The Girl with No Shadow

[Agema]

I think it's fair to say that whenever a culture interprets another the representation of it will be somewhat skewed. Naturally there may be a tendency to demean other cultures because each culture would like to imagine it's the best, and the protrayal will be much more negative when antagonism also exists between the cultures. There's an even an assumption people within cultures know their own: but ask people what makes their culture and you'll find a wide range of answers many of which may be contradictory.

Said was making a complaint about Western behaviour when he termed Orientalism, but a more impartial view I think should accept that the reverse also exists, and indeed Occidentalism has also been coined. Hence I'd argue "Orientalism" is a specific form of a much wider truth and in that sense it's not special, nor possibly even a useful term.