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Home Reviews, opinions Report written by Changpau Seok Yong - participant of 2nd Assembly of Asian film-critics
Saturday, 26 January 2019 00:00

Report written by Changpau Seok Yong (Korea)participant of 2nd Assembly of Asian film-critics - FIPRESCI members at the frame of 17th Dhaka IFF, 13.01.2019 

 

The 2nd Asian Film Critics Assembly - AFCA (13-14.01.2019) in the upcoming 17th Dhaka International Film Festival - DIFF, in association with the International Film Critics Association of Bangladesh - IFCAB. 

 

 

The situation of the effects of Eurocentrism and Orientalism in film criticism 

 

The ideas that support Western culture are Hellenism and Hebraism. The core of Greek thought is the spirit of rationalism, and Christian thought is the creation of the sole God belief in Christ's salvation through Jesus Christ. Through the Middle Ages, Christianity drained in pride and prejudice of the West was alienated from Jesus' spirit of universal compassion and salvation for humankind, and in modern times Greek rationality has degenerated into selfish calculation that has lost morality.

 

Human-based ideologies, arguments, are essentially subject to collective selfishness and self-centeredness. The only way out of the ideological spectrum would be Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist ideas that prophesy the salvation of the universal human race. Religion should return to its original ideology and reflect on the expansionism of the West, which has been led by Christianity since recent times.

 

Traditionally, Korea is a multicultural society that is relatively tolerant of religion. Korea's recent success in the economy and culture has been largely influenced by the Confucian values and world views centered in Northeast Asia. However, I think the rapidly growing Christian religion in Korea is due to the Japanese invasion, the same culture, unlike most small countries in the era of imperialism, which was ruled by the West. During Japan's rule, it was believed that Korea could develop the enlightenment of the people and fight for independence by accepting Western modernization through Christianity.

I think true globalization and equality are possible by acknowledging the difference between me and the others. By boasting and glorifying oneself on the basis of one's culture, folklore and tradition, international universalization will be achieved if we take the differences and simiarties at the same time, as the film is accepted at the same time as commercial and diverse films.

 

Chang Seok Yong is a Korean Film Critic, Dance Critic, Poet & Journalist. Chairman of ‘The Committee of Korean Arts Critics’(2012~). Culture Expert of ‘Global Economic’(2015~). He teaches Culture & Arts Criticism(Seokyeong Graduate University), wrote books like < In search of Korean New Wave in Korean films>(2000), <Movie story reading with Heart>(2009) etc. He awarded 1st Younghwa Yesul Critic Award(1987), PAF Critic Award(2000), The Best Artist of the Year Award(2002), Korea Culture & Art Award(2008), 1st Le Monde Korea Critic Award(2017), Dance Critic Award(2018) etc. He studied Film & Drama at Chungang Grauate University & Dongguk Grauate University. And he was former Chairman of The Association of Korean Film Critics & Fipresci Korea, former Chairman of Korean Film Makers Association, Fipresci Jury of Premio Grolle d’Oro(Saint Vincent,1995), BIFF(2016), DIFF(2017). Master Class of NHRIFF(Nepal, 2018), former general secretary of Korea Cinema Studies Association, former Chief manager of culture & critic of ‘Munhwa Journal 21’, former Jury of Daejongsang, Busan International Film Festival, Art・Experimental Film, Diversity Film, International Youth Film Festival and Dhaka International Film Festival etc.   

 

The ideas that support Western culture are Hellenism and Hebraism. The core of Greek thought is the spirit of rationalism, and Christian thought is the creation of the sole God belief in Christ's salvation through Jesus Christ. Through the Middle Ages, Christianity drained in pride and prejudice of the West was alienated from Jesus' spirit of universal compassion and salvation for humankind, and in modern times Greek rationality has degenerated into selfish calculation that has lost morality.
 
Eurocentism is a concept that is used almost equally with Westeuropism, which identifies the historical development process of Europe as a universal development of civilization and human history. Therefore, it refers to the way in which Europe makes assumptions based on historical interpretation. At this time, Europe could include countries like the United States, not the geographical concept. Thus, it is a comprehensive meaning similar to the 'Occident' contrasting with 'Orient'. The concept of Europeanism itself has a short history. This concept appeared in political or historical philosophical discussions after World War II, and it is only recently that it began to be used in academic terms. Europeanism reveals the typical characteristics of modern world history and presents two key propositions. 
 
First, it is assumed that modern history development started in Europe, and that global modernization has spread European style and Western achievement. It is emphasized that modern achievements, represented by capitalism, modern political and military forces, modern culture and institutions, first occurred in Europe and spread around the world. Second, these modern achievements were formed in the development of European independent traditions and history. Before the outcome of the historic achievements in Europe spread to the non-European world, the European and non-European worlds were each developing independently, and it is therefore recognized that Europe and non-European civilization units were entirely unrelated to each other.

