The Sublime Object of Orientalism

The Sublime Object of Orientalism proposes that globalised Asian physical cultural practices such as taiji, qigong, yoga, and meditation can be understood by examining the intimate connection between Western orientalism and the Romantic aesthetic notion of the sublime. The book recasts ‘orientalist physical culture’ as practices animated by the sublime and argues that this relationship is stronger than has hitherto been recognised by commentators.

Bowman combines new readings of philosophers and cultural critics such as Slavoj Žižek and Jane Iwamura with analyses of film, media, and Asian physical practices and their entrepreneurial forms to shed light on the quest to articulate a philosophy of orientalist physical culture. He also explores ways to make sense of orientalist physical culture in the contemporary world and evaluate the often-problematic ideologies that circulate around these cultural practices without either uncritically accepting their value or rejecting them outright. This empathetic and accessible volume is a must-read for students, researchers, and teachers of cross-cultural studies, cultural theory, postcolonialism, and orientalism.

Paul Bowman is professor of cultural studies at Cardiff University. He is author of ten previous monographs, including Theorizing Bruce Lee (Brill, 2010) and The Invention of Martial Arts: Popular Culture Between Asia and America (Oxford University Press, 2021).

‘Bowman underscores the urgency of bringing both the physical and the metaphysical, the embodied and the aesthetic into critical dialogue with the histories of Orientalism. The result is a captivating tour of the persistence of the sublime in the West’s putative encounters with Asian cultures. Beautifully articulated with erudition, feeling, and candour, this is a central work for a globally interconnected approach to cultural studies.’

—Rachel Harrison, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London

‘In The Sublime Object of Orientalism, Paul Bowman does not shy away from calling out scholars of “the Orient” on their willingness to treat Said’s paradigmatic critique as somehow sacred ground. Indeed, in highlighting the physical part of “oriental” physical culture, Bowman forces us to consider whether Orientalism-as-accusation may be the most Orientalist act of all.’

—Adam D. Frank, author of Taijiquan and the Search for the Little Old Chinese Man: Understanding Identity through Martial Arts