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USC’s Jane Iwamura discusses the “Oriental Monk” figure in her work Virtual Orientalism.
Throughout, she explores how Western media idealizes and simplifies Eastern spiritual figures and religion. In this way complex Eastern traditions get reduced into digestible, exoticized versions that are palatable for Western audiences.
To Iwamura, the Oriental Monk is poster child of this trend, representing a longstanding Western stereotype of a wise, spiritual, and mystic figure, which in actuality may be far detached from the socio-political reality of Asian culture and history.
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