content warning: nudity
Most English speakers will have encountered the word oriental before. From describing rugs to people, the term has been around longer than the United States. But what does oriental even mean?
The term Orient, which historically referred to countries in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. This may be surprising, as in modern usage, oriental is most synonymous with East and Southeast Asia. Recently, the term oriental has received more attention because in 2016, Obama signed a bill removing the word oriental from federal law. Previously oriental was used to refer to Asian Americans, despite oriental falling out of common usage by the 1960s. This decision, of course, prompted debates across the country over whether or not oriental was considered a derogatory term.
I think to properly contribute to this debate, it is worth discussing how the word oriental was used historically and in what context. For the rest of this blog post I will discuss the way oriental has been used to describe art, in stores, in academia, and for people, which highlights the complicated history of the word — a history entwined with colonization, white supremacy, and racism.
Defining Oriental
Oriental — in its most simple definition — is to be of the Orient,which can be used to describe a wide variety of things, ideas, and people.
To fully understand what oriental means, we must first understand what the Orient was. The term orient originated from the Latin word oriens, meaning east. This word was used to describe countries east of Europe. As Europeans pushed eastward, the idea of the orient expanded too, from its initially use describing the Middle East and North African countries, to eventually encompassing all of Asia. The Orient was the West’s — or the Occident’s — direct opposite. The term Orient has a Eurocentric (centering European history and culture at the exclusion of non-Western countries) origin, positioning Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa in relation to their proximity to Europe. Understanding that the Orient is a Eurocentric idea, can help inform our understanding of what oriental means.
Oriental, at its core, was used to juxtapose Western countries and cultures with countries in the East that they were attempting to invade and colonize. If something was oriental than it could certainly never be Western. It was different — foreign, uncivilized. Yet many people do not consider oriental to be a negative word. This is likely due, in part, to the romanticized view of these non-Western countries developed by the West during the nineteenth century.
Oriental Scenes in Western Art
The idea of the “exotic orient has filled European imagination for centuries, however by the nineteenth century a full genre of orientalist art had emerged. These oriental scenes often depicted North African, Middle Eastern and South Asian countries. The genre began to take form as France and England aggressively sought to colonize various North African and South and Southeast Asian countries during the early to mid nineteenth century. The paintings depicted these countries as exotic, strange, and often highly sexualized. European colonization led to increased attention being directed towards these countries. Books written by Western travelers, often exaggerated, helped fuel curiosity. Artists did not even need to leave their own homes, instead using books and travel brochures for inspiration. It comes to no surprise then, that art depicting the Orient, was often stereotypical and provocative in nature.
Some of the most popular scenes depicted harems which — in the eyes of Westerners — seemed both erotic and grotesque. Scenes of harems depicted women in sexualized positions, with little to no clothing on. Though the women in these paintings often had European features and complexions, they would still not be mistaken for Westerners by the viewer, given their surroundings and actions that were supposed to represent The Orient.
These scenes would have been painted almost entirely from imagination, as European men would not have been allowed in establishments such as bath houses. These scenes played into the male gaze with a specific focus on non-Western women, who were already objectified and highly sexualized in these depictions.
These orientalist paintings helped create the Western imagination of The Orient. Mackenzie, in Orientalism: History, Theory, and the Arts, writes
“Visions of the Orient were highly selective, creating oriental archetypes through which the “Otherness” of eastern peoples could be readily identified. Tyranny, cruelty, laziness, lust technical backwardness, languid fatalism and cultural decadency generally, offered a justification for imperial rule and a programme for its reforming zeal” (p. 46).
In addition, the paintings were made to appear neutral and even informative, given that the art style was often realistic with seemingly few artistic embellishments. Yet the subjects were often meant to be gawked at: subjects living in a culture lacking Western morality or civilization. The remnants of orientalist art remains in the present. Movies like Aladdin, still present the Middle East as a vaguely ethnic monolith with crowded bazaars full of colorfully dressed people, who often have bad intentions.
The Rise of Oriental Department Stores
Western curiosity about the Orient did not stop at art. No, they wanted to possess the Orient. In fact, by the late nineteenth century, department stores promising a variety of Oriental goods began to pop up. In England, Liberty was most popular selling a variety of Asian and Middle Eastern art, clothing, and furniture. In the US, A. A. Vantine & Company, based in New York City, became well known. Though the store originally only sold Japanese and Chinese products, eventually they branched out, selling items from all over Asia and the Middle East. Selling objects labeled foreign fed into the Western desire to possess what they found desirable from cultures they overwise deemed inferior without having to interact with those cultures. Even the way these items were marketed highlighted the particularly racist views many Westerners held.
A. A. Vantine’s, in particular, heavily played into orientalist exoticism. In their Wonder book, which was sent to customers to advertise their products, the company begins and ends the book with a pair of poems labelled “Two views of Japan.” The first poem, writes glowingly of Japan’s nature scenes while still enforcing this sense of exoticism,
Land of the Rising Sun, —
Where beauty, art, and mystery
Combine themselves into one.
The second poem, found at the end of the book is less kind:
Where men run naked on the streets
Wear spectacles for clothing
And old and young, and rich and poor
Eschew the use of hose.
These two poems, on the first and last page of the catalog, set up the viewer for what they should take away from their shopping experience. Admire the natural beauty of Japan yet continue to exoticize and stereotype the country as primitive and inferior. This orientalist view is consistent with other ads for the store. The word oriental is used as a synonym with exotic and Asian. The word always implies a sense of foreignness. Look at al these exotic goods we have that are definitely not from here! By playing into the stereotypes already associated with Asian and Middle Eastern countries, department stores like Vantine’s used the popular of oriental as foreign and exotic to market their goods.
