Techno-Orientalism
Cultural theory
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Techno-Orientalism is a cultural theory critiquing the depiction of Asia and Asian culture as hyper-technologized within literature, media, and various cultural work.[1] Films and novels in the genre of cyberpunk are frequently cited for fetishizing Asian aesthetics, setting futuristic fiction in Asian landscapes, and portraying Asia as a place of advanced technology while simultaneously depicting it as cold, dystopian, and dehumanized.[1][2]
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The term 'Techno-Orientalism' was first defined in Morley and Robins's Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes, and Cultural Boundaries published in 1995.[1][2]
While Orientalism perceives the Eastern world as inferior through a primitive and undeveloped lens,[3] Techno-Orientalism represents Asia as a technologically advanced, futuristic entity. However, this depiction of a hyper-technologized Asia is rooted in the Western fear of Eastern modernization as it poses a threat to the West's contention for global dominance.[1]
Origins
Techno-Orientalism is derivative of Edward Said's concept of Orientalism, where the "Orient" exists as the alienation of the East by the West.[3] By combining the Middle East with the Far East as a single description of "Oriental" despite their cultural, linguistic, and religious differences, the West is able to distinguish itself from that region of the world.[4] In this context, the "Orient" becomes synonymous with "other".[2]
The term Techno-Orientalism is first coined in 1995 by Morley and Robins in their book Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes, and Cultural Boundaries. In chapter 8, the essay "Techno-Orientalism: Japan Panic", the phrase is used to describe how the expansion of Japanese economics, politics, and cultural influence becomes a source of anxiety for the West in the twentieth century.[2]
Morley argues that American anxieties stem from Japan's increasing technological advancements after World War II. While the West harbors Anti-Japanese sentiments and continued to view Japan through an "exotic" lens, Japan increasingly incorporated patterns and technologies of the West into their culture.[2] Due to globalism, the West sees Japan's cultural and technological absorption as a threat to their authority.[1] Morley describes this as a "panic" over Japan's technological advances, as Western correspondences could no longer simply equate the West as "modern" and the East as "pre-modern".[2] Japan's rise in political and cultural power destabilized the West's perspective of what geographic regions define "modernization" and where the United States stands as a global superpower.[2]
The West, associating Japan with high-technology, creates fantastical narratives of technologies of the future. Morley refers to this as "techno-mythology", where this fictionalized world of highly advanced artificial intelligence, robots, and machines becomes synonymous to the development of Japan.[2] This perception from the West romanticizes and fears Japan as a place of technological innovation.[2]
Applications in media and culture
Techno-Orientalism is prominently depicted in cyberpunk fiction.[2] Notable pieces of science fiction media critiqued for Techno-Orientalism include Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, the Wachowski Sisters' The Matrix, and William Gibson's Neuromancer.[1]