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The Dialectic of Recognition and the Rediscovery of China: After Orientalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2015

Chiann Karen Tsui  and
Russell A. Berman
Chiann Karen Tsui
Affiliation:
Department of German Studies, Stanford University, USA. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
Russell A. Berman
Affiliation:
Department of German Studies, Stanford University, USA. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Abstract

The cultural relationship between China and the West, including the hypothesis of a rediscovery, does not fit neatly into the binary pattern implied by the model of Orientalism associated with post-colonial theory. Even in the era of high imperialism, the Sino-Western relationship involved complexities for which the paradigm of colonizer and colonized is too simplistic and therefore requires a theorization of a post-Orientalism. As evidence, the narrative fragment ‘The Boxer Rebellion’, by the Austrian author Arthur Schnitzler, published posthumously in 1957, explores the psychological dynamic between a European soldier and a Chinese prisoner in order to demonstrate the immanent ambivalence of imperialism and its Orientalist categories.

Type
Rediscovering China from Today’s Perspective
Information
European Review , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 180 - 192
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2015 

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References

References and Notes

1.Said, E. (1978) Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books), p. 3. Said defined Orientalism in multiple yet interrelated ways. First, Orientalism is defined as the field that encompasses any and all research on the Orient. Secondly, Orientalism is a style of thought that takes as its fundamental basis the distinction between ‘the Orient’ and ‘the Occident’. Thirdly, and most germane to Said’s thesis, Orientalism is a discourse that enables European culture ‘to manage – and even produce – the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post-Enlightenment period.’ E. Said (1978) Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books), pp. 2–3.Google Scholar
2.Said, E. (1978) Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books), pp. 202–203. The implications of Said’s Orientalism have been adopted in the exploration of post-colonial studies in countries as far-ranging as Japan, Australia, India and China, by researchers including Leigh Dale and Helen Gilbert, Veronica Kelly, Richard Dalby, Ronald Inden, Richard H. Minear, David Kopf, Arif Dirlik and Eric Hayot.Google Scholar
3.Said, E. (1978) Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books), p. 12. In his article ‘On Orientalism’, James Clifford remarks upon the incongruity between Said’s refutation of a monolithic understanding of the Orient and his essentializing and totalizing version of the West. See: J. Clifford (1980) On Orientalism. History and Theory, pp. 19, 204–223.Google Scholar
4.Schnitzler, A. (1961) Die erzählenden Schriften, vol. 1 (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag), p. 545. A. C. Roberts (1989) Arthur Schnitzler and Politics (Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press), p. 130. R. Urbach (1974) Schnitzler-Kommentar (München: Winkler Verlag), p. 133.Google Scholar
5.Adrian Clive Roberts introduces the protagonist as a British army officer, although he does not give any further reasoning for his assumption – A. C. Roberts (1989) Arthur Schnitzler and Politics (Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press), p. 129. Austria-Hungary, which had a naval presence in China during the Boxer Rebellion, contextualizes the possibility that the officer could be Austrian. The Seymour Expedition, led by the British admiral Edward Seymour between June and July 1900, enlisted the help of the Austro-Hungarian naval forces from the SMS Zenta in addition to reinforcements from the rest of the Allied Forces. See: C. Ham and C. Ortner (eds) (2000) Mit S.M.S. Zenta in China (Wien: Verlag Österreich, Print Media Austria AG). Lastly, the narrative’s allusion to Kaiser Wilhelm II’s ‘Hunnenrede’ of July 1900 also suggests that the officer could be German.Google Scholar
6.Kaiser Wilhelm II’s ‘Hunnenrede’ was delivered in Bremerhaven on July 27, 1900. Although the exact wording of the speech is debatable, the infamous line ‘Pardon will not be given. Prisoners will not be taken,’ has been confirmed by multiple sources. See: Soesemann, B. (1976) Die sogenannte Hunnenrede Wilhelms II. Historische Zeitschrift, 222(2), pp. 342–358. J. Penzler (1904) Die Reden Kaiser Wilhelms II. in den Jahren 1896–1900. 2. Teil (Leipzig: Reclam), pp. 209–212. M. Görtemaker (1996) Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert. Entwicklungslinien (Bonn: Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung), p. 357.Google Scholar
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11.Documentation of such attitudes towards the Chinese has been recorded in various first-person accounts of the Boxer Rebellion. For a German perspective, see: Fehl, G. and Fehl, R. (eds) (2002) The Germans to the Front? (Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovač). For Austro-Hungarian accounts, see: P. Jung (ed.) (2000) Österreichische Militärgeschichte. Sturm über China. Österreich-Ungarns Einsatz im Boxeraufstand, 1900 (Vienna: Verlagsbuchhandlung Stöhr).Google Scholar
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14.In this context, the term ‘post-Orientalism’ strives to conceptualize what comes after Orientalism. It alludes to the notion of surpassing the claims made in Said’s Orientalism, which have been further elaborated upon within the field of postcolonial studies since its publication. This utilization of the term should not be confused with Wang Ning’s summarization of Post-Orientalism as theorized by overseas Chinese scholars, and which runs contrary to Said’s concept of Orientalism. Neither should the present usage be confused with Hamid Dabashi’s formulation of the term, which supports Said’s overall critique of Orientalism while positing the postcolonial agency of the exilic intellectual. See: Wang, N. (1997) ‘Orientalism vs. Occidentalism?’ New Literary History, 28(1), pp. 57–67. H. Dabashi (2009) Post-Orientalism: Knowledge and Power in Time of Terror (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers).Google Scholar