I'm personally not sure that it's any better that the depiction of Asian people an culture in cyberpunk is colored by the fear of being overtaken by non-whites.
To put the most uncharitable lense on it, there's an implication that a cyberpunk dystopia is a society where inequality is rampant, crime is out of control, and gasp your corporate overlord might not even be white!
I'm not saying that cyberpunk is an inherently racist genre or anything, but I'm just not sure the original context makes the orientalism any better.
Yeah, can't disagree with that. I never thought much about it before. I suppose previously i didn't view it as orientalism. It just seemed like a certain fusion of cultures that was shown as taking place in a hypothetical future where Japanese capitalist would play an important role. That and Tokyo inspired neon, katanas, and ninjas are rad and a big part of the cyberpunk aesthetic. That could be too charitable though
I'm personally not sure that it's any better that the depiction of Asian people an culture in cyberpunk is colored by the fear of being overtaken by non-whites.
To put the most uncharitable lense on it, there's an implication that a cyberpunk dystopia is a society where inequality is rampant, crime is out of control, and gasp your corporate overlord might not even be white!
I'm not saying that cyberpunk is an inherently racist genre or anything, but I'm just not sure the original context makes the orientalism any better.
Yeah, can't disagree with that. I never thought much about it before. I suppose previously i didn't view it as orientalism. It just seemed like a certain fusion of cultures that was shown as taking place in a hypothetical future where Japanese capitalist would play an important role. That and Tokyo inspired neon, katanas, and ninjas are rad and a big part of the cyberpunk aesthetic. That could be too charitable though