The Future of the Colonial Gaze
The Future of the Colonial Gaze
Techno-Orientalism in American Sci-Fi
When Edward Said published his book Orientalism, he coined the term Orientalism to describe how western powers had manufactured a hostile perception towards eastern countries. In order to justify western colonialism and imperialism, Asian nations were painted to be backwards and undeveloped yet contained exotic and untapped resources that were attractive to western powers. Although Said’s book came out in 1978, orientalist media had existed far before his publication with 19th century British paintings fetishizing Asian women and glamorizing the foreignness of Arabic countries through superficial portrayals of such cultures. Similar orientalist tropes continued on in the early 2000s with popular films like The Last Samurai and Lost In Translation featuring white savior protagonists making their way through hyper-aestheticised versions of Japan. However, decades have passed since these portrayals and with Asian nations having undergone rapid technological and economic advancement, it has become increasingly difficult for orientalist media to continue painting Asian countries as “undeveloped.” Despite these developments, Orientalism never died in western media with Techno-Orientalism taking over film and fiction.
Flying cars, mega-corporations, lasers, and robots are all hallmarks of classic science fiction media. However, have you noticed that oftentimes these futuristic worlds feature Japanese or Chinese writing in supposedly American cities? Or perhaps overseas businessmen from Asia whose sole purpose in the plot is to act as a shadowy overlord? Or a scene that takes a detour through a seedy crime ridden Chinatown? These common tropes can be regarded as Techno-Orientalism in which Asian cultures are fetishized and rendered into mere aesthetics. Unlike Orientalism, the east is portrayed as having advanced technologically but remaining culturally inept to handle such gadgetry. The idea behind Techno-Orientalism may contrast with Orientalism, but aims to achieve much of the same results. Rather than vying for colonization and western dominance over the east by portraying them as inferior, it insinuates the dangers of advanced technology being in the hands of Asian countries.
“Whereas Orientalism as a strategy of representation containment arrests Asia in traditional, and often premodern imagery, techno-Orientalism presents… an “Orient'' undergoing rapid economic and cultural transformations…. Cultures privilege modernity and fear losing their perceived “edge” over others.''
— David S. Roh, Betsy Huang, Greta Niu “Techno‑Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media”
Take for instance, Blade Runner 2049, the contemporary sequel to the classic dystopian movie Blade Runner. The film crafts a futuristic world featuring neon signs filled with kanji, actresses wearing traditional Yukatas and Qipaos, and architecture with clear inspirations from Japanese cities. Despite all these Asian influences, the world of Blade Runner 2049 remains devoid of any Asian actors or actresses in major roles. Instead, Blade Runner’s “Japanese aesthetics” is simply meant to serve an aesthetic function that implants foreignness into a sci-fi setting all the while associating dangerous technologies and authoritarian regimes with eastern cultures.
"Since the late 1970s, a key idea in Western science fiction has been that Japan represents the future. Japan's 'weird' culture is a figure for an incomprehensible tomorrow…”
— Sarah Emerson “Cyberpunk Cities Fetishize Asian Culture But Have No Asians”
While the new Blade Runner’s aesthetics could be a homage to the fact that Japanese Cyberpunk movies like Akira and Ghost in the Shell were major influences on the sci-fi genre, it fails to transfer over the context behind the aesthetics of these movies. Being a sci-fi sub-genre, Cyberpunk crafts dystopian worlds in which wondrous technologies exist alongside high rates of poverty and inequality. In the case of Japan, Cyberpunk movies became popular during the 1980s to 1990s when the nation underwent a technological revolution with Japanese consumer electronic brands like Sony and Nintendo becoming household brands. The cyberpunk genre was able to serve as a critique on capitalism and government corruption during Japan’s technological boom. However, most of this subtext is dropped in reimaginings or homages of Cyberpunk as in the case of the American remake of Ghost In the Shell, which indulges in all of Cyberpunk’s techno-orientalist tropes without any self-awareness for the genre’s anti-capitalist themes. During the movie’s promotion, heavy focus was placed on a set of creepy mechanical geishas. Despite the androids never appearing in the original movie and playing a small role in the story, they became a core part of trailers and posters perfectly encapsulating the problem with Techno-Orientalism as the director utilized a cosmetic understanding of Japanese culture to draw in audiences all the while plastering “Asian” aesthetics over symbols of technological missteps. Even more objectifying is the fact that the geisha’s were constructed from a face mold of Japanese actress Rila Fukushima whose facial features were turned into a mask for other actresses to wear.
While Techno-Orientalism is often a symptom of fictional worlds, it can carry over to real life consequences and political agendas. One example being that the Japanese government purposefully played into orientalist perceptions of Japan by releasing a trailer for the 2020 Olympics. Within the commercial, holograms flashed above a futuristic and neon lit Tokyo. Despite intense backlash from locals for the inaccurate portrayal of Tokyo and the Olympics itself, these techno-orientalist tropes served to attract foreign capital at the expense of Japanese citizens. Outside of Japan, techno-orientalist narratives have also surfaced in regards to China’s social credit system where news articles and internet memes paint China as an Orwellian hellscape in which an individual’s every move is tracked by a credit rating system. While criticisms of credit systems are valid, few of these western perceptions on social credit are factual and oftentimes only serves to postulate China as an enemy nation abusing technological advancements. Techno-Orientalist tropes that often target nations like China, Japan, and South Korea also hold many geopolitical implications considering that America has an unpopular military presence in both Japan and Korea alongside frigid relations with China.
Although science fiction may be defined as speculative media for the future, the genre remains rooted in the fears and understandings of our present. Techno-orientalist media channels our fears and wonders of an increasingly digital world and projects them onto Asian countries and cultures. But the truth is that oppressive technologies aren’t an ocean away and instead already proliferate in America. Police surveillance programs utilizing prejudiced A.I are already being implemented in urban centers and big data companies continue to use private information in a bid to elect preferred candidates into office. When dangerous technologies are depicted to only be in the hands of foreigners or dressed up in surface level stereotypes, not only does it fan xenophobic fears but also blurs our perception towards harmful domestic technologies. So until Orientalism is fully left in the past, our visions of the future remain far from perfect.
To further decolonize our minds:
On Techno-Orientalism | Leo Kim
Revisiting the Racial Fears of Techno-Orientalism and Cyberpunk | Lauren Sung
Orientalism, Cyberpunk 2077, and Yellow Peril in Science Fiction | George Yang
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