Oriental department stores were also a way in which white women participated in imperialism. Department stores, like A. A. Vantine was catered to women and what women would want to buy. Through the act of purchasing “oriental” items, white women were not only reinforcing the idea that Asia is a spectacle but also normalized that perspective. These oriental department stores grew because of white women. The discussion of imperialism is often discussed through the men involved, however white women’s actions back home were also just as important at establishing and maintaining an imperialist mindset.
The Development of Oriental Studies
The West’s academic curiosity about Asia and the Middle East was also prevalent during the nineteenth century. So much so that Oriental societies began to be formed by the mid nineteenth century. In 1842, the American Oriental Society was founded to study artifacts and philosophy from various Asian, Middle Eastern, and North African countries. This was created as a way for academics to share information about their studies that could range from a wide variety of topics all under the Oriental term. The Oriental Club of Philadelphia was established in 1888 and one of its early members, joining in 1919, was Rhys Carpenter, who was a professor at Bryn Mawr and who Carpenter library is named after. As most academic societies were at the time, it was run almost entirely by white men.
As Oriental Societies were being formed, European universities like Oxford also established Oriental Studies departments. In the US, colleges like Princeton established programs by the mid twentieth century. Calling the field “Oriental Studies” was considered neutral and not offensive at the time, but that doesn’t mean these departments were without their issues. Many of the departments were headed and taught primarily by white professors, an issue that remains contentious to this day. The name “Oriental studies” also continued to subtlety perpetuate the idea that all Asian and Middle Eastern countries are a monolith by putting them all under the same roof of oriental.
In recent years, several “Oriental Studies” department have changed their name to “Asian studies” or something similar. Just last year, Oxford renamed their Oriental Studies program to Asian and Middle Eastern studies. The department explained that they wanted a more sensitive title and to dispel the idea that studying Asian countries is “exotic,” which the term oriental inherently implies due to its long history. This change of name did not come without push back, which brings us to the present day debate over whether to use “oriental” or not.
Oriental People
Though in present day America, it is often considered outdated and rude to refer to an Asian person as “oriental” this used to be the norm in the mid to late nineteenth century. In American English, the term “oriental” could also refer to a person from Asia, specifically east and southeast Asia. A New York Times articles from 1852, titled “Orientals in America” went on to discuss recent Chinese immigration. Though the overall tone of the article was fairly neutral, the writer still very obviously had the perspective that Chinese people were strange and childish. Another article from the Los Angeles Herald published in 1907 shows a more sinister perspective on Asian people. This article details how orientals are the direct opposite of “occidentals” (West) and concludes that the West must make action to change Asian societal structure to a Western model.
Though the term was often used simply as a descriptor, there was still a great deal of expectations and baggage that came with oriental . As both articles illustrate, though the usage of “oriental” is purely descriptive it is loaded with negative connotations. To say someone is “oriental” is to say that are inherently below the people from a white, Western background, because society at that time viewed the Orient as primitive and immoral.
The Debate Over Oriental Today
After Obama signed the bill removing the usage of oriental in federal laws and changing it to “Asian American,” there was, of course, a great deal of pushback and discussions arising about using or not using the word. In this debate, there seems to be two main arguments: (1) oriental should be considered insensitive and it is a good for the word to be removed from federal law and everyday speech or (2) oriental is not considered insensitive and there are bigger issues in the world than a word that’s not that overtly racist. I’ve seen Asian-Americans argue on both sides.
I will not conclude this blog by saying yes of course you can use this word, here’s an Asian stamp of approval. Nor will I say you must never say oriental again. Instead, understand that though “words are just words,” certain words carry more baggage than others. Oriental represents the long and difficult history of the West’s negative views and prejudice towards Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, the legacy of which remains imbedded in today’s world. I am fully aware that simply erasing the word from our vocab will not magically fix everything. Yet, to call someone oriental is to insist on some level that we are somehow exotic, worthy of gawking at but not speaking to. That we are only our beautiful dresses, vases, and furniture, and the rest of our cultures and histories are irrelevant. Perhaps there are not easily solutions to this issue and we must take the time to examine our own biases and understand where they came from and why the exist.
Further reading and sources
President Obama signs bill eliminating ‘oriental’ from federal law
Law bans use of ‘oriental’ in state documents
Wikipedia definition of orientalism
Wikipedia definition of orient
Explaining the Meaning of the Words “Orient” and “Oriental
Orientalism in Nineteenth Century art
List of French possessions and Colonies
List of English overseas possessions
Orientalism Art – When the West Romanticized the East
The Hookah Lighter - Jean Leon Gerome
A. A Vantine & Co. ****Wonderbook circ 1920s
All A. A. Vantine % Co. catalogs available
The American Oriental Society - New York Times
Oriental Club of Philadelphia, early members
Oriental studies faculty to change name - Cherwell
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern studies - Oxford
East Asian Studies department - Princeton
Los Angeles Herald - Occident vs. Orient
New York Times - Orientals in America
My ‘Oriental’ Father: On The Words We Use To Describe Ourselves - NPR
‘Oriental’: rugs, not people - NPR
The long and slow death of a word used to describe everyone from Egypt to China as well as rugs - Washington Post
The term oriental is outdated but is it racist? - LA times
‘Oriental’ is it racist? - CGTN