Virtual Orientalism

Saffron-robed monks and long-haired gurus have become familiar characters on the American pop culture scene. Jane Iwamura examines the contemporary fascination with Eastern spirituality and provides a cultural history of the representation of Asian religions in American mass media. Initial engagements with Asian spiritual heritages were mediated by monks gurus bhikkhus sages sifus healers and masters from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds and religious traditions. Virtual Orientalism shows the evolution of these interactions from direct engagements with specific individuals to mediated relations with a conventionalized icon. Visually and psychically compelling the Oriental Monk becomes for Americans a ''''figure of translation'''' - a convenient symbol for alternative spiritualities and modes of being. Through the figure of the non-sexual solitary Monk who generously and purposefully shares his wisdom with the West Asian religiosity is made manageable - psychologically socially and politically - for American popular culture.