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The Orientalism Debate and the Chinese Wall: An Essay on Said and Sinology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Extract

In 1978 a hefty monograph, entitled Orientalism, appeared that would, in its own way, come to constitute a landmark in the history of Asian studies - to the satisfaction of some and the resentment of others. The author of this work, American-Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said, appealed to a wide intellectual circle, which was also shown by the sheer number of reviews in Anglo-Saxon papers and periodicals: there were at least sixty of them in the period following publication.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1997

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References

Notes

1 This is the estimate of Mani, Lala and Frankenberg, Ruth, ‘The Challenge of Orientalism’, Economy and Society 14 (1985) 178. Their article is a useful ‘review of reviews’ of Said's Orientalism.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Cf. Legge, J.D., ‘The Writing of Southeast Asian History’ in: Tarling, Nicholas ed., The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia (Cambridge 1992) 9Google Scholar. A fellow countryman of Van Leur, Locher, Th., Die Uberwindung des europäozentrischen Geschichtbilties (Wiesbaden 1954)Google Scholar, has discussed the problem of the eurocentric view of history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which was based on the concept of national states rather than universal currents.

3 Clifford, James, ‘Orientalism by Edward W. Said’, History and Theory 19 (1980) 208209.Google Scholar

4 Clifford, History and Theory, 209–210.

5 Ibid., 215–216.

6 Lowe, Lisa, Critical Terrains: French and British Orientalisms (Ithaca and London 1991) ix.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., 1–3.

8 Ibid., 5.

9 Ibid., 10.

10 Minear, Richard H., ‘Orientalism and the Study of Japan’, Journal of Asian Studies 39 (1979/1980) 515.Google Scholar

11 Mackerras, Colin, Western Images of China (Hongkong etc. 1989)Google Scholar; Cohen, Paul, Discovering History in China (New York 1984).Google Scholar

12 This is based on personal communication with Professor Zürcher, May 1994.

13 Leys, Simon, The Burning Forest (London 1985) 96100Google Scholar; Said, Edward W., Orientalism (New York 1978) 323 and following.Google Scholar

14 Levenson, Joseph R., ‘The Humanistic Disciplines: Will Sinology Do?’, Journal of Asian Studies 23 (1963/1964).Google Scholar

15 This is based on a number of oral or written interviews with leading Sinologists in Europe and America, mostly carried out during 1994.

16 Franke, Herbert, ‘In Search of China: Some General Remarks on the History of European Sinology’ in: Europe Studies China (London 1995) 22.Google Scholar

17 Schwab, Raymond, The Oriental Renaissance: Europe's Discovery of India and the East, 1680–1880 (New York 1984).Google Scholar

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21 Mackerras, Western Images of China, 48–49. As late as around World War I, a young man called Arthur Waley went up to the old missionary who chaired the Chinese studies at the recently started School of Oriental Studies in London and asked for guidance in order to study Chinese poetry. The scholar answered pessimistically that the Chinese did have their Book of Odes by Confucius (sic!), but that that was about the whole thing! The young man did not let himself be deterred, however, and later became one of the best-known British Sinologists of the century. See Waley, Arthur, ‘Introduction to A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1962 edition)’ in: Morris, Ivan ed., Madly Singing in the Mountains: An Appreciation and Anthology of Arthur Waley (London 1970) 133.Google Scholar

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27 Even here, however, colonialist aspects of utility did not miss to make their mark. A former interpreter named Gabriel Devéria (1844–1899) wrote a book which investigated the complicated question of China's suzerainty over Vietnam at a moment when the colonial policy of the Prime Minister Jules Ferry was violently debated (Demiéville, Paul, ‘Aperçu historique des études sinologiques en France’, Acta Asiatca 11 (1966) 84)Google Scholar. This type of research was hardly common, and the European Sinologists were far into the present century afflicted by a ‘the-older-the-better’ syndrome, in itself a bias in the China field.

28 Chavannes, Édouard, ‘Voyage archéologique dans la Mandchourie et dans la Chine septentrionale’, T'oung Pao 9 (1908) 503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 Floto, Inga, Historie: Nyere og nyeste tid (Copenhagen 1985) 59.Google Scholar

30 Göran, N.Malmqvist, D., ‘On the History of Swedish Sinology’ in: Europe Studies China (London 1995) 167.Google Scholar

31 Ibid., 172.

32 Svensson, Thommy, Historisk teori (Gothenburg 1988).Google Scholar

33 Farjenel, M. Fernand, ‘Le culte impérial en Chine’, Journal asiatique 10/VIII (1906) 491.Google Scholar

34 Ibid., 493. With this, I do not, of course, intend to show that the sociologic study concerning China in this early period was marked by dilettantism. On the contrary, works were written by this time which still today retain their value (e.g., the work of J. J. M. de Groot). What the example may show us is rather that attempts to enrich a traditional Sinological formation with broader devices from outside Sinology were not always successful.

35 de Rotours, Robert, ‘Paul Pelliot’, Monumenta Serica 12 (1947) 270271.Google Scholar

36 Hubert, E., ‘Granet (Marcel)’ in: Dictionnaire de biographie française XVI (1985).Google Scholar

37 Erik Zürcher, Leiden, personal communication, May 1994.

38 Ulmen, G.L., The Science of Society. Toward an Understanding of the Life and Work of Karl August Wittfogel (The Hague, Paris and New York 1978) 189, 199, 410–405.Google Scholar

39 Erik Zürcher, Leiden, personal communication, May 1994.

40 Cohen, Discovering History in China, 2.

41 Ibid., 2, 9–11, 152–153.

42 Metzger, Thomas A. and Myers, Ramon E., ‘Sinological Shadows: The State of Modern China Studies in the US’ in: Wilson, Amy Auerbacher, Greenblatt, Sidney Leonard, and Wilson, Richard W. eds, Methodological Issues in Chinese Studies (New York 1983) 14, 47.Google Scholar

43 Needham, Joseph and Huang, Ray, ‘The Nature of Chinese Society: Technical Interpretation’, Journal of Oriental Studies 12 (1974).Google Scholar

44 Lowe, Critical Terrains, 182–183.

45 Professor Lars Ragvald, Lund University, personal communication, 1994.

46 Cf. Mackerras, Western Images of China, 186.

47 Domes, Jürgen, ‘Misinformation and Misconceptions about China in Western Political Science, 1966–1978’ in: Wilson, Amy Auerbacher, Greenblatt, Sidney Wilson, and Wilson, Richard W. eds, Methodological Issues in Chinese Studies (New York 1983).Google Scholar