Maira Sunaina & Edward Said

"I am interested in the ways in which the Asian American youths recreate or absorb the meanings of Orientalism in their own lives, drawing on orientalist troupes to construct their own narratives of authenticity and difference, thus demonstrating what Said, has called "second-order Orientalism." pg. 225 I find this quote interesting because I have seen a lot of Oriental traditions that have been Americanized. I feel like Asian American Youths don't try to change their oriental traditions, but the tradition itself gets changed once it becomes popular. American culture changes it and Asian American youths just adapt to it. For example chopsticks aren't just for eating they're for hair too,  henna tattoos are popular with females of all ethnicity's, and kimonos becoming acceptable to wear everyday instead for a special occasion. It's weird seeing two side to this where in India, American sees Indian women as oppressed who need freedom. In america, we also see traditional things like Henna becoming popular and hijab and it's not seen as traditional but more as trendy. There has been some backlash from the public when models and celebrities use another culture in their line of work. For example when Katy Perry came out in a kimono and had Japanese makeup for a performance, she received a lot of backlash. The same thing happens when Karlie Kloss did a photo shoot for a magazine using Chinese culture, women said the magazine should've just used a Chinese model instead.