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Charles Longfellow and Okakura Kakuzo: Cultural Cross-Dressing in the Colonial Context

Charles Longfellow and Okakura Kakuzo: Cultural Cross-Dressing in the Colonial Context positions 8:3 Winter 2000 order,” Japan showed the Western world it had become a modern imperialist power.1 Clothing—or the lack thereof—was a primary means of articulating ethnic differences in colonial photography.2 Photographers encouraged their subjects to don the various costumes and accessories that confirmed exotic expectations, even though these were not their customary attire. They further devised quaint and scenic settings that maximized the distance between Western viewers and the subjects they beheld. To achieve the visual effects they desired, photographers even hired artists to hand-paint their products, thus blurring the lines between the photograph as documentary fact and artistic fiction. Although there is no denying the “disciplinary gaze” of photography, many photographs that appear to inscribe a colonial vision in fact disclose ambivalent meanings not intended by the power behind the camera. Photographic subjects sometimes subverted their assigned social roles through inventive poses, gestures, and facial expressions. Moreover, when this technology was available to the colonized, they often made use of it to try to alter the identities imposed on them by colonial norms. Though often ignored or unknown because they were produced in limited numbers for personal or family use, such photographs constitute valuable and revealing http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions asia critique Duke University Press

Charles Longfellow and Okakura Kakuzo: Cultural Cross-Dressing in the Colonial Context

Guth, Christine M. E.
positions asia critique , Volume 8 (3) – Dec 1, 2000
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2000 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1527-8271
DOI
10.1215/10679847-8-3-605
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

positions 8:3 Winter 2000 order,” Japan showed the Western world it had become a modern imperialist power.1 Clothing—or the lack thereof—was a primary means of articulating ethnic differences in colonial photography.2 Photographers encouraged their subjects to don the various costumes and accessories that confirmed exotic expectations, even though these were not their customary attire. They further devised quaint and scenic settings that maximized the distance between Western viewers and the subjects they beheld. To achieve the visual effects they desired, photographers even hired artists to hand-paint their products, thus blurring the lines between the photograph as documentary fact and artistic fiction. Although there is no denying the “disciplinary gaze” of photography, many photographs that appear to inscribe a colonial vision in fact disclose ambivalent meanings not intended by the power behind the camera. Photographic subjects sometimes subverted their assigned social roles through inventive poses, gestures, and facial expressions. Moreover, when this technology was available to the colonized, they often made use of it to try to alter the identities imposed on them by colonial norms. Though often ignored or unknown because they were produced in limited numbers for personal or family use, such photographs constitute valuable and revealing

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positions asia critique – Duke University Press

Published: Dec 1, 2000

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