In recent decades Asia has become a center of attraction for many Western tourists. Accordingly, it is no longer a secret that there is a big business in Asia regarding sex tourism and many Western men even contact partner agencies to search for a partner in Asia. Those observations can be easily related to the attraction between Asian women and Western men.
To understand the establishment of that stereotype better, the image of the traditional Geisha will be explained in more detail. Furthermore it will try to answer the following question: Why is the Western depiction of the East in many cases limited to that stereotype of the Asian woman? Consequently, the China Doll is restricted to her stereotype due to racial prejudices and is captured in her socially constructed identity. There are three concepts of how to define Orientalism. First of all, Orientalism is considered as an academic discipline.
Correspondingly, an Orientalist is anyone who teaches or writes about the Orient e. Moreover, Orientalism can be used as a style of thought, namely positioning the Orient in juxtaposition to the Occident. Thirdly, Orientalism is a Western style of dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient, such as power structures military, scientific, and political institutions.
In this connection, Orientalism is a depiction of the orient which is constructed cf. According to that, the second and third definitions are relevant for this paper. Accordingly, it clarifies that the Western vision of the Orient is socially constructed. Consequently, the imagination of the dominant West and the submissive East is easily created.
Based on the historical past, people from the Far East are often associated with submissiveness and loyalty to their regime. This proves the necessity of the East to the West and that the East enables the West to define its power. Comparing to that description, the relationship between East and West is similar to the Confucian symbolism of Yin and Yang. The yin and yang symbol merits fuller discussion. On one side of the circle is the yin dark, cold, moist, feminine, intuitive and on the other side is the yang bright, hot, dry, masculine, rational.
