Final janice leung ouil 501 what role does commodity fetishism play in the appropriation and exploit

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Janice Leung BA ILLUSTRATION STUDIO BRIEF 1 OUIL 501 What role does commodity fetishism play in the appropriation and exploitation of Asian culture? Commodity fetishism is the fixation one has on physical and social goods, and disregarding the exploitation that happens simultaneously during the production of the commodity (Marx, 1993, p2). The commodification of a culture occurs when an aspect of the culture becomes a selling point, in this case, the mystical and exotic stereotype of the East. The appropriation of East Asian culture has changed with time: from visually exploring the unknown culture within the fine arts due to the lack of exposure to the world, to exploiting for monetary purposes within Western pop culture. The West’s perpetuation of appropriating and exploiting East Asian culture for financial gain has led to the diminishing of its cultural identity. The commodification of East Asian culture stemmed from Orientalism, a concept which promoted a binary representation of the East and West; the West being superior over the “irrational, depraved, and childlike” Orientals (Said, 1977, p40). Categorizing Orientals as the “Other” and viewing their way of living as strange could be understandable (Said, 1977, p24), as it is instinctive for one to initially be intimidated by the foreign and the unknown. However, the stereotype stayed even as the West started to familiarize themselves with the East; they now used the stereotypes to their advantage. As Said opinionizes (1977), “There are Westerners, and there are Orientals. The former dominate; the latter must be dominated, which usually means having their land occupied, their internal affairs rigidly controlled, their blood and treasure put at the disposal of one or another Western power”. By depicting the East being inferior to them, the West justified their acts of colonialism in the East. This was the beginning of the commodification of East Asian culture; the West did not view Orientals and their cultures as equals, but something inferior hence formulating the assumption that it would be acceptable to treat their culture as a commodity. The West’s fetishistic fascination towards the East led to the birth of the Willow Pattern (Fig.1). Produced by British engravers in the 18th century, the Willow Pattern was a poor derivative of models of Chinese pottery. The Willow Pattern was an imitation of “shanshui” a style of traditional Chinese landscape painting (Portanova, [no date], p6). The pattern usually depicts a tranquil area in the countryside, complete with a river, buildings with ornate roofs, pavilions, Orientals wearing traditional clothing, and a willow tree in the middle of the composition. The pattern was accompanied by a “traditional Chinese” legend, claimed to be passed on by generations about the characters and objects within the pattern (Fig.1): An affluent mandarin lived in the house (center of the plate) with his bookkeeper, Chang. Chang fell in love with the mandarin’s daughter, Koong-See, who meets him at the orange trees (located next to the house) every night. The mandarin found out about their forbidden love, confined his daughter in a smaller house (on the upper left corner of the plate), then betrothed her daughter to a duke. Chang and Koong-See decided to elope; fleeing the house and running across the bridge. They successfully escaped on a fisherman’s boat (depicted in the background of the plate) to an island, which the duke later found and killed Chang. Koong-See, afraid of having to be with the duke again, set the house on fire and committed suicide. In the end, the gods transformed the lovers into immortal doves, uniting them forever (on the top center of pattern) (O’Hara, 1993, p424, Portanova, [no date], p7-8).


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