Frantz Fanon is a renowned philosopher known for his work on decolonization and racism. His description of the objectification of colonized cultures is reminiscent of cultural appropriation of Asian cultures, indicating the intrinsically tyrannical nature of colonization and the confinement of Asian cultures into stereotypes. In Franz Fanon’s work Racism and Culture, which portrays the dehumanizing elements of racism and its consequences, Fanon expresses how native populations are objectified by colonizers, explaining how colonizers who “constantly [affirm] concern with ‘respecting the culture of the native populations’ accordingly does not signify taking into consideration the values borne by the culture, incarnated by men. Rather this behavior betrays a determination to objectify, to confine, to imprison, to harden… I can think of gestures and thoughts that define these men.”
Fanon’s idea of cultural confinement reminds one of stereotypes enforced upon Asian individuals, wherein general opinion of Asian countries dictate their perception of every Asian individual. He articulates the confinement of a whole population and the ignorance of other cultures through his choice of words, such as the phrase “a determination to objectify” identifying with the ignorance of diversity in Asian culture in the West and the enforced stereotypes on Asian individuals. The need to exert control over cultures without taking into account the “values borne by the culture” indicates the tyrannical goal of colonization to implement and solidify their own impressions, disregarding genuine cultural values. The cultural appropriation of Asian clothing and art forms aligns with this notion, where foreigners believe it is in their right to classify Asian traditions within their own ignorant perceptions. Fanon’s idea that colonizers believe there are “gestures and thoughts than define these men” indicates the perpetual objectification of culture, reduced to a singular, one-dimensional identity whose facets are dictated by foreign perceptions, unreflective of true values in culture. Ultimately this relates to Western stereotypes of Asian culture, such as the model minority, in which every Asian identifying individual is classified as successful, obscuring the genuine challenges and nuances within Asian cultures. This leads us to ponder whether or not cultural appropriation in general is a direct consequence of colonization, or if fetishization of “exotic cultures” is also caused by colonization?