Full Description
Over the past few centuries, as Western civilization has enjoyed an expansive and flexible geographic domain, Westerners have observed other cultures with little interest in a return gaze. In turn, these other civilizations have been similarly disinclined when they have held sway. Clearly, though, an external frame of reference outstrips introspection we cannot see ourselves as others see us. Unprecedented in its scope, What the Rest Think of the West provides a rich historical look through the eyes of outsiders as they survey and scrutinize the politics, science, technology, religion, family practices, and gender roles of civilizations not their own. The book emphasizes the broader figurative meaning of looking west in the scope of history. Focusing on four civilizations Islamic, Japanese, Chinese, and South Asian Nader has collected observations made over centuries by scholars, diplomats, missionaries, travelers, merchants, and students reflecting upon their own Wests."
These writings derive from a range of purposes and perspectives, such as the seventh-century Chinese Buddhist who goes west to India, the missionary from Baghdad who travels up the Volga in the tenth century and meets the Vikings, and the Egyptian imam who in 1826 is sent to Paris to study the French. The accounts variously express critique, adoration, admiration, and fear, and are sometimes humorous, occasionally disturbing, at times controversial, and always enlightening. With informative introductions to each of the selections, Laura Nader initiates conversations about the power of representational practices.
Contents
Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Comparative Consciousness Maps PART ONE. MIDDLE EASTERN TRAVELERS AND THEIR OBSERVATIONS 1. The Rus - Ahmad Ibn Fadlan 2. From The Crusades through Arab Eyes - Amin Maalouf 3. From Napoleon in Egypt - Abd Al-Rahman Al-Jabarti 4. An Imam in Paris - Rifa?ah Al-Tahtawi 5. On the Music of the Maltese and of Others - Ahmed Faris Al-Shidyaq 6. From A Turkish Woman's Impressions - Zeyneb Hanoum 7. From Orientalism - Edward Said 8. The President of Iran's Letter to the President of the United States - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 9. Democracy Cartoons - Khalil Bendib 10. Empire as Everyday Life, Everyday Life as Imperialism - Mayssoun Sukarieh PART TWO. CHINESE TRAVELERS AND THEIR OBSERVATIONS 11. From Buddhist Records of the Western World - Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsiang) 12. Two Poems - Huang Zunxian 13. The Power and Threat of America - Liang Qichao 14. American Democracy in Crisis and The Collapse of American Capitalism - No-Yong Park 15. The Shallowness of Cultural Tradition - Fei Xiaotong 16. From Americans and Chinese - Francis L. K. Hsu 17. Some Thoughts on Certain Aspects of Modern Western Culture - Zhao Fusan 18. Be Nice to the Countries That Lend You Money - Interview of Gao Xiqing by James Fallows 19. Full Text of Human Rights Record of United States in 2008 - Xinhuanet PART THREE. INDIAN TRAVELERS AND THEIR OBSERVATIONS 20. From Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan - Mirza Abu Taleb Khan 21. Remarks on Settlement in India by Europeans - Raja Rammohun Roy 22. My Impressions of England - Keshub Chunder Sen 23. From Poverty and Un-British Rule in India - Dadabhai Naoroji 24. The Condition of England and Civilization -- Mohandas K. Gandhi 25. Passage to and from India - Nirad C. Chaudhuri 26. Indian Economic Policy - Birendra Narayan Chakravarty 27. The Eurocentric History of Science and Multicultural Histories of Science - Arun Bala 28. From The Thistle and the Drone - Akbar Ahmed PART FOUR. JAPANESE TRAVELERS AND THEIR OBSERVATIONS 29. From The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law - Ennin 30. From A Secret Plan of Government and Tales of the West - Honda Toshiaki 31. From As We Saw Them: The First Japanese Embassy to the United States - Masao Miyoshi 32. From The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa - Fukuzawa Yukichi 33. Why Security Treaty? - Yuzuru Katagiri 34. Japan and the United States: Partners or Master and Servant? - Shintaro Ishihara For Further Reading Index