 

The question about ‘the theory of the essence of civilization’ with this perception  is obvious. The fact that a civilized unit called Europe or the West is actually just a discourse structure based on numerous differences and diversity in it, and it is completely ignored, and is assumed to be a civilized unit with its substance. In this regard, even if it is possible to assume it, the fact that such a civilized unit was formed in interaction and connection with the so-called 'non-European' society or with civilization is completely concealed. According to this logic, a non-European society was not recognized as another society and civilization by being branded as a 'deficit' and 'steady' society compared to a European society that achieved modernization.
 
As is evident from the historian Leopold von Ranke who laid the foundations of modern Western history, the study of European history already presupposes a European-centered attitude. In this sense, world history was not a universal history of mankind in its true sense, but a civilized European history, and a European history in which it was realized. Therefore, the history of the world that Ranket pursued was 'a history centered on the development of world history of limited people in the European continent' and was understood to be centered on the development of major European peoples, while largely mindful of Asia. Later on, a model of history was formed, which advocated such a European-centered attitude but whose main task was European description of national history. And the reality is that the possibility for world history to treat European and non-European history equally is ruled out.
 
Human-based ideologies, arguments, are essentially subject to collective selfishness and self-centeredness. The only way out of the ideological spectrum would be Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist ideas that prophesy the salvation of the universal human race. Religion should return to its original ideology and reflect on the expansionism of the West, which has been led by Christianity since recent times.
 
The concept of Orientalism first appeared in literature in 1838 in the item of 『Dictionnaire de l’Académie française』. It was referring to the tradition of studying the whole Asian world, which began to develop in earnest in Europe from the late 18th century. Rather than the concept of Orientalism, ahead of the expression "Orientalist" appears. In a British paper in 1779, Edward Pocock (Edward Pocoke, 1604-1691), the first Arabic professor at Oxford, was named "Orientalist." It is clear that "orientalist" was a term referring to a researcher in the Islamic world.
 
Orientalism is a concept that implies Western prejudices against the East, such as the constant way of thinking, recognition and expression. Palestinian-American comparative literature scholar Edward Said(1935-2003) gained worldwide fame when he published "Orientalism"(1978) which systematically criticized the Western image of the East as a result of prejudice and distortion in the West. He came to the conclusion that Western attitudes toward the "Orient" society, especially the Arab world, have created a tradition of sense of self-superiority consciousness. He argued that these traditions form an important part of the political and intellectual culture of the modern West. Most of the works of Western thinkers and artists revealed such prejudice, playing a crucial role in the development of anti-colonialism since the liberation of the colonies in the late 20th century and recreating Western culture. He also helped correct the anti-realistic attitude of the "de-structivism" that swept the West at that time. Orientalism revealed the way power works within knowledge.
 
Since the issue of Said, Western attitudes toward the East have expanded and recognized not only in the Arab world but also it has become more and more recognized from a perspective on the whole of non-Western society. As a result, today's critical perception of Orientalism as the widespread desire for control of the East associated with Western cultural self-centeredness, racial superiority, and imperial rule has become quite public, and now this problem has become widely shared. Recently, the issue of Orientalism has become more important as it goes beyond simple criticism of Westerners' perception of history toward non-Western societies, more important as it leads to the search for the possibility of genuine decolonism and the establishment of world history that overcame the Western-centered perception of the world.
 
Traditionally, Korea is a multicultural society that is relatively tolerant of religion. Korea's recent success in the economy and culture has been largely influenced by the Confucian values and world views centered in Northeast Asia. However, I think the rapidly growing Christian religion in Korea is due to the Japanese invasion, the same culture, unlike most small countries in the era of imperialism, which was ruled by the West. During Japan's rule, it was believed that Korea could develop the enlightenment of the people and fight for independence by accepting Western modernization through Christianity.
Westerners' perception of Orientalism was motivated by one-sided power Said argued that Western perceptions were based on cultural hegemony, "based on the special status of the Orient in Western experience." He understood that the hegemony ceremony is not just a relic of an imperial politician, but is produced and reproduced on a wide range of levels including literature, art, and journalism. And the image of the Orient produced by them was emphasized to be linked to the consciousness of abnormal, inferior, weak, passive, feminine, irrational, hindsight, Mujahideen, and hegemony.
 
