.

Celebrities Who Appropriate & Orientalize

Ok, now that we understand the significance of these items and that Asians have spoken up about feeling offended by their appropriation, now we can go into several famous examples of celebrities who use Asian cultures to color their music…” (read more through the link)