The Myth of the West: Part 2 – Xianjin
In a smoke-filled room, a diminutive old man selects medicinal herbs with swift assurance from a tall cabinet of drawers, piling them together on a sheet of paper. In another room, an equally old man sticks thin needles into the body of a sickly young woman. Elaborate water clocks keep time while sages carefully track the movement of the stars in their eternal march across the sky. Monks in deep trances meditate on the mysteries for decades before emerging from their caves, enlightened. Orientalism is profoundly associated with harmony with nature and spiritual well-being. In China, however, xifang—Western—has equally profound connotations.
The Myth of the West: Part 1 – Kaifang
Orientalism is a powerful idea in Western culture. It has associations with being strange, foreign, or representing the Other. It conjures up images of an ancient society, filled with narrow-eyed, inscrutable men; willowy women with painted faces and silk dresses; and benign septuagenarians with fists of steel and a mouth full of riddles. It is a compelling image, one most Westerners treat as phantasmagoria; a myth with little substance in today’s reality. In China, there is an equally compelling myth called xifang, or Western. But unlike Orientalism in the West, this myth is still very much alive and relevant to today’s Chinese.
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