The concept of Orientalism has led to the negative definition of Westerners as "a certain sense of will or purpose that they want to understand the world and control, manipulate, and integrate it in some cases." This change in the meaning of Orientalism led to calls for anti-imperialists and decolonism.
Meanwhile, due to the clarity of logic and its critical meaning, Said's argument has greatly influenced the intelligence community and has been the subject of heated debate. Between 1979 and 1982, more than 70 critical reviews and critical papers on the book were published. The assessment of Said was divided into two extremes. Some say that Said's research is a serious analysis of one important aspect of Western spiritual history, while others reject his argument as extreme. Critics were generally trying to defend the history of Oriental studies, which were critically treated by Said, arguing for the possibility of 'pure' learning that was free from the political power structure. They criticized Said's research for "intellectual violence" and "political writing."
 
Criticism continues in many areas until recently. The biggest criticism may be that Said only understands the European people's view of the East as having an overly fundamental and homogeneous aspect, citing the issue of Orientalism as a "wide colonial discourse associated with European imperial rule." Since modern times, the same discourse has been the subject of intense debate for all East Asian-related imperialists, scholars, academic researchers or writers.
 
Critics are challenging Said's argument with several points. First of all, it is pointed out that Said overestimated his specific Orientalist who fit his own interpretation frame and category in order to prove his point, and intentionally excluded other Orientalists who did not fit his argument. And rather than focusing on the complexity and diversity of the formation process while discussing Orientalism, the argument formed by Westerners is the subject of controversy. Therefore, it has been mentioned that in the course of discourse formation, there was no consideration for the role of the colonists as a matter of dialectic relations between the imperialists and the colonists.
 
Also, it is a matter of critical debate that Said is trying to understand Orientalism as a historical phenomenon. Said's goal was to shed light on the structure of Orientalism, which was to reveal that the most typical form was made in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Therefore, criticism was strongly raised that Said was relatively irrelevant to the timing and that it had a consistent attitude toward the West.
 
It is self-evident that Said is not calling the Europeans looking at the East "all in one hand" and asserting that their perceptions are predicated on a permanent and fixed framework. The Said also acknowledged that Europe's reenactment of the East is diverse and therefore likely to be self-destructive. He was clearly distinguishing the 'external Orientalism' of the direct imperialists and the humanist's 'potential Orientalism'. But instead of focusing on the wide variety of aspects that can be seen by individual actors looking at the East, and on differences in perception that can change historically, Said focused on elucidating Orientalism with a relatively consistent grand discourse. Therefore, it has become necessary to discover various aspects of
 
European consciousness rather than simply identifying one-sided, stereotypical discourse.
 
Rather than simply identifying Orientalism as a one-sided, formalized discourse, we need to find out more about the various aspects that exist in Western consciousness. Recently, a variety of studies have been conducted to shed light on the various aspects of the non-Western society based on the gender, ideology, and religious stance. For example, it turns out that men, who are propellers of imperial policy and who were also mainstream in imperialistic races, and women who were alienated and marginalized, are bound to differ in their dealings with the East in the same way.
 
Despite the ongoing controversy surrounding Orientalism, the significance of Saed's raising of questions cannot be overlooked. Without considering the problem of Orientalism brought up by Sid today, it has become impossible to illuminate European and non-European relations. In addition, the Sides issue was particularly meaningful in that it paved the way for critical perceptions surrounding Western academic Oriental perceptions. As a result, the study of the West, with a relatively long history, opened the way for the critical perception of the significance and limitations of Orientalism, the present variant of local studies.
 
What makes sense in the debate surrounding the Saed is the fact that Westerners' perception of non-Western societies has been imprinted in modern history by narrowing colonialist assumptions and broader European cultural egocentrism. Thus, the question-making on the Sides was significant in that it opened up the possibility of post-colonial studies in Western academia. Indeed, the colonial literature theory, anthropology, women's research, art history, media and communication research, and cultural research, which began in the 1980s, are starting in the Saed to explore the possibility of desegregation.
 
Compared to these efforts, it is undeniable that such a problem-savings have not been discussed with a greater weight in the field of historical research. Of course, it is true that studies of imperialist culture have been conducted in traditional history in the context of ethnicity, class, and history. However, traditional history based on Japanese history could not be free from the perception of history centered on national history and the perception of world history focusing on the West. Recently, however, meaningful attempts have been made in areas such as imperial studies, comparative studies between civilizations, global history and transnational history. This is in an effort to overcome the Western-centered perception of world history, relying on the problem of 'post-colonialism' triggered by Sid.
 
I think true globalization and equality are possible by acknowledging the difference between me and the others. By boasting and glorifying oneself on the basis of one's culture, folklore and tradition, international universalization will be achieved if we take the differences and simiarties at the same time, as the film is accepted at the same time as commercial and diverse films.
 
Changpau Seok Young, Korea