Orientalist Fever: Qigong and Orientalism, East and West

In Western discourse, the Chinese practice of qigong (氣功) is frequently depicted as ancient, timeless, magical and mystical. Such representations might therefore be regarded as ‘orientalist’, involving formulaic simplifications, myths, exoticisation, misrepresentation and othering. But, what do we see when we turn to the Chinese discourse about qigong? This work argues that, in 20th century China, qigong was already depicted as ancient, timeless, magical and mystical. Accordingly, I argue that something about qigong tends to pull practitioners – Eastern and Western – towards perspectives that might be called ‘orientalist’. However, this stretches the paradigm too far. So instead, I argue for the need to re-evaluate the paradigm of orientalism and indeed of the antiorientalist critical impulse itself. Orientalism is one of the constitutive paradigms of postcolonial studies and is an enduringly important tool in cross-cultural studies of all kinds. But, I suggest, despite being associated with an ethical commitment to responsibility and sensitivity in cross-cultural representation, antiorientalist criticism can easily become focused on the moral condemnation of Western representations. Therefore, the work concludes with a proposal for critical vigilance in the use of ‘orientalism’, to avoid judgmentalism, moralism, and essentialism when analysing cross-cultural practices and representations.