FYS 30 Techno-Orientalism
This seminar considers how Asian and Asian American artists, filmmakers, and writers have responded to Western fantasies and fears of Asia—its cultural influence, its economic might, and its military ascendance—through the conventions of speculative fiction. We will examine how representations of Asian bodies and landscapes in alternate realities, possible futures, or revisionist histories negotiate what scholars call techno-Orientalism—problematic visions of Asia as simultaneously hypo- and hyper-technological. By exploring contemporary literary (novel, short story, poetry) and cultural production (film, music video, artwork), we will work toward answers to the following questions: why do futuristic visions of North American cityscapes resemble Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, and other Asian megacities? How does techno-Orientalism explain the contradictory origins of COVID-19 in both Chinese wet markets and laboratories? And, how has our understanding of humanity been reoriented amidst the onslaught of aliens, cyborgs, and other nonhuman entities? Open only to first-year frosh.