Orientalism

    Orientalism is the idea of Westerners spreading their ideas and culture into the East. The West made mostly of Europe and the US. The East made up of the far East, China, Japan, India etc, and the middle East, Iran, Syria, Israel etc. The 60s was a time when the Cold War was a fear among all countries. In the 1960s James Bond film "You Only Live Twice, " he travels to Japan, where he womanizes the women and and fights the Japanese villains. The cultures from East are viewed villains or something exotic. The East is new and unfamiliar to the West. That unfamiliarity can turn into fear. Leading them to believe the East ideas and culture is not the right one, that the West has the right idea. Starting since the time of Imperialism, around the 1800s the British were a dominant force in Imperialism, spreading their seed all over countries like India, Japan, Africa, and other countries. For example in the 1970s Bollywood film "Disco Dancer," the main character is a famous dancer that dances to disco music. There's a scene in the film where his dancing to disco music in his room and on the wall is a movie poster of "Saturday Night Fever." The film's language is Hindi, however throughout the film there English words spoken. In this film it is definitely evident of Imperialism that takes place. In the new James Bond film "Casino Royale," there is a new fear that is impacted on society. The fear of terrorism is a real threat. In the opening scenes, an animalistic like Bond is running through a town in Africa, trying catch the criminal. In both the James Bond films, Bond is careless agent that has little respect for the country and it's environment. In the chase scene of "Casino Royale," Bond is breaking through walls, driving bulldozers through construction sites, dropping huge loads of steel from the sky, just be destructive to the land. All in pursuit to catch the suspect. A similar scene happens in "You Only Live Once," where Bond destroys a factory. It's as if all obstacles rather threatening or nonthreatening, will be overcome by any means possible. At the end of the scene, Bond has succeeded in capturing him, however when he's confronted by an army of men, trying to protect the suspect, he shoots him, and kills most of the army with an explosion. He won't take orders from an authoritative figure when the general of the army tries to stop him.  The attitude of superiority that both Bonds have is an evident sign of Imperialism. Orientalism and Imperialism are similar in a sense that the West think their own ideas and believes that are better than that of the individual who is different than them. So in showing them the better way of things, they believe they are helping them. Orientalism are these ideas enforced on those from the East and Imperialism are these ideas enforced on other parts of the world including the East, beginning around the 1800s, I would say even earlier than that.

Below is a clip from the Bollywood film "Disco Dancer." Beginning at 1:00 the main character, Jimmy, is in his room dancing to disco music. Behind you can see the poster of "Saturday Night Fever."