"My name is FUSION!"

You may be abashed that I, ‘the abstract’, try to talk to you as if I am a person. However, you do not have to be afraid. I am near you for now and always will be. I do not know who introduced us or when I first appeared. However, it is certain that people wanted me to use or used (whatever) they intended to do from the very beginning.

Alexander the Great, who built the biggest empire in history, was the first man who tried to make use of me in his relationships between the Far- eastern culture and Western culture. He ordered me to work at blending people’s thoughts and minds into harmony. When different sides met, there were ‘conflicts’, finally people lived together as if they had never fought each other. If conflict goes too far, sometimes the phenomenon called ‘war’ happens. There was a person who explained this well. His name was Mr. Hegel, who once investigated and cleared the theory about me in sociology. Called the Hegelian dialectic, his term explains the process of the new, which results in me.

First A and B meet. (It happens abruptly or slowly.) Then A and B affect each other, not from one to the other but mixed. Where the two things boiled, there will be not only the taste of each A or B but also another C, the result. I, Fusion mean these series of situations. After assimilation of cultures, people cultivate the new type of lifestyle. Since scholars fixed my name as FUSION in texts, I have constituted of social events, largely called various cultures.

"My name is a MINIATURIST"

Do you remember the book My Name is Red? Director Orhan Pamuk cast me as a main actor of this play. He made the perfect choice in casting me, because it is not possible to exclude Istanbul in Turkey in describing the FUSION of cultures. The era facing a new wave trembled. In the position of MINIATURIST, I was in the core of conflicts, whether accepting the innovative methods from the West or not. We were faced with the question of acceptance or resistance.

By pointing to our agony, Orhan won the Nobel Prize in literature. The book symbolizes crash and fusion; it is enough to understand the former trouble, the East and the West.

If you look at my picture closely, you can find my drawing type. Now that you have observed carefully, am I a killer or a victim?

"My name is KING MONGKUT"

I invited Anna to Siam. I needed a blue-eyed private teacher for my sons. Now Siam is located in the middle of the big western countries. Therefore, I realized it is time to change the point of view from the king of Siam to international strategist.

To clarify the world ‘international’ I ‘generously’ welcomed her. However, she must not exactly notice how much generosity she gets. A few days ago, she even made a mistake to carry her position too far. She went against my law in helping a mere woman escape from my palace! How dare she! However, I calmed my raging fury down. Because when I first brought her into my palace, there was a certain target, to drag Siam and to put her parallel with other western countries.

"My name is ANNA"

As previously stated, I am a ‘mere woman’ from England. You can probably assume that it is hard to stand the social position of women including our clothes, which cannot be more ‘unreasonable’. The King is harsh about everything except the traditional rules. Most of those are inadaptable ‘to me’.

In Siam and Asian countries, there is tendency to favor men over women. Once, a beautiful young woman came to Siam from a small country as a ‘present’. (Not now, a gift!) Even wives (there is a particular tradition that one man can obtain many wives) bent their knees, bowed with their forehead touching the cold floor, and flattened their position as much as possible. Because of the particular wedding tradition, the king has so many wives that it is impossible to count the exact number of his children. It is a matter of course that nobody can memorize the name of the children perfectly. (Only their mothers can do so.)

Until now, I criticized them all around. (I was really shocked then.) However, what you should realize is that you would feel uncomfortable, because we cannot be them. What I recognized during living with them is ‘Difference is not the term to be blamed’. Problems usually erupt from misunderstandings of differences. When I understood the other way of thinking, unexpectedly I began to understand, the king’s mind. To maintain the nation, they made the rules reasonable for themselves in the most proper way. If so, it is not true that I support all of the KING’s strategies. But it is clear that he, also, is one of the national leaders, not distinguished from the King of England, and most conflicts originate not from unreasonable cultures but from different cultivation, the West and the East.

"My name is ORIENTALISM"

Have you ever heard my name, even passing by your ears?

If not, you need to be interested in cultural events happening these days (that includes many parts; fashion, music and animations). Originally, I was an ideological argument that Westerners made. They used me with the intention to domesticate or to subordinate Eastern countries. Edward W. Said is the writer of many historical imperialistic books about me. That is, Westerners who needed to redefine the culture as they intended to, the weak and the predators, European countries, have formed me.

Not the same as the usual concept in our mind, I, ORIENTALISM am not the thing which well represents the real Orient. Today, this kind of thinking fades out and special atmosphere around Eastern cultures is forming the new wave of me. Still, there are many misses when Westerners describe the East.

"My name is MULAN"

I am MULAN. I came here to correct some mistakes of the Disney movie; the title is the same as my name. Before start, I clarify that I am a Chinese woman who once fought against the Huns which was a man-only army.

Disney must have not visited the Eastern countries ever, or if he did, I am sure that he must have been dizzy during the flight because he did not recognize the differences because between China and Japan. We can notice this when you see my make-up like Kabuki in Japan. You can also find problems in the scene of the family dinner. My family sits with their knees bent on the floor. However, if you have a chance to watch the Hong-Kong historical movies, you cannot miss that all the people used wooden chairs.

Although Disney movies have abundant power throughout the world, they have mistakes in depicting other cultures. It is critical to introduce people to the right information of national cultures. To develop the generosity of differences in each other, people need to know what the real situation is. However, Disney went too far in emphasizing the closed atmosphere for women in Eastern society without careful investigation.

There are many movies, which took the motif from so-called ORIENTALISM. Fortunately, they have a similar mood as if it is real. The movies’ appearance shows that there is a trend of Western society to embrace Eastern countries more deeply than just food styles, words, fashions, and philosophical influence.
 
"My name is SWORD"
 
I am not a mere weapon but a reflection on the owner’s mind. From the beginning, people have given me such meaning to avoid the tragic moment that people kill each other for their profits. Unlike in Western culture, Eastern people used me usually for calming their mind and increasing their marshal ability. These days Western people find me more than before, because various movies were on the screen presenting my mind and me in the main theme.

In Last Samurai by Tom Cruise used, my Japanese image is used to present the faith of a nation and to show the process of being immersed in the righteousness between men and the king and his men. Samurai’s SWORD has typical value of the way of life of traditional Japan.

Kill Bill by Uma Thurman is filled with the Homage of Samurai spirit. Her sword shows the direction of her journey for killing.

Beyond those, Crouching Tiger, Hidden dragon contributed to picking themes that are more ORIENTAL in the world movie industry. Bamboo forests and the bit sound from the tip of US made harmony like a rhythm that is new for Westerners.

In addition, as industry getting international, trades are becoming active from one culture to another. Now the movie industry focuses on what innovative items will come true by pulsing or mixing one source with another. Sword is the spirit. If Hollywood wants me to perform the role more charismatically, all they have to do is meditate my existence through marshal arts.

"My name is the ORIENT"

There were lots of seminars and forums between clever scholars. ORIENTALISM thought much to clarify what he is feeling. Then what do I, the main title, ORIENT mean? The answer is I do not know. It is so mysterious and hides even from myself.

ORIENT has the possibility to push the imagination and mystique of mood into Western culture.

From my point of view, it is the time to be immersed into the part of the West, the opposite of what most Western scholars have explained.

Then what ORIENT would work or how it would be changed? If you flutter on the new ideas, you are the person who has license to match up the ‘Era of Culture Hybrid